“There
is no love sincerer than the love of food.”
--- George
Bernard Shaw
RANCHO
NIPOMO BBQ
108
Cuyama Lane
Nipomo,
CA 93444
805-925-3500
11:00
AM to 7:00 PM Tuesday through
Thursday
11:00
AM to 8:00 PM Friday and Saturday
10:00
AM to 7:00 PM Sunday
Closed
Monday
Two Mondays ago found us
driving from Santa Maria to Pismo Beach trying to find barbecue places, some of
our favorite old haunts, and new ones we’d researched. Most of the old ones and some of the new ones
were no longer there. Some of them were
victims of creeping commercialization, new shopping malls and other commercial
development. Others, although we may
never really know, were probably victims of themselves. Most of the searching, sightseeing, (and
shopping if the truth be known.) was done early in the day before we were
hungry. When we finally became peckish
we decided to search out a recommended place that was actually quite close to
Santa Maria where we started, the Rancho Nipomo BBQ.
The Rancho Nipomo BBQ is
located just north of the Santa Maria River bridge (Still undergoing widening
reconstruction, but that’s an issue for another blog.), just barely into San
Luis Obispo County on the 101 freeway, at the route 166 off ramp. It’s on the west side of the freeway in a little
industrial area bounded by a cleaning supply, a brewery, a cement plant, some
kind of construction company, a pest control company, and an RV service
company. The parking lot holds maybe
five cars including the handicapped space.
It is housed in a charming little, pueblo style building with a sizable
metal roofed canopy alongside to cover the outside eating area and the small
stage that they use for live entertainment.
There is a large, metal horse sculpture in front. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the
inside since our informant did not tell us that they were closed on
Mondays. It would not have mattered if
we had tried them on the weekend since they were closed on that particular
weekend for a family wedding. That’s how
we ended up driving all the way to San Luis Obispo to go to Mo’s. (See previous post.)
Tuesday we had a light
breakfast, lounged about our room until check out time, and took a short drive
across the river to try Rancho Nipomo again.
This time success! We arrived
about 11:45am and were fortunate enough to find a parking space in the lot. Inside the metal is softened by some rustic
wood. The order counter is a couple of
steps away from the door making it a bit tight when there are a lot of people
waiting to order. From what we saw while
we were there during the lunch hour there are usually a lot of people waiting
to order. I would say more than half the
people there were there for takeout orders.
The menu is on the wall to the left of the entrance and there are also
daily specials on a dry wipe board above the table that has a guest book. There are some tables scattered around the
miniscule dining room and a salsa bar to add spice to your gustatory choice.
The menu is extensive with
barbeque, burgers, and other sandwiches, along with a selection of Mexican
style items. (Try the smoked pastrami if you want some different que. Well, actually pastrami is by definition
smoked, but this is barbequed.) However, they do not have the usual combo
plates we would order so I ordered a BBQ Tri-tip Sandwich, and Sharon ordered a
Half-Slab of BBQ Pork Ribs both orders with barbecue sauce on the side. The ribs come with two sides and the sandwich
one so we ordered Rice, Miss Molly’s Macaroni Salad, and West Coast Chili
Beans. On the order counter was a basket
of large, wrapped Pink Pig Cookies that were just too darn cute to resist so we
bought one for ourselves and one to take to our daughter. We were given a table number and went to the
outside area to take a table and wait for our food.
BBQ Tri-tip Sandwich
The barbeque here is the best
of both worlds, the slow smoked barbeque style done with Central Coast meat
with California red oak. I normally
complain about tri-tip being sliced too thin, but no complaints here even
though the meat is sliced deli-style, super thin, and across the grain. It is piled high on a toasted, fresh Teleta
bread roll (Actually, it seemed like a whole bread.) and it does not lack
juiciness or flavor. This is the way
tri-tip should taste. It was also very
generous. I could only eat half of
it. The other half went into a container
in the powered cooler we keep in the car when we travel and became my lunch the
next day. For the revisit I put some
coleslaw (It was from another barbeque place, I did not try the coleslaw here.)
on it like a pulled pork sandwich and the experiment was successful.
BBQ Pork Ribs
Sharon and I agree that you
can’t find ribs much better than these. They
are slow-smoked, full of red oak flavor, and juicy. I suppose they could have been completely
fall off the bone tender, but that’s being picky. The sauce complemented them
well but was entirely unnecessary. Interestingly
enough, the barbeque sauce seems pork oriented to us. It works very well on the ribs but tastes a
bit funny on the tri-tip. That’s O.K.
since the tri-tip doesn’t need it anyway.
The leftover ribs were good nuked a couple of days later.
West Coast Chili Beans
Anyplace this would be chili,
not just a side order of barbeque beans.
The menu describes is as “pinto beans, quality beef chorizo, tri-tip,
white onion, and our secret chili seasonings”.
We describe it as simply
great! We took home leftovers of these
too, and they ended up on some really great, homemade, chili cheese dogs. We got the idea off the Rancho Nipomo menu,
so if you are in a hot dog mood when you are there… And, as good as this is they also have a full
on chili on the menu!
Miss Molly’s Macaroni Salad
More than a simply competent
macaroni salad, this has a slight bite to it, but is not too wet, and not too
spicy. It is simply very tasty. The pasta was el dente with chopped celery,
sliced black olives, chopped onion (very light on the onions) and some chopped pimento. The mayonnaise was lightly seasoned and made
this a very nice side to contrast with the barbequed ribs and the accompanying
chili.
Rice
This was a very savory cup of
Mexican style rice with a bit of tomato and mildly spiced. The rice was not clumped as is typical with
rice cooked in large batches. Sharon
approved and I used the leftovers in a dish a few days later.
Pink Pig Cookie
As our daughter said after she
ate hers…Yummy! An iced sugar cookie
definitely worth the price.
This little industrial bottom
end of Nipomo is one of the more unlikely places to find a place to eat let
alone one with great barbeque, but Rancho Nipomo BBQ has really great
barbeque. We got turned on to Rancho
Nipomo by one of the servers at The Pantry in Santa Maria while we were there
for breakfast. One thing we are not
afraid to do when traveling to find good que is ask the locals. The tip led us to a very satisfying final
meal out during our brief sojourn/road trip/mini vacation in the central coast.
Authentic Central Coast style
barbeque is done directly over the fire.
Twenty years ago we loved it.
Now, at the risk of being considered barbeque snobs, I will have to admit
that we much prefer the slow smoked Southern style. This is what they have at Rancho Nipomo. They proudly say ‘Smoked in Oak’ on their
menus and their signage, and they certainly can be proud. This is destination barbeque. We rate it nine.
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