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Scott’s BBQ, Hemingway, SC

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There is something simply sublime about perfectly cooked barbecue. Today, Heather, Camden, and I enjoyed just that at Scott’s BBQ in Hemingway, SC.

The three of us, with Dixie, the family mutt, in tow, headed up to Hemingway, SC. As I mentioned in a previous post, this would be the first stop in our BBQ tour, an idea Heather came up with after reading an article about Scott’s in a recent Southern Living article.

Arriving at Scott’s BBQ, we found a humble, old country store. (Scott’s is not a restaurant, which we already knew from our research.) It is a somewhat downtrodden, white, wood-siding building with blue trim and a silver “tin” roof.

Opening the screen door, we stepped from the summer’s brightness into a dim room.

To the left is a checkout counter for the store. To the right, shines the bright lights of heaven: an attached kitchen where you step up to the counter to place your order, likely after waiting in line squeezed between an old coke cooler and a shelf of white bread.

Around you are displayed many of the articles, awards, plaques, and trophies Scott’s BBQ has earned over the years.

Over the counter where you place your order, the prices are written in marker by hand: Large Hog $425, 1/2 Large Hog $212.50, etc.

Around those are signs suggesting that if you want service you better pull up your pants and get off your cell phone.

Black shirt reading Hash & Rice.

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(even if that’s you!)

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Shirts, hats & more designed exclusively by Destination BBQ

Looking at the large price list, we decided to pick up two pounds of BBQ ($10/lb) and 1/2 chicken ($4.50). Heather then spotted a small, faded piece of paper hanging over the opening to the kitchen and said, “Oh, that’s what I’ll have.”

The sign she spotted offered a BBQ plate with baked beans, coleslaw, and white bread. We added three BBQ plates to the order ($6.25 each) and also some sweet tea (.75 each).

We couldn’t leave without a bag of pork skins (off the grill, not deep-fried, though they have those, too) and some boiled peanuts. Total: $54

We took our order, packed in styrofoam containers, to go, as did everyone else we saw.

The Scotts do have a couple of small tables in the store where you could sit, but we saw no one at the tables. Once outside, we spotted an empty picnic table to the left side of the store and decided to eat there before heading back to Charleston.

Popping open the styrofoam plates, we are greeted with our first real look at the world-famous Scott’s BBQ.

It is a three-compartment tray: one filled with KFC-styled coleslaw, another with baked beans, and the width of the tray filled amply with beautiful pulled pork BBQ.

The true test of any BBQ is the taste of the meat itself without adding any extra sauce. Scott’s BBQ was all mouth-watering flavor.

The meat was moist, tender, and tongue-tingling. The smokey flavor was evident, but not overpowering. In short, we all agreed this is exceptional BBQ. It sets a standard that other places will have a hard time equalling.

(Editor’s note: In fact, it did. Almost every place we visited during our Summer BBQ Tour of 2012 failed to live up to that standard. If I’m being honest, in hindsight I know now that it skewed our reviews and many of them were probably more negative than they likely deserved as a result.)

The coleslaw we agreed is a KFC-style slaw with a sweet, tangy, mayonnaise base. We generally don’t like mayo-based slaws, but we found this one good.

The baked beans were also quite tasty. The sweet tea was, indeed, sweet. Camden and I enjoyed ours (and the rest of Heather’s).

Now, for the sauce. The sauce, as is common in this area, is a vinegar-based sauce seasoned with unknown ingredients. It has a certain sweetness to it, but that sweetness is followed by ample, but not overpowering heat.

(See Rodney Scott’s BBQ sauce recipe.)

Heather, who doesn’t care for spicy foods, could tolerate the heat, but enjoyed the meat so much by itself, she didn’t use the sauce often. They gave us four containers of sauce for our order, some thinner and some heavier with seasoning sediment. All of them great.

The Scott’s BBQ experience will be tough to beat.

We all enjoyed our meal, finishing all the BBQ on our plates before leaving. The chicken, I enjoyed the next day was equally good, and Christian and Chelsea helped us finish off the remaining two pounds of BBQ long before it had a chance to go bad.

