Tremendous Tri-Tip

Tri-tip. TREMENDOUS tri-tip. The greatest tri-tip in the history of beef — and many people don't know this, especially on the East Coast, where they look at you BLANK when you say 'tri-tip,' like you've spoken Latin, like you've insulted their grandmother — tri-tip is a CALIFORNIA cut. Santa Maria. The Central Coast. They figured this out. Credit to California. I give credit where credit is due. The traffic is a disaster, the gas prices are a disaster, but the tri-tip? The tri-tip is a TRIUMPH. Sometimes a place gets one thing right, you have to acknowledge it, you have to be fair.

And the East Coast butchers — most of them, sad people, weak butchers, butchers who've given up — they don't even STOCK it. You walk in, you say 'tri-tip,' they look at you like you've asked for a unicorn. You have to ASK. You have to demand. You have to say 'the bottom sirloin, the triangle cut, you have it, it's in the back, I know it is.' Stand your ground. Be firm. The butcher respects firmness. I've been firm with butchers all my life and they respect me, every single one, even the angry ones, especially the angry ones.

This tri-tip — MY tri-tip — gets a Santa Maria rub, a quick reverse sear over hardwood, and rests for ten minutes because resting matters, resting is RESPECT for the meat — and then it gets sliced AGAINST the grain, which is two different grains on a tri-tip, this is the part where most chefs FAIL, they don't tell you about the two grains, they leave you in the DARK, they hand you a beautiful roast and let you butcher it into shoe leather at the table. Not here. Here you get the truth. Here you get the grain map. Here you get a tri-tip so juicy, so pink in the middle, so charred on the outside, that you'll forget every steakhouse you've ever paid $84 for a strip at. Hands down. It's a slaughter.

Here's the deal. This is steakhouse meat at backyard prices. You'll feed six people for the cost of one fancy steak in midtown. Serve it on a board with grilled bread, a chimichurri if you're feeling fancy, a pile of pinquito beans if you're going full Santa Maria. Pour something red. Sit outside. Don't check your phone. The tri-tip is the moment. The tri-tip is the whole evening. The tri-tip — and I mean this — is one of the great American cuts, and now you know how to handle it. Now go eat.