Santa Maria-Style Barbecue

Santa Maria-style barbecue is one of the oldest regional cooking traditions in California. Tri-tip — a triangular cut from the bottom of the sirloin — is seasoned simply with salt, pepper, and garlic, then grilled over red oak coals to create a smoky, charred exterior with a juicy, pink interior. It is served with pinquito beans (a small, pink variety grown almost exclusively in the valley), fresh salsa, and tortillas or garlic bread.

The tradition is strongest at the Santa Maria fairgrounds and the local service clubs — the Santa Barbara Elks Lodge, the local Rotary chapter — which have been feeding the community this way for generations. The public is welcome at many of these events. Commercial restaurants serving the style include Far Western Tavern in Guadalupe (about 12 miles west) and the original Jocko's in Nipomo (about 15 miles north), both legendary institutions of the form.

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A story
Santa Maria-style barbecue is one of the few American barbecue traditions that predates the Civil War. The technique was developed on the ranchos of Mexican California, where vaqueros would cook beef over red oak pits after cattle roundups. The cut now associated with the style — tri-tip — was virtually unknown outside the Santa Maria Valley until the 1950s, when a supermarket manager named Bob Shutz started selling it and popularising the name.