Coffee and chile-rubbed tri-tip roast carved across the grain, served with chimichurri or smoked salsa. The Central Valley's defining beef cut and Sacramento's barbecue centerpiece.

The tri-tip is a Central California Spanish-ranching cut from the bottom sirloin, popularized in Santa Maria Valley in the 1950s when butchers started roasting the previously discarded triangle of beef over red oak. The cut travelled north through Central Valley ranches into Sacramento by the 1970s, and by the 1990s tri-tip had become the standard backyard barbecue centerpiece across Sacramento County. Sacramento's barbecue rooms generally serve it with chimichurri on the Argentinian model. The Tower Bridge Dinner has featured tri-tip in multiple years, and it sits permanently on the Tank House BBQ menu as the house steak.

2 editor picks for Santa Maria-style Tri-tip in Sacramento, ranked by editorial score. All Sacramento signature dishes · Santa Maria-style Tri-tip across every city.

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