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.

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.

3 editor picks for Santa Maria-style barbecue in San Luis Obispo, ranked by editorial score. All San Luis Obispo signature dishes · Santa Maria-style barbecue across every city.