Neighbor Tim will light his final barbecue on the South Coast this Sunday. 

Neighbor Tim’s BBQ owner Tim Goebel and his wife, Caitlyn, along with their three children will hop in a truck and head for Boise, Idaho, to start a new life. 

“We just need affordable space to get into a bigger home, and rent we can afford,” owner Tim Goebel said.

For the past six years, Goebel has cooked and catered meat for individuals and events.

Neighbor Tim’s BBQ of Santa Barbara applies a 24-hour spice rub and slowly cooks its meat with natural apple and hickory wood. The company primarily offers catering and food truck services with smoked meats such as Texas brisket, pulled pork, ribs and tri-tip.

Goebel told Noozhawk that he has three children, ages 4, 2 and 6 months, and that he and his wife found themselves in a position to relocate. He said there are more people in Boise and the surrounding area than here, and the larger population creates a greater recipe for success.

“The goal is to replicate the business and serve the residents of Boise, Idaho,” he said.

For Goebel, the barbecue business has always been about serving others.

He started from his Eastside home cooking barbecue every Sunday. Neighbors would come over to eat.

“If the patio lights were on, everybody was welcome,” Goebel said. “Sometimes 10 people would show up or 40 people would show up. I would always cook for 50, so it did not matter.”

He said he learned an early lesson.

“You can serve the most amount of people with the least amount of labor through barbecue,” Goebel said.

He said COVID-19 has had an impact on his business. Catering, he said, was his “bread and butter” business.

Tim Goebel and his wife, Caitlyn, with their three children, ages 4, 2 and 6 months. (Courtesy photo)

“All of that is gone,” he said. “We can’t have events over nine people.”

He said he will miss the people of Santa Barbara and the South Coast. 

“Everybody is very nice, warm and friendly,” he said. “When we are thinking that everybody is divided, Santa Barbara isn’t. When you are in the food industry and you serve others, you see how and why people are so great in this town. That has been the best part of the whole thing.”

On Monday, the couple plan to pack, and on Tuesday, they will begin the haul — about four trucks — to Idaho. They are looking to open again in March or April.

It will be a new day, but the same mouth-watering barbecue.

“We are all neighbors,” Goebel said. “We serve everybody.”

— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.