Their slogan is “the sweetest meat you’ll ever eat,” which rhymes but isn’t actually true; there are barbecue places that specialize in sugary, caramelized sauces, but this isn’t one of them. There is some sweetness to the sauce, but the attraction here is slow-smoked meats that have the proper hickory tang, the infusion of smoke that you get only from patient, obsessive monitoring of the smoker. The meat here has the complexity that makes the sauce optional – but our readers have figured out that once you get the exact proportion of sauce and meat, you’re hooked.
502 Pacific Coast Hwy, Hermosa Beach,(310) 379-0616, pinkiesbbq.com
Runner up: Lucille’s Smokehouse Bar-B-Que, 21420 Hawthorne Blvd. Torrance (310) 370-7427,www. lucillesbbq.com
