So where do you actually find one in the Bay Area? The honest answer is a little painful for local pride.

The consensus among Bay Area food obsessives is that the real move is Firestone Grill in San Luis Obispo — a three-hour drive from Berkeley. As one Bay Area resident put it, "It's a 3 hour drive but so so worth it." When multiple people independently name the same spot three hours away, that tells you something about the state of local tri-tip.

But not everyone has a free Saturday and a full tank of gas. Closer to home, there are a few options worth knowing about. St. John's Grill in Sunnyvale does tri-tip on Tuesdays and has earned a loyal following for their grilled sandwiches. Adamson's, also in Sunnyvale, runs a lunch-only BBQ operation that closes when they sell out — which is generally the most honest quality indicator a restaurant can offer. Down in San Jose's Rose Garden neighborhood, Zanotto's Family Market has a sandwich counter where you can build your own tri-tip creation to spec.

For the truly committed, Bruno's in Monterey and Dunneville Market north of Hollister both get mentioned with genuine enthusiasm.

Here's what bugs us, though: the Bay Area is home to some of the most expensive restaurant real estate in the country, a food scene that never stops congratulating itself, and yet we can't reliably point someone to a great tri-tip sandwich within city limits. San Francisco has fourteen different places doing $22 grain bowls but somehow nobody's cracked the code on beef, bread, and barbecue sauce.

This feels like a market gap begging to be filled. Someone with a smoker, a lease in the Outer Sunset, and zero interest in truffle aioli could clean up. The demand is clearly there. The supply just hasn't caught up yet.

In the meantime, top off your gas tank and head south.