75.5 miles north, northeast of Charleston is some of the
world’s finest BBQ, found in it’s natural setting… a somewhat dilapidated-looking
gas station in Hemingway, SC. Or, at
least that’s what shows like Andrew Zimmerman’s Bizarre Foods would lead one to
believe. In any event, BBQ from an old,
run down gas station sounded like an awesome idea, so Lou-Dawg & I embarked
on a quest to find this so-called amazing BBQ.
The 90 minute drive could be best described as boring. I’m not sure exactly what I expected to find
or see but I had high expectations. It’s
my fault for believing that the path to this mystical BBQ was lined with quaint
country gas stations, fruit stands overflowing with ripe, freshly picked
peaches, warm boiled peanuts, and sweet-grass basket stops with endearing elderly
ladies who are as likely to sell you a basket as they are to impart you with
some nugget of everyday wisdom. It is
not. In fact, Hwy 41 is nothing like
that. The most interesting thing we saw
were several hunters pulled over on the side of the road. That in and of itself is not necessarily
interesting, but rather the fact that they were seated in chairs placed in the
grass near their trucks. They just sat
there, staring off into the Francis Marion National Forest from the side of the
road. Surely there’s a reason why they
were doing this – but beats me. To me
they looked more like Zombie Crosswalk Officers than sportsmen.
Located just off of Cow Head Road (appropriately named) sits
Scott’s Bar B Q.
The interior is lined with newspaper clippings and
awards. It smells like lunch – the kind
of lunch you’d eat forever. After a
quick perusal of the menu and some fancy, handwritten signs informing the
customer to not use one’s cell phone while ordering (not sure how that’s a
problem, they seemingly only sell one thing: pulled pork), we ordered our lunch
at the counter. I asked the guy and
probable frequent customer in front of me if what I ordered was “good” and he
approved so I was pretty proud of myself.
Two minutes later we had 4+ lbs of BBQ.
Hooray!
We ate outside, across the road at some picnic tables. It was delicious. I can’t properly describe it in “foodie”
terms just how great it was, all I know is I ate my plate fast and was bummed
when I was done.
After spending a few minutes taking pictures I peaked around back, hoping to find the Willy Wonka of this operation. A kind, local gentleman noticed me and said, “You can go on in if you want” and gestured towards the building next door to the restaurant. Score. There the pork is prepared, and we just got an all-access pass.
Here’s my newest, bestest friend forever and pitmaster, T.
And with that we were done.
We packed up and headed home passing the laziest hunters in the world a
second time.
And it wasn't just me who loved it - Scott's BBQ is LouDawg approved...
