Santa Maria barbecue
I just had my first taste of Santa
Maria barbecue at Guadalupe, CA's
Far Western Tavern last Sunday.
What heady, delicious, wood-
smoked stuff!
Where else can I get Santa Maria
barbecue (besides the Hitching
Post)? And more importantly,
who has the best?
Has anyone been to the Santa Maria
Barbecue Hall of Fame? Does it
still exist?
-
The meccas for classic Santa Maria barbecue--
which is to say, top sirloin rubbed with
garlic, grilled over live-oak coals and
served with garlic bread, juicy tomato
salsa and pinquito beans--are generally
acknowledged to be Jocko's, in Nipomo
(my favorite these days), the original
Hitching Post in Casmalia,
and the ``new'' Hitching Post in Buellton,
which may be technically the best, and
whose owner makes terrific pinot noir.
F. McClintock's (or something like that), in
Shell Beach, is insanely popular; the Far
Western is really atmospheric. And if
you drive around Santa Maria on a Saturday
afternoon, there's always an Elks Lodge
or a Boy Scout troop selling barbecue
in a Kmart parking lot.
BTW: real Santa Maria barbecue, contrary to
legend, is never made with tri-tip. The
tri-tip cut was in fact first ``discovered''
in a Santa Maria Safeway, which led to the
confusion.
In L.A., the Santa Maria-style barbecue
at the Washington St. Bar & Grill is
passable (skip the sauce), and there is
supposed to be a weekends-only place in
the industrial suburb Santa Fe Springs,
but I have been unable to track it down. -
