Summerville doesn’t have one barbecue style that defines the town. You can sit down to pork with mustard sauce and hash and rice, order brisket and ribs from a wood-fired smokehouse, or get smoked meat piled into tacos, burritos, and nachos.
That mix makes sense once you look at where Summerville sits. Older South Carolina barbecue traditions came this way from Orangeburg and Holly Hill, especially pork with mustard sauce and hash and rice. More recently, the Charleston area’s barbecue boom brought brisket, bigger meat selections, chef-driven smokehouses, and a much looser idea of what can show up on a barbecue menu.
So the best BBQ in Summerville really depends on what you’re after. Someone looking for a traditional South Carolina plate may make a completely different choice from someone who wants brisket and ribs, a small local place, or smoked meat stuffed into a taco.
Most of the places worth starting with are right in Summerville, including Jedburg. If you don’t mind driving a little farther, Moncks Corner, Ridgeville, and Holly Hill add a few more worthwhile options. And once you start heading toward Charleston, the choices multiply fast enough that it makes more sense to use our Charleston BBQ guide instead.
Here’s where I’d start, depending on what sounds good.
Summerville BBQ Quick Picks
Not sure where to start? Pick the experience that sounds most like what you’re looking for.
| If you want… | Start with… |
|---|---|
| A small, distinctly local Summerville barbecue stop with plenty of personality | Baker’s BBQ |
| Mustard-sauce pork, hash and rice in the Bessinger tradition | Joe Bessinger’s BBQ |
| Brisket, ribs and the broadest modern smokehouse menu | Swig & Swine |
| Smoked meat in tacos, burritos and other less-traditional combinations | Smokin’ Gringo’s BBQ |
The Best BBQ in Summerville, SC
You’ll want to visit Baker’s BBQ because it feels like the kind of local place you’re glad somebody told you about. The cottage-like setting, trees, gardens, and laid-back atmosphere give Baker’s a personality none of the other Summerville picks quite matches.
The menu sticks mostly to familiar barbecue territory: pork, brisket, ribs, hash, and Southern sides. Baker’s also has ties to Summerville’s competition-barbecue scene, so there’s some real barbecue know-how behind the laid-back setting.
If someone asked me where to go for barbecue that feels particularly tied to Summerville, Baker’s would probably be the first place I’d mention. It’s small, independent, a little quirky, and nothing like the more polished smokehouse experience you’ll find elsewhere in town.
The limited Thursday-through-Saturday schedule is worth checking before you go, especially if you’re making a special trip.
However, you might not choose Baker’s BBQ if you want a full-service bar, the widest selection of smoked meats, or the convenience of a restaurant that’s open throughout the week.
You’ll want to visit Joe Bessinger’s BBQ because this is the Summerville stop for the old South Carolina combination of pork, mustard sauce, hash, and rice. Joe’s connects directly to the Bessinger family tradition that helped carry this style of barbecue from Orangeburg and Holly Hill toward the Charleston area.
That history still shows up on the plate. Pork is the reason to come, with mustard sauce and hash and rice completing the meal. The onion rings fit right in, too.
Joe’s currently cooks on a Southern Pride smoker, and the restaurant has said it returned to hickory smoking under a new pitmaster. More than anything, though, I’d come here for the chance to eat the kind of pork-and-hash plate that has been part of this corner of South Carolina barbecue for generations.
Joe’s makes the most sense when you want the Bessinger style specifically: pork, mustard sauce, hash, and rice, with the history and flavor profile that go with it.
However, you might not choose Joe Bessinger’s BBQ if brisket, ribs, or a broader modern smokehouse menu are what you’re really after.
You’ll want to visit Swig & Swine because it gives you the widest range of smoked meats in Summerville and makes an easy choice when everyone at the table wants something different. Brisket, pork, ribs, turkey, sausage, wings, and other smoked meats give a group plenty of ways to go, and the full-service restaurant and bar make this the easiest of the four for a longer sit-down meal.
Anthony DiBernardo built Swig & Swine around all-wood cooking, but he also came out of professional kitchens, and you can see both in the menu. It’s a much broader spread than you’ll find at an old pork-and-hash barbecue house.
Hash still sits alongside brisket and ribs, and the sauces let you take the plate in a few different directions. One person can order brisket, another pork and hash, and somebody else ribs without anyone having to compromise much.
If you’ve got a table full of people who can’t agree on what kind of barbecue they want, this is probably the easiest answer.
However, you might not choose Swig & Swine if you’re looking for the smaller, quirkier feel of a local independent or specifically want an old-school South Carolina pork-and-hash stop.
You’ll want to visit Smokin’ Gringo’s BBQ because it starts with serious smoked meat and then has a little fun with it. Pork, brisket, and chicken show up in tacos, burritos, bowls, nachos, and other combinations that make this the least traditional of the Summerville picks.
Mike Bastin, known as “The Gringo,” came out of competition barbecue, so the smoking isn’t an afterthought. You can order the meat and judge it on its own, but you’re just as likely to find brisket tucked into a taco, pork wrapped in a burrito, or smoked chicken scattered across nachos.
The outdoor/container setting fits the food. It’s casual, relaxed, and a good choice when nobody in the group is particularly interested in sitting down to the usual meat-and-two-sides plate.
