(Left) Swig & Swine’s upcoming Myrtle Beach location and (right) Rodney Scott’s Atlanta outpost.
Local pitmasters expand their operations in South Carolina—and beyond
More than a half century ago, the Bessinger and the Dukes families moved from Orangeburg County down to Charleston, bringing with them Midlands-style, mustard-based barbecue sauce and hash and rice. These days, Charleston’s restaurateurs are reversing direction and exporting Holy City-style ’cue to many other places.
In May 2019, Home Team BBQ headed up I-26 to Columbia and opened a location in Five Points. Two years later, they landed in Greenville, opening an outpost just east of downtown on Laurens Road. Not to be outdone, Anthony DiBernardo not only has a fourth Swig & Swine in the works in Moncks Corner but a fifth on the way up the coast in Myrtle Beach.
John Lewis says he considered opening a second Lewis Barbecue in Charleston, but he was worried it might divert business from the Nassau Street location. “When you visit Charleston,” he explains, “eating and drinking is basically what you do. We’ve been fortunate that we’re on people’s short list of [barbecue] places to check out, and I feel like doing a second one there would kind of muddy that up.” Instead, he set up shop in Greenville, too, opening the second Lewis Barbecue last September in the old Tommy’s Country Ham House building on Rutherford Street.
Rodney Scott is building an even more sprawling empire. His business partner, Nick Pihakis, is a native of Birmingham, Alabama, so it was only natural that they would open the second Rodney Scott’s BBQ in that city’s Avondale neighborhood in 2019. Two more Birmingham-area outposts soon followed in the suburbs of Homewood and Trussville.
And they’re not done. In July 2021, the partners opened the largest Rodney Scott BBQ to date in Atlanta, complete with a 150-person dining room and an air-conditioned pit room. Even bigger is the venture they have in the works with country music star Eric Church. Called Chief’s, it will occupy all six floors of a building at the corner of 2nd Avenue and Broadway in downtown Nashville. When completed, it will boast multiple bars, a seated music venue, and a Rodney Scott’s BBQ restaurant on the rooftop, where guests can dine on Pee Dee-style, whole-hog barbecue while looking down on the crowds of bachelorettes and other revelers below.
