Monkey Wrench Smokehouse in Travelers Rest offers wood-smoked BBQ, awesome sides, craft beer, and barrel-aged cocktails, with a patio and back lawn on the Swamp Rabbit Trail in downtown Travelers Rest.
Andy O’Mara and Loren Frant, the owners of Sidewall Pizza Company and the gastro cocktail concept, Rocket Surgery, offer BBQ smoked right on the back porch, delicious sides with a creative spin as well as homemade desserts.
If you want to try a little of everything, Monkey Wrench Smokehouse is calling your name.
Pulled pork, brisket, half rack of ribs, wings, sausage with three sides, cornbread, and house-pickled veggies. As you taste the meats, be sure to try one of their homemade sauces ranging from a sweet and spicy Cheerwine flavor to a mustard-based Carolina sauce.
Chef Steven Musolf brings more than two decades of chef experience having worked in fine dining, but Musolf also knows barbecue. The Summerville native worked in a BBQ restaurant very early in his career.
“We were looking for somebody that could teach and train and execute on a daily basis at a level that we wanted to be at, a higher level,” O’Mara says.
“And he had the skills to do that. He operates at the same speed we do.”
Musolf and O’Mara tested various products and recipes from lamb ribs to pork belly to brisket. The last one that is most important.
“There is so much pulled pork here,” O’Mara says. “And there are different qualities of meat and different ways of meat but brisket we felt like this was something we could stand out on.”
The centerpiece at Monkey Wrench Smokehouse is the smoked meats, with brisket an absolute and a really good pulled pork.
“I grew up with the barbecue places have those buffets with all those cool country sides,” Musolf says of inspiration. “Food brings you back.”
The other centerpiece of the menu is the barrel-aged cocktails. They make these cocktails in big batches as composed drinks and age them in an oak barrel.
The aging allows all the ingredients to meld and imparts an added depth of flavor.
Monkey Wrench Smokehouse was originally supposed to be where Rocket Surgery is but plans changed when the building at 21 N. Main St. came available.
The 3,500-square-foot building’s proximity is just off the Swamp Rabbit Trail, and its open structure spoke more to barbecue, O’Mara says.
“Barbecue was always a part of my life,” Musolf says. “I never thought I would be involved in it, but now that I am that’s exciting too. It feels great.”
Monkey Wrench Smokehouse is the place for chef-quality BBQ in Travelers Rest. Just 15 miles from Interstate 85. Drop in today!
Check out this video from Scene on 7 introducing Monkey Wrench Smokehouse just prior to their opening:
Note: Menu prices and options are subject to change over time. Contact the restaurant for the most up-to-date information.
| Monday | Closed |
| Tuesday | Closed |
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