However, you might not choose Smokin’ Gringo’s BBQ if what you have in mind is a traditional South Carolina plate of mustard-sauced pork, hash, and rice—or if you’d simply rather eat inside a conventional restaurant.
Corner House Restaurant is also worth knowing about, especially if you’re nearby or eating with a group that wants more than barbecue. It isn’t a dedicated smokehouse, but they do smoke brisket, pulled pork, turkey, and wings in-house, with those meats showing up across plates, sandwiches, and other dishes.
If you’d rather see the full field before deciding, browse our complete Summerville BBQ directory for more restaurants in and around town.
Worth the Drive from Summerville
Music Man’s Bar-B-Que — Moncks Corner
If you want whole-hog pork, hash and rice, and the kind of country cooking that has long shared the table with South Carolina barbecue, make the drive to Music Man’s Bar-B-Que in Moncks Corner.
Gene and Esther Cribb founded Music Man’s, and the name came from Gene’s long life in music. The food is every bit as old-school: whole-hog pork, hash and rice, ribs, fried chicken, and a changing lineup of country dishes. Catfish stew is another Lowcountry specialty worth looking for when it’s available.
Music Man’s is a good choice when you want barbecue as part of a bigger Southern spread rather than just a tray of smoked meat. It’s the kind of place where the hash, rice, fried chicken, vegetables, and whatever else is on the line matter right along with the pork.
Hwy 27 BBQ SmokeHouse — Ridgeville
Hwy 27 BBQ SmokeHouse is worth the drive to Ridgeville when you want strong smoked meat with flavors you won’t find at the more traditional South Carolina places.
Chef Frisco brings Caribbean and Cajun influences to the food, along with some Charleston and Gullah touches. He cooks with hickory and oak along with natural lump charcoal, then takes the meat in his own direction.
You can order brisket or ribs straight up, but part of the fun here is seeing where Frisco goes next. Jerk flavors, Kalua-style pork, smoked-meat quesadillas, Jamaican beef patties, plantains, and smoked collard-green egg rolls have all been part of the mix.
The smoked meat can stand on its own. The extra flavors are what make Hwy 27 a reason to leave Summerville rather than simply another place to order brisket and ribs.
Sweatman’s Bar-B-Que — Holly Hill
Sweatman’s Bar-B-Que is worth the longer drive to Holly Hill because there still aren’t many places where South Carolina barbecue and South Carolina barbecue history come together quite like they do in that old farmhouse on Eutaw Road.
Whole-hog pork remains at the center of the meal, along with mustard sauce, hash and rice, ribs, and pork skins when they’re available.
If you remember Sweatman’s from years ago, though, some things have changed. The old open concrete-block pits are gone, the buffet did not return after the pandemic, and the restaurant changed hands in 2026.
Go knowing that Sweatman’s has changed. What still makes the trip worthwhile is hard to find in one place anywhere else: whole-hog pork, mustard sauce, hash and rice, and that old farmhouse setting.
What About Charleston?
Charleston is close enough that it naturally comes into the conversation, but once you head that way, the barbecue options multiply fast. Rather than repeat a bunch of Charleston restaurants here, use our Charleston BBQ guide to figure out where to go.
Where Summerville Fits in South Carolina Barbecue
Summerville isn’t one of those places where you can point to a single sauce, cooking method, or restaurant family and say, “That’s Summerville barbecue.” Its story is more about what has come through town and stuck around. Older South Carolina barbecue traditions came from places like Orangeburg and Holly Hill, while Charleston’s newer barbecue scene grew just to the south.
You can see the older influence in pork, mustard sauce, hash and rice, along with the kind of country-barbecue spread still found farther inland. Families such as the Bessingers and Dukes helped carry the Orangeburg and Holly Hill barbecue traditions toward the Lowcountry. Summerville once had its own Dukes restaurant, while Joe Bessinger’s still carries the Bessinger family’s mustard-pork-and-hash tradition today. None of those foods began in Summerville, but they became familiar parts of eating barbecue here.
Barbecue also became something people in Summerville did together, not just something they bought at a restaurant. Community cooks and competition teams have been part of the scene for years, and Smoke at the Lodge has turned barbecue into a long-running fundraiser as well as a contest. That puts barbecue back in a role it has played across South Carolina for generations: something people cook for gatherings, contests, and fundraisers. Baker’s gives today’s restaurant scene a connection to that competition-barbecue world.
Then Charleston’s modern barbecue boom broadened the field. Brisket, wood-fired smokehouses, chef-driven menus, and ideas borrowed from other barbecue regions all became part of the Lowcountry scene, and Summerville picked up some of that, too.
That’s how Joe Bessinger’s mustard-sauce pork can sit alongside Swig & Swine’s broad smokehouse menu, Baker’s local character, and Smokin’ Gringo’s barbecue tacos without any one of them feeling out of place.
Summerville doesn’t have one barbecue style of its own. What it has instead is room for several of them.
About the author
James Roller has documented South Carolina barbecue for Destination BBQ since 2012 and authored the SC BBQ cookbook Going Whole Hog. These guides draw on years of visiting and documenting barbecue restaurants across the state, along with current restaurant information, historical research, and published sources.
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