Jocko's, Nipomo CA

[longwayfromhome]

Was looking for Santa Maria style, hit up Jockos. They certainly use Santa Maria grills, not sure if this is true SM-style, but Jockos is really a steak/grill place, not that I am unhappy about that.

Flew in from Philly, drove down from SFO, picked up by my mate, arrived about 3pm on a Saturday - it was fully booked as big local events underway, managed a table in the bar at 4.30pm. In the meantime walked around the small town, could smell some lovely smoke from grills at the (large) club gathering in the local park - would love to have taken a peek.

Tried filet mignon, Spencer (what we call Scotch filet) and pork ribs. Overall very happy, thought the Spencer the best, followed by the filet. Pictures show how we got the two steaks. A few thoughts and some info …
1. Cooks said they used red oak - the amount they use, clearly it wasn't mouldy today as previously reported by a member!
2. Fire in the base of the SM grill - massive, the one on the left had a bed of coals at least a foot deep - it was putting out serious heat - coals completely filled from side-to-side.
3. Height of grill above the coals - I was surprised as how high above the coals the grill was, even with the considerable heat.
4. Taste of steak - I thought it was excellent, and did have a mild but easily discerned smoky flavour - thinking back, I would say it was lovely, especially the Spencer.
5. The outside of the steak didn't have heavy grate/grill marks nor was there much evidence of a serious sear at any point in the process - considering the flavour of the result, couldn't be unhappy with this.
6. Suspect they trade off the heavy sear to get some 'bbq' into the result - could the intention of the height of the grill above the coals be in order to add time and so smoke flavour to the meat?
7. Ribs - OK, happy to try, not a must-have.
8. Where was the tri-tip! Was I not near the vaunted Santa Maria?
9. If you get there without reservations, like many places, you can eat in the bar area without a reservation, there are at least 4 tables in there and a long-ish bar.

I am not a serious-enough steak guy to comment usefully on where what I had stands objectively - but I really liked it and I liked that it was a bit chewy but with plenty of flavour. A number of 'great' steaks I have had have had amazing texture but borderline in flavour.

Tragedy was revealed on the way out, in the carpark. A bloke in the car beside us had his arms full of take-out … what did you get I asked? … lamb chops he said !!! Arrrggghhh … I came all that way from New Zealand and Australia and didn't notice lamb on the menu - what a prize prat! - but reason enough to come back again to an interesting area which I am sure has a lot more culinary treats to offer.

Thanks to my friend Tim for this and previous rounds of the Great American BBQ tour.

[Gary Tomato]

I’ll be visiting Santa Maria, from Melbourne Australia, in mid-December and will be searching the area for some tri-tip too. I’ve read that the best place to find classic Santa Maria-style bbq is at a community gathering so hopefully something is happening when I’m there, I’d be a tad disappointed if I have to go to one of the steakhouses to find it :-) I’ve read that Shaw’s Steakhouse have tri-tip and also got Jocko’s on my list of places to visit if none of the other places have it. Thanks for posting this review.