Crystal Bermudez is your community news reporter covering northern Santa Barbara County, including the Santa Maria, Lompoc and Santa Ynez valleys. The smell of red oak smoke and sizzling meat will ...

Here’s how this lesser-known American barbecue took root and where to try Santa Maria-style tri-tip. Natalie Zimmerman is a travel and lifestyle journalist, and screenwriter based in Los Angeles. Over ...

Locals braved the heat in Santa Maria this weekend to attend an annual festival celebrating the rich culture of North Santa Barbara County. On Saturday afternoon, Pioneer Park was filled with the ...

There’s no better place to swirl a glass of Pinot Noir and dive into a delicious cut of rib eye steak roasted over a red oak fire than the Santa Maria Valley. The region prides itself on its ...

Santa Maria-style barbecue dates back to the mid-19th century, when settlers in rancheros throughout the Santa Maria Valley roasted sirloin over red oak fire. A century later, in the 1950s, Santa ...

Santa Maria Valley is the California Central Coast destination that put West Coast barbecue on the map. It started 150 years ago and has a rich history beginning in the mid-1800s when local ranchers ...

California is known for a lot of things—sunshine, wine, earthquakes—but its barbecue scene isn’t one of them. Which isn’t to say they don’t have it at all. There are, of course, the smattering of ...

I seasoned them liberally with the above beef rub and let them rest a bit before hitting the Santa Maria Grill. I cooked the tri tip over medium-high heat, over lump and walnut wood, flipping (a lot) ...

The common list of American barbecue styles is familiar to most people at this point: Texas, Carolina, and Kansas City. But in coastal California, one of the country's lesser-known regional barbecue ...

Santa Maria Valley is the California Central Coast destination that put West Coast barbecue on the map. It started 150 years ago and has a rich history beginning in the mid-1800s when local ranchers ...