Rodney Scott's BBQ

“The James Beard pitmaster who put whole hog on the national map”

Rodney Scott is the most celebrated pitmaster in South Carolina history, a James Beard Award winner and the subject of Netflix's 'Chef's Table: BBQ.' He learned whole hog from his father at Scott's Bar-B-Que in Hemingway, then carried that Pee Dee tradition to the Holy City. His King Street location is where the lineage went national without losing an ounce of its soul — a pit that draws pilgrims and neighbors to the same counter. The whole hog is cooked over live oak and hickory for twelve hours and more, then finished with a vinegar-pepper sauce that is, plainly, the platonic ideal of South Carolina barbecue — clean, sharp, and built to carry pork rather than mask it. The hash and rice alone justifies the trip, the rib tips reward a full appetite, and the banana pudding closes with proper Lowcountry sweetness. This is a living embodiment of the Gullah-Geechee foodway, and a cultural landmark that happens to serve lunch.