Every once in a while, a travel plan comes together quite spectacularly. As I mentioned earlier in the week, Marie and I planned to make the South Carolina trip a little more affordable by cutting off the Rock Hill-Charlotte side of the square, while taking the opportunity to do a little exploring off the interstates. The very best way to get from Spartanburg to Columbia with minimal use of I-26 is by taking US-176 through the Sumter National Forest. This road goes through the town of Union, which appeared to have a couple more interesting places to stop the next time we’re in the area, and it’s right next door to the smaller town of Buffalo, where, seventy-one years ago, Jack O’Dell first started selling beef hash and chopped pork for the Fourth of July. Continue reading “Midway BBQ, Buffalo SC”
Tag: barbecue
Henry’s Smokehouse, Greenville SC
For the second stop on our South Carolina trip, we hopped just a few streets over from the Northgate Soda Shop to get some barbecue at Henry’s Smokehouse. Their location on Wade Hampton Boulevard, US-29, is the original. They have, in the 25 years since it opened, spun off two additional locations. One of these, in nearby Simpsonville, was noted in Playboy in the summer of 2002 as the country’s best barbecue restaurant. I use “in” rather than “by,” as the notice came via an advertisement for Mini Cooper laid out in the style of the magazine’s “Party Jokes” page, and so it might not be editorially accurate to state that Playboy itself made the claim. You can get that magazine yourself and check me on that. It’s whatever issue that summer that had Dalene Kurtis on the front cover. She might be fairly accused of distracting a fellow from remembering which month. Continue reading “Henry’s Smokehouse, Greenville SC”
Zeigler’s BBQ, Acworth GA
As I drove north on US-41, I realized how long it had been since I was on this stretch of road. Honestly, the last time I was anywhere north of McCollum Air Field on Cobb Parkway was a good ten years back, when I was in the insurance industry and I went to see a broker in Cartersville and decided to take the long way home. Since then, apart from once going to a karaoke bar right in front of that air strip in 2005, I had not been this way, and so I did not know what to expect. It turns out that this long stretch of road decided to roll over and make way for the Wal-Mart. It’s just a long, hideous, pedestrian-unfriendly sprawl with every national retailer and restaurant represented in one awful, identical strip mall after another for miles and miles. Continue reading “Zeigler’s BBQ, Acworth GA”
Barbecue Street, Kennesaw GA
Barbecue Street is that great big barn of a restaurant that everybody passes on their way to the incredibly popular Big Shanty Smokehouse. Well, perhaps I should clarify that a little. They’ve been in business for a good while, so they must be doing something right, and it is hardly fair to dismiss them so easily, but there’s a little truth to that. Continue reading “Barbecue Street, Kennesaw GA”
Fincher’s Barbeque, Macon GA
I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of a restaurant that divides opinion quite the way that Fincher’s does. It would be churlish to deny that it has its very vocal detractors, and even among loyalty-splitting food like barbecue, people either love it to their core or hate it like something on fire. Surprisingly, chief among the nay-sayers is the wonderful 3rd Degree Berns, of whom I have frequently spoken. When he wrote up his visit in 2009, 3DB pulled no punches, giving the venerable original location in Macon one of his extremely rare one star out of ten ratings. (The only other restaurant to rank so lowly with him is Atlanta’s long-past-its-prime Old Hickory House, where polite nostalgia for locals is the main thing on the menu.) 3DB is by no means the only one to turn both barrels on Fincher’s, yet the small chain – presently at four restaurants: three in Macon and one in Warner Robins – does command a following, and is one of those legendary spaces that campaigning politicians are required to visit. Continue reading “Fincher’s Barbeque, Macon GA”
The Barbeque Pit, Moultrie GA
Sometimes, dear readers, tenuous little coincidences that nobody else either notices or cares about take on a supernatural charm with me. These meaningless little patterns of life tantalize and amuse me more than they do anybody else, and sometimes they inform the resulting writing in this blog. Be aware that I know very well that these chances don’t mean anything at all, that they don’t reflect a larger pattern, and don’t imply anything beyond simple smiles and a chuckle. But what good is life, without sharing smiles and chuckles? Continue reading “The Barbeque Pit, Moultrie GA”
Fox Brothers Bar-B-Q, Atlanta GA
Since we started the blog almost two years ago, we have been asked once or twice when we were going to feature the city’s most popular and praised barbecue place. The honest answer is that we were in no particular rush. After we tried the place in 2009, we knew that anything and everything else was shooting for second place, and that we’d come back to Fox Brothers on some special occasion or other. The occasion turned out to be my fortieth birthday, and so we invited a host of friends in town to come join us. If you’re going to do this, I’d make sure to do it on a nice day when everybody can sit outdoors. We had a party of thirteen, and since Fox Brothers neither takes reservations nor really has the space to handle large groups like ours inside, it was a little challenging and frustrating getting everything together. Continue reading “Fox Brothers Bar-B-Q, Atlanta GA”
Marie, Let's Eat! 