Crooms's Catering and BBQ

573 “H” Street
Chula Vista, CA 91910
(Across from the Chula Vista Mall)
(619) 585-7072 phone

Croom’s Catering & BBQ was established in 1993 as C&M Custom Party Planners. Since then they have been diversifying into a BBQ restaurant, cakes, and travel. I don't know how those got mixed together but I guess if you have the means and the know how, you do it!

Maybe the Good Bros. can work with them to put a BBQ tour that takes you all over So. Cal tasting BBQ? You can ask for the C grade tour or the B grade tour.

Croom's was voted "BEST RIBS" at the Barona Ribfest 2005 so we invited a few people with us who were all revved up to have some BBQ and then they found out we were taking them to... Chula Vista. The parking lot said much, the broken sign, the shoes on the power lines hung by the laces, a fascinating glue pattern on the wall.


Once you walk in, the Gospel music puts you in a festive mood and the Crooms welcome you with a smile - that is if you are from around there. When we walked in, they looked at us like we were lost. I guess we stick out of the crowd. There's a lot of love in this place and in the short time we were there they took the time to feed the hungry and give some food away - Thank you Jesus! It's nice to see that some people are bold enough to wear their belief on their sleeve in a society that goes out of their way to criticize and stereotype any believer. Interestingly enough the place also has lasagna - I stopped myself from asking if it was smoked.

The first look at the food and my heart stopped - this sure looks like Huffman's. That's a bad thing. It's said that they have an outdoor pit to smoke the meats but you wouldn't know it because of how much sauce is on it. The sauce was a sour flavor, very acidic, Good Bro 2 got his variety spicy and he paid for it - it was hot! The ribs were not what we expected considering a contest win but maybe that shows that the Good Bros have a chance. The chicken suffered much the same problem that the ribs had - too much sauce. The beef sandwich was the same too much sauce and the beef was really tough. It was very nice of the cook to come out and check on us and see how things were going. I couldn't resist smiling and saying everything's great. There's just an energy about the place. Actually, there were some highlights to the place: the cornbread and the beans.

The beans were the one thing that I would stop for if I was around the town. It's a bit of the drive from North County but man, those beans were good. Remember that when you are in Chula Vista selling off your used car, stop by say hello to the Crooms and get some beans and cornbread on your way home and get your spirits lifted.

D+