The Hitching Post opens its Santa Maria barbecue master class Aug 2 in Buellton: oak fire, rib eye, wine, and a buffet. Here’s how to get a seat.
For 75 years the Hitching Post has done one thing better than almost anyone, and it has not been in a hurry to explain how. That changes on August 2. The Santa Maria barbecue master class puts Owner and Chef Frank Ostini and Executive Chef Jesus Montano at the open grill for three hours, and by the end you are supposed to be able to do at home what they have spent three generations protecting. The cuts are rib eye and top sirloin. The fire is oak. The tuition is $85, wine and dinner included.
What Santa Maria Style Actually Is
Strip away the mythology and Santa Maria barbecue is a discipline, not a sauce. It is beef cooked over a live oak fire, close to the coals, worked by hand. The Hitching Post class teaches the parts most people get wrong: fire management, oak wood selection, and the timing that separates a rib eye with a deep, smoky crust and a red center from one that went gray in the middle
Ostini and Montano will also run the top sirloin, the cut that built this style, and walk through how flavor develops over the fire rather than out of a bottle. You leave with a booklet of the actual recipes. Not tips. Recipes
It Is Not Just the Beef
The demonstrations go past steak, which is the part casual grillers should pay attention to. Turkey breast over oak. Roasted corn. Cheese quesadillas off the grill. Seasonal vegetables. And the “Magic Stuff” grilled artichokes, charred at the edges and dressed in a way the Hitching Post has made its own.
This is the Santa Maria barbecue master class doing something useful: showing you that the same fire that cooks a $40 steak also does right by a $2 ear of corn. Good technique does not care what the ingredient cost.
What $85 Buys
Here is the plain accounting, because value matters. Three hours of instruction from the people who own the method. Hitching Post wines poured throughout. A summer barbecue buffet at the end, built from the dishes you just watched come off the grill and paired with sides. A recipe booklet to take home. The class runs 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. in the tent behind the restaurant, and parking is free. Compare that to a tasting-menu dinner that teaches you nothing and sends you home hungry, and $85 stops looking like a splurge and starts looking like a deal.
Ostini put the reason for opening the doors plainly: “after 75 years of perfecting and protecting our unique take on Santa Maria Style Barbeque, we are ready to share all we know to the next generation of Central Coast grill masters.”
Mini FAQ
What is Santa Maria style barbecue?
It is a Central Coast tradition built on beef cooked over a live oak fire, close to the coals, with simple seasoning and careful timing doing the work. The Hitching Post class focuses on the technique behind it, not a secret sauce.
How much is it and how do I book?
Tickets are $85 per person and must be purchased in advance through OpenTable Experiences. Walk-ins are not part of this one.
When and where is it?
Sunday, August 2, 2026, from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m., in the tent behind Hitching Post 2 in Buellton. Complimentary parking is available on site.
Seats Are Limited, Book Now
If you have ever stood over a grill and suspected you were guessing, this is the fix: three hours with people who stopped guessing decades ago, plus wine, dinner, and the recipes in writing. Seats are limited to one August afternoon and one tent, so book the Santa Maria barbecue master class through OpenTable before it sells out, and plan to drive up to Buellton hungry.
