Beef grilled over red oak with only salt, pepper and garlic, served with pinquito beans, salsa and grilled bread. The ranch barbecue of the Central Coast, kept alive at San Luis Obispo's pits and steakhouses.
Where to eat it: 3 restaurants across 1 city.
Santa Maria-style barbecue descends from the mid-1800s ranchero feasts of the Santa Maria Valley, thirty miles south of San Luis Obispo, where vaqueros grilled beef over coastal red oak. The rules stay strict: open pit, red oak, a dry rub of little more than salt, pepper and garlic, no sauce on the meat, and small pink pinquito beans on the side. In San Luis Obispo the style burns on at Old SLO BBQ Co., the Madonna Inn's oak pit and the Thursday night market grills.
Tip from the editors. No sauce touches the meat in the Santa Maria style; if you cannot find pinquito beans, small pink chilli beans come closest.
Old SLO BBQ Co. carves oak-smoked tri-tip until 02:00 three nights every week, easily the most substantial late plate in downtown San Luis Obispo.
Try: Tri-tip plates and pulled pork
Tip: There is a second counter at 3870 Broad Street; downtown is the late one, open to 02:00 Thursday to Saturday.
Alex Madonna's Gold Rush Steak House barbecues steaks over an oak pit inside the pink-on-pink Madonna Inn, San Luis Obispo's 1958 roadside fantasia.
Order: An oak-pit steak, then a slice of pink champagne cake from the bakery case.
Tip: The filet mignon is the house's most popular steak; stay for cake from the on-site bakery.
Every Thursday the barbecue pits roll onto Higuera Street, grilling ribs, chicken and tri-tip in the open air at San Luis Obispo's farmers' market.
Try: Ribs, tri-tip and chicken off open pits
Tip: F. McLintocks' crew grills ribs, kebabs and tri-tip mid-market; plates sell down before the bands finish.
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