Santa Maria style bar-be-cue, courtesy Garden of Thorns Catering
Four huge topless (Santa Maria style) grills will be set up in a square around an equally huge in ground pit. Fueled by red oak wood and coals, flavored by plum wood, the grills will be going for at least four hours before the event starts.
Main dishes:
Tri-tip, the favored cut of meat for any bar-be-cue in California, and the central cut for Santa Maria 'cues, seasoned with a simple dry-rub of garlic salt and pepper the night before and cooked to juicy pink in the middle perfection.
Beef briskets and pork butts, slow cooked for hours in the pit.
Chicken halves, cooked over the same wood as the tri-tips and sausages. Rubbed with cumin, chili powder and smoky-spicy paprika.
Venison and chorizo sausages grilled right alongside the tri-tips.
Sides:
Pinquito beans, a combination of a pink beans and small white beans, cooked in pots on the grill with the meat. Flavored with bacon, cumin, chili powder and a few other spices to bring out the rich, savory flavor of the beans and to compliment the meat.
French bread grilled beside the meat and served with small bowls of melted sweet butter for dipping.
Coleslaw - shredded Napa cabbage, carrots and broccoli in a tangy-spicy dressing.
Potato salad - one warm and one cold.
Macaroni salad
Grilled corn on the cob - slathered in butter while still in the husks and grilled just right.
Green Salads
Sourdough and sweet dough rolls
Beverages:
Iced teas: sweet, regular, and half-and-half with lemonade.
Lemonade - made completely from scratch
Limeade
Orangeade
Soda bar
Soda bar consists of a wide and off somewhat off the wall array of flavored syrups, and a carbonator. From the basic cola, all the way up to passion fruit mango and mint, the only limitation is the mixer's imagination.
And yes, a fully stocked, fully staffed open bar.
