Aptos St. BBQ
Local kids built dirt jumps behind the Aptos post office in 1986 and the course went world-known. When this barbecue counter opened in 2009, the riders were its first regulars, and it still says so with the jumps long gone.
Why go
It opens at seven in the morning, which almost no barbecue room does, and the first thing off the pit goes into a flour tortilla with an over-easy egg and salsa ranchera. That runs until eleven. After that it is meat by the pound and packs built for a table, and there is live blues every night of the week. The restaurant's own account of the jumps is the part worth reading twice: Although the jumps have been dismantled, Aptos St. BBQ continues to serve the cycling community, honoring the legacy of the jumps and their impact on our town.
What the record does not carry is the pit itself. Nothing we read names the wood, the cuts or the times, and this page will not invent them.
Order this / avoid
- Order: the breakfast taco if you are there before eleven, and one of the meat-and-sides packs if there are more than two of you.2
- Avoid: arriving at closing with a cut in mind. The kitchen runs to 9pm
or sold out.
2
What locals & experts say
- Aptos St. BBQ, on where its regulars came from:
When Aptos St. BBQ opened in 2009, its first loyal customers were the cycling community frequenting the jumps.
1 - The record is thin here. No bylined review was read this pass, and the venue's own awards strip names Good Times without linking a piece.
Good to know
- Timing: every day, 7am to 9pm or sold out. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.
- Thanksgiving: honey-brined smoked turkeys, pre-orders from 5 October, Thanksgiving Day pickup only, and the venue says they sell out by November.
- Getting there: Aptos Street off Soquel Drive, twenty minutes down the coast from Santa Cruz.
Verdict
could-visit — A barbecue counter that opened in 2009 beside the Aptos Post Office Jumps and fed the riders, and still tells that story after the jumps came out. It opens at seven and puts smoked meat under an over-easy egg in a flour tortilla with salsa ranchera, which is the best argument on the menu. Live blues seven nights a week, and the kitchen runs until nine or until it sells out. It stays at could-visit because nothing sourced says what wood goes in the pit, and on a barbecue page that is the fact everything else hangs on.