Longtime Turlock caterer Big Vic’s Barbecue opens new restaurant serving smoked meats
When you cover restaurants for a living, you get asked a lot for recommendations.
What’s the best Italian spot? Who makes a good steak? How about Thai food? I am happy to oblige with my humble opinions whenever asked. But when I got a call from Victor Rivas about his new restaurant finally opening in Turlock, he didn’t have to ask. I had already recommended him as highly as I know possible — he catered my wedding.
The Denair resident has operated his catering service Big Vic’s Barbecue since 2012. But now, eight years later, he has opened his first brick-and-mortar spot serving up his signature California-style wood-smoked meats and more. His custom smoker, an imposing black rig parked on his patio, has become its own advertisement.
Located on North Golden State Boulevard, across from a busy Chevron station, people have noticed the smoke and the smells coming from Vic’s and stopped in. Since opening the location in late May, many of those off-the-street first timers have become repeat customers already.
The setup is simple inside, as the focus is on the food. Everything is smoked fresh daily, and you can buy meat plates by the pound, or grab a sandwich and pick from a small list of homemade sides.
Rivas started barbecuing in his back yard years ago, and it soon became an obsession. His style doesn’t try to mimic other regions, instead focusing on what sets California barbecue apart. He cooks all his meats over white oak and hickory wood — with the longest, his brisket, going 12 hours overnight in the smoker.
“We stamp California BBQ on our trucks. So when people come into the store they’re getting Mexican-inspired flavors. They’re getting chipotle in the beans, espresso in brisket and tri-tip,” he said. “So I think people come in expecting something and they go, ‘Wow, that was really good. It’s something like I’ve never had before’.”
The new restaurant spot took more than a year of planning, and lots of back-and-forth with inspectors because his wood-burning smoker sits on site. Coronavirus also complicated the restaurant’s opening — as it has with so much of our everyday lives. The small inside dining space, which only had room for a couple tables, is now closed to the public due to the county’s rollback of reopenings due to the COVID-19 outbreak spike.
The 1,500 square-foot-space is primarily a kitchen, which Rivas now uses as home base for his thriving wedding and corporate catering business. What started with one mobile truck has now expanded to five trucks to cover all his special events, which can serve several thousand people at a time.
The smoker can hold 1,000 pounds of meat at once, and with each week Rivas has added some 100 to 125 pounds more to cook to make up for demand at the restaurant. His menu includes beef brisket ($12 half pound, $24 pound), tri-tip, ($12, $24), pulled pork ($11, $22), ribs ($15 half rack, $26 whole), half chicken ($8) and cheddar jalapeno sausage ($5).
Or you can also get the smoked meats as a sandwich (ranging from $11 to $12), and take your pick of sides which include mac-n-cheese, chipotle beans and ranch potato salad ($6 for 12 ounce container). The restaurant currently offers takeout and curbside pickup.
As with any barbecue place worth its salty dry rub, meats are cooked each day and when they run out they run out. So if you’re hankering something particular, Rivas recommends you get your order in early through their website which has online ordering.
Rivas plans to add specials and bring in other sides. Because of his busy catering schedule, they’re only open three days a week during lunch right now. He plans to expand that by an extra day soon, but doesn’t have a definitive date yet. The restaurant runs on a staff of six, and his wife, Sutter Gould nurse practitioner Jill Rivas, and their twin 4-year-old boys stop in to help when they can. Another little Rivas is due in October, bringing the family to five.
For those already a fan of Rivas’s food, like myself, the new restaurant offers a place to go to get his flavors without having to put on a nice suit or big dress. And for everyone else, it should be a welcome addition to the region’s BBQ offerings. Now, if only we can get him to add his scalloped potatoes to the sides menu. I still get comments about those scalloped potatoes from the wedding and, of course, the prime rib.
Big Vic’s Barbecue, at 842 N. Golden State Blvd. in Turlock, is open 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday to Saturday. For more information call 209-596-2131 or visit www.LTDBBQ.com.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 4:00 AM.