On the way back, the obvious question had to be asked: Was it worth the trip to Scott’s BBQ in Hemingway?

Everyone agreed that it was.

Here is a map of Scott’s location:

View Larger Map

Hours of Operation:

Wed: 9:30 am – 6:00 pm
Thu – Sat: 9:30 am – 8:30 pm

Phone:

(843) 558-0134

Payment:

Cash Only


Rodney Scott’s Cookbook, World of BBQ: Every Day Is a Good Day

Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ: Every Day Is a Good Day will be published in hardcover and digital format and will be released on March 16, 2021. You can pre-order this right now

(Find out why Every Day is a Good Day in this Q&A with Rodney Scott.)

Rodney Scott's BBQ Cookbook World of BBQ
Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ. Photo courtesy of Rodney Scott’s BBQ. Photo by Jerrelle Guy.

In Rodney Scott’s cookbook, he shares what makes his award-winning whole hog so special. In addition, he shares insights about his pit-smoked turkey, barbecued spare ribs, smoked chicken wings, hush puppies, and Ella’s Banana Puddin’. 

More importantly, whether you’re a barbecue pro or a novice, Scott’s recipes will enable you to create these special flavors yourself.

In addition, details about building your own pit coupled with deeply felt essays on South Carolina’s culinary traditions make this more than a simple collection of recipes. 

“It is also a powerful work of storytelling. In this modern American success story, Rodney details how he made his way from the small town where he worked for his father in the tobacco fields and in the smokehouse, to the sacrifices he made to grow his family’s business and the tough decisions he made to venture out on his own in Charleston.”

Rodney Scott’s cookbook is an inspirational story that reveals how “hope, hard work, and a whole lot of optimism” enabled Scott to become one of SC’s most beloved pitmasters.

Rodney Scott’s Recipes

You don’t have to wait for the Rodney Scott’s cookbook to make some of his recipes today.

While he has not shared many recipes over the years, here is one you might enjoy making in the meantime. Rodney shared this recipe for the collard greens from Rodney Scott’s BBQ

In order to make those greens, you’ll need Rodney Scott’s BBQ sauce recipe.

And while you’re at it, you might as well throw together Scott’s “potent” rib rub recipe. We mention the sauce and rub in this Web Story on Rodney Scott’s BBQ Ribs recipe.

And if you’re a fan of SCBBQ, check out our SCBBQ cookbook which includes this and other recipes from Rodney Scott.

wayne boyce

Wednesday 15th of June 2022

Wasted a 300 mile round trip. Worst meal of our lives. Absolutely NO taste and texture of industrial rubber band.

James Roller

Wednesday 15th of June 2022

@wayne boyce, Wow, sorry for a wasted trip. Obviously, something odd happened that day at Scott's, or it's an indication something has drastically changed there since Rosie Scott's passing. I'll keep an ear out for other such reports now that he's gone.

Bill Almers

Tuesday 26th of October 2021

Scott's is always a required stop from home (Florence SC) to Georgetown and the lower coastal area. To my palate and those of my family, Scott's is the standard by which everything else is measured. With all due respect to the lady in one of the earlier posts, working class sandwiches (chicken, fish, thick cut baloney etc) as served at bbq joints, fish markets, gas stations and the like were the meat and two pieces of white bread (bones and all). Savor the old school vittles that helped build this great nation.

James Roller

Wednesday 27th of October 2021

@Bill Almers, Agreed. Interestingly, this is the very first article we ever wrote for the site, back in June 2012. It was the first stop on what was then our "Summer BBQ Tour." Because it set the bar so high, our reviews of nearly every other place (except Sweatman's) that summer was skewed toward the negative. Probably not fair to the others.

Mary

Sunday 5th of April 2020

Worst food I have ev er had. We ordered a chicken sandwich and it was a thigh and wing and 2 slices of bread. You had to peel the meat off of the bone and put it on the the bread. Unbelievably

James Roller

Wednesday 8th of April 2020

Sorry to hear that. I didn't even know they offered a chicken sandwich. Sounds odd, but maybe they added it since Rodney left? Highly recommend the BBQ, but understand you had a bad experience.

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