The owners of Bitterroot BBQ announced they will close their Ballard restaurant. Grant and Hannah Carter opened their barbecue spot in the first days of 2012; it will serve its final metal trays of brisket, nachos, and mac and cheese at the end of September.

The reason is bittersweet. The Carters plan to focus their energy on a new location for Mammoth, their beer-centric sandwich shop. It will open this fall in the former Teatro ZinZanni space across from Seattle Center. Mammoth was born in Eastlake, but lately it’s been operating inside Bitterroot.

Just like some songs or movies evoke a certain era, Bitterroot represents a specific time and place in Seattle’s restaurant landscape: a simpler time when Katy Perry and Jason Mraz topped the Billboard charts, and a flurry of new places were opening on Ballard Avenue. Bitterroot turned the former Acme Rubber Stamp and Engraving Co. into a stylish barbecue joint with a full-on bourbon bar hidden in the back. As pitmaster, Grant Carter was never overly precious about his smoked meats, but the ribs and brisket that emerged from his custom Ole Hickory Pits smoker was proper, time-intensive barbecue.

Bitterroot was a harbinger for a wave of spots that collectively upped Seattle’s barbecue game, from Jack’s to Emma’s to Lil Red’s and Wood Shop. We certainly had legit barbecue before its arrival (I’m still wistful when I think about Pookey and the original Barbeque Pit). But after years of Pecos Pit, Seattle seemed collectively ready to appreciate barbecue as the art form that it is—a seemingly humble food born of time and technique. Before long, we were ready to fetishize it.

Bitterroot fans have the rest of September to come in. And it’s nice to know Mammoth will soon have its own spotlight once again. Especially one that gives Seattle another great option for food and drinks near Climate Pledge Arena.