Saucy charred ribs, lots of grilled meats, and some serious tri-tip make Mo’s a staple dining option for San Luis Obispo County. Homemade potato chips, jalapeno fries, fried green tomatoes, and barbecue beans round out the trimmings menu.

Central Coast meat fanatics flock to Jocko’s for its nearly 100-year legacy of all things beef. This is one of the best places for grilled and smoked delicacies from the cow, served with Portuguese linguica sausage and native local pinquito beans.

Dining at Far Western Tavern feels like eating back in time. The Santa Maria-style steakhouse and smoke spot is one of the region’s best stops for smoked meat, including ribs and the all-important tri-tip.

There may be no more famous place to watch the smoke and flames slowly cook steaks, ribs, and tri-tip than at the Hitching Post II — an offshoot of the also-charming Hitching Post I in far Casmalia. At this more approachable second effort, expect dining room views to the meat on the grill, plus heavy pours of wine and lots of talk about the movie Sideways. Be sure to order the artichokes too.

For a bite of California history (and tri-tip) get to the coastal highlands above Santa Barbara. There, in the shade and dappled sun, sits Cold Spring Tavern, a former stagecoach stop with a more than 130 year history. The place sells out most weekends of its most treasured dish: tri-tip, best eaten with cold beer in hand.

Ribs are the route to go at Salty’s, with two locations across the Bakersfield area. Here the pork is smoked and then finished on a grill for extra char, perfect for different bites — and best served with sauce.

Whether or not this shop lives up to its hyperbolic name is up to the individual diner, but there’s no denying that locals love this casual restaurant for tri-tip sandwiches served with lots of sauce on grilled bread, split links, and more.

As the name implies, the award-winning Porkchop and Bubba’s is keen to think pork-first, but don’t let the smoked wings and killer sides go by without a taste.

The weekend smoke from the Santa Maria-style pit is visible from the parking lot at Calabasas Custom Catering, this ongoing pop-up and catering outfit in Woodland Hills. The tri-tip is the speciality of the house, but fans flock for the chicken, too.

Pan-Southern comforts rule at this Santa Clarita-Newhall spot on Main Street, with options for saucy ribs and slow-cooked prime brisket, as well as sides like hoecake, tots, garlic rice, and even deep-fried okra.

This popular Tehachapi spot trades in the usual barbecue fare, while also offering monthly samples of meats like bison as part of owner Mano Lujan’s Native American heritage. Be sure to score some fry bread, too.

Orange County eight-year favorite Leadbelly’s is the kind of spot that has no qualms about putting slow-cooked pork belly on top of fries or loading up takeout platters with brisket, burnt ends, and links. There’s no end to the meat (or the inventiveness with it) here.

Orange County’s Smoqued is famous, at least as far as barbecue restaurants go. For smoked chicken, thick slices of Texas-style unsauced brisket, and skillets filled with macaroni and cheese, there are few more worthy places around.

Smoke Tree is perhaps the best-known Palm Springs-area stop for barbecue, from barky ribs and brisket to sides like macaroni and cheese and potato salad, perfect for a hot day.

This busy underground pop-up holds both backyard services and events at local breweries and other businesses around greater Oxnard. Stop by on a designated day for ribs, brisket, and other Texas-focused cooking.

The offset smoker in the driveway is a dead giveaway as to what’s going on inside this nondescript Cathedral City house. Here, a former corporate hotel chef works a menu of barbecue classics done with varying spices and other tweaks and turns, working up everything from traditional meat platters to smoked al pastor and cheesy jalapeno cornbread. This may be the best new barbecue to happen to the Coachella Valley in years.