Is there any website or way to find out when there are any public outdoor cookouts on Broadway Street in Santa Maria cooking Santa Maria BBQ?
Santa Maria BBQ is a California regional BBQ that uses a tri tip or top sirloin cut and cooked over red oak.
But, this was an interesting article about Santa Maria BBQ, and the gist was that you won’t find real Santa Maria BBQ in the Central Coast restaurants:
According to the article, ‘The irony of this visit to Santa Maria was that good tri-tip, of which this style of barbecue is strongly identified with, was scarce…The “authentic” version of Santa Maria barbecue, cooking the whole top block, is more appropriate for large gatherings than individual diners. That’s why the local barbecue restaurants who favor the smaller cuts seemed a lot more like steakhouses than barbecue joints…Go to one of these restaurants for great grilled steaks.’
To find the real BBQ, you were able to find it in the past because various groups would hold fund raising cookouts on Santa Maria’s main drag, Broadway. But, the city started to squash those cookouts about ten years ago. I’d like to go to Santa Maria on a weekend, but its a long drive when there’s a good chance there might not be anything on that day.
The Elk Club still has their Santa Maria BBQ and probably has the most experience doing it, but you need to be an Elk Member to eat at their private lodge.
The June 2 article says, “the meat is speared on long, steel rods and placed over a pit of flaming red oak logs,” but if you look at the photos, the meat is on grills.
This photo from Cold Springs Tavern looks sort of similar, though the meat might be closer to the fire.
When I went, the tri tips weren’t simmered in anything, just cooked over an oak fire on a Santa Maria grill and although they typically put it on some bread with bbq sauce, I’m sure you can ask for it as is.