JUNE 18, 2017
Hitching Post celebrates
65 YEARS OF BARBECUE Family-owned Casmalia restaurant renowned for its indoor open-flame style MIKE HODGSON
mhodgson@leecentralcoastnews.com
W
hen the subject of barbecue comes up on the Central Coast, perhaps no restaurant has a better reputation for consistently good food than the Hitching Post in Casmalia. It’s a reputation that stretches back more than half a century to 1952, when brothers Frank and Victor Ostini and nephew Jerry Ransom purchased the restaurant, located in an 1890s building that had previously housed a hotel, an Italian restaurant, a barber shop, a pool hall and a bar. By the time the Ostinis and Ransom finished the deal, the Hitching Post already had its name and an outdoor oakwood barbecue, the first of its kind in the area. Frank did all the cooking there, while Victor tended bar and worked in the kitchen. “At that time, there were only three steaks on the menu — New York, filet, top sirloin,� said Bill Ostini, who now owns the restaurant with wife Sally. “You didn’t get to choose. You ordered rare, medium rare, medium-well, well done, and he picked the steak for you.� One reason is because the Ostinis purchased beef loins, then broke them down themselves. As a result, only a limited number of each cut was available each night.
LEN WOOD, STAFF
Chef Luis Meza grills steak, ribs, vegetables and artichokes at the Hitching Post in Casmalia. Another reason is that certain cuts are meant to be cooked certain ways, Ostini said. “One of the secrets of cooking is knowing how to cook steaks,� he said. “You can’t cook a medium-well cut medium-rare. It just won’t work.� Eventually, Victor left the business, and when Frank died, the Hitching Post was taken over by his sons Bill and Frank Jr., who had virtually
grown up in the restaurant. “My earliest childhood memory is sleeping in a big brass bed where my desk is now,� Bill said. “I had a knife in my hand when I was 6 or 7 years old. I’d trim the roasts.� The Hitching Post still serves up steaks cut on site by the chefs and cooked over an open oakwood fire, although the fire Please see BARBECUE, Page A2
Steak and artichokes at the Hitching Post in Casmalia. LEN WOOD, STAFF
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