642252 Wed Aug 05 11:18:21 -0700 2009 0 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 4919928 On Friday thru Sunday (12:15 – 7), Pacific Market has an outdoor BBQ grilling up tri-tip, chicken and pork ribs. The tri-tip is flat out one of the best I’ve ever had. There are no sides, Just thick, juicy, beefy hunks of meat. A Styrofoam dinner container is filled with six large pieces of meat. It was a half order for $10.99. I chose the garlic tumbled tri-tip. It just means marinated. There is also teriyaki and plain. Hot off the grill it was meaty perfection … lightly marbled with enough fat for flavor, still blushing pink, but not bloody. There was just enough pink to keep it tender. The garlic permeated the meat and put this on a whole different level. The meat is at least an inch thick. They asked if I was interested in one piece of meat or pieces. She said there would be more with the pieces so I got that. Cold it made super sandwiches. I’m finishing up the rest of it today. It was a lot of meat. They also grill corn and offer a baked potato. The other item on the menu was a smoked turkey leg for $5.99. The half order of pork ribs was $9.49 and half a chicken was $5.49. Pay in the market and pick up an order. This post goes back to 2000 … “Fiesta Market in Sebastopol has this vacuum marinating process that forces the flavoring into the chicken in no time at all. Call ahead or you can place your order at the meat counter for the flavor you want, finish your grocery shopping, and have a prepped chicken ready to roast or grill when you leave.” http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/16259 If that tri-tip is any indication of that marinating process, then the marinated meats are the thing to get at these markets. I’ve been in the Sebastopol / Santa Rosa area fairly regularly over the past few months and have visited all three of the family-owned Pacific Markets. I was waiting to report until I finally could try the weekend BBQ Their slogan is “Large enough to serve you. Small enough to care.” I first found these markets while at at Village Bakery in Santa Rosa, I stopped by Pacific Market next door. It seems like a great market. It reminded me a lot of Andronicos, especially in the 90’s. Fiesta and Pacific Markets have the same owners. There have been brief mentions here and there. Pacific Market’s full service meat and fish department is staffed by accredited Union butchers who cut, weigh and wrap meat to order The prepared food section looked tasty. Here’s a post about the sandwiches http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/428114#2816540 They had a nice selection of cheese and a good olive bar. The hot soups are by SF Soup Company. It seems like over the years they have been outsourcing sections like the soup. Though the website mentions house-made sausages, when I asked, I was told they didn’t do that anymore. Each market has its own specialty. The Rohnert Park location has a Ciao Bella gelato bar. At Santa Rosa, the smallest and most cramped, there is a sushi bar. Sebastopol has the weekend BBQ. I haven’t tried it yet, but they have fresh-squeezed Sebastopol apple juice … at least according to the website. All three stores carry free-range chicken, grass-fed beef and pork and local farmed oysters and line caught salmon. According to the website … “When the local Dungeness crab is in season, Pacific Market fires up the only authentic crab pots still in use north of San Francisco.” This isn’t my area expertise, but the wine dept looks good and they say that they carry some limited bottlings from small boutique wineries. They carry some bulk items also. They all have nice bakery deparments carrying their own baked goods and those of other local bakeries. Wed Aug 05 11:18:21 -0700 2009 10264 rworange