John K BBQ
TVWBB All-Star
After several weeks of spending too much time around my house, I busted out of St. Louis with my good buddy Ted for a "boy's" weekend”. While we didn't plan it, it sort of turned into a BBQ tour! I didn't take photos of all the food, but I thought i'd share a few pics, highlights, and points of interest;
Our first noteworthy stop on the long drive from St. Louis MO to Seneca SC was at Coal Creek Smokehouse BBQ in Rocky Top in Rocky Top TN, just north of Knoxville on I-75 for a little lunch. I had the “Granny’s Special” hickory smoked pulled pork, baked beans and slaw piled on top of home made corn bread. This was really awesome pulled pork served in a way I hadn’t seen before – highly recommend this stop to anyone traveling this stretch of I-75
Next stop, Ted’s new retirement home near Seneca SC. Enjoying the sunset and testing the fire pit were the first two priorities. We also put together a brand spanking new Weber Genesis E330! I noticed his new neighbors’ forest green 20+ year old Genesis. Turns out Ted’s new neighbor is a pretty cool guy too. They’ll be trading BBQ tips and recipes before you know it. Tom doesn’t know it yet, but there’s some awesome Q coming his way once Ted moves his 22” WSM down there.
Even though we got the Genesis up and running, we didn’t have a fully functional kitchen, so we tested out some restaurants in Seneca and Clemson. The pulled pork at Hogs and Hops in Seneca was to die for. It was as good as anything I’ve ever made – maybe better. We got to meet the pitmasters. Turns out that Hogs and Hops is run by a husband and wife team, and they’re both a lot of fun to talk BBQ with.
Man cannot live by pulled pork alone, so for dinner that night we went to Palmettos Smokehouse and Oyster Bar in Clemson where we got a couple of dozen oysters, one dozen raw, and one dozen “Redneck”. Redneck oysters were fire grilled with collard greens and parm cheese on top and we all really enjoyed the salty/bacony greens with cheese and oyster combo. We had some really awesome Jambalaya there as well. The menu there had pulled pork, brisket, and chicken but I was so full of other goodness I didn’t have room to try it.
The next day it was time to head just a bit north to visit my mom. My brother and I stopped off at SBH BBQ in Greenville SC which is not even a mile off of I-85. This is definitely a must try as well. These guys have a ton of trophies on display, including one from Banjo-BQ which, although I live a lot closer to KC and Memphis than August GA, this BBQ-and music fest is on my bucket list for BBQ festivals to go to due to the location and music included in the festival. Since we were taking food to Mom’s house, we ordered a pound of pulled pork with beans and slaw and 1 smoked turkey sandwich – holy moly – another great pulled pork experience! The turkey was also very good – very moist and smokey!
After all that awesome food, we needed a bit of exercise, so we played 18 at “The Walker Course” on the Clemson University campus. Neither one of us played our best round but it’s a beautiful course and everyone we spoke to was very friendly even if they were all little down in the dumps after ND beat the Tigers. It’s been a long time since I played on Bermuda fairways and rough. Hitting the ball out of Bermuda rough was not easy! The greens were also playing extremely fast.. The fall colors were really popping and the scenery next to lake Hartwell was fantastic.
And then… even more BBQ; We had pulled pork at “Little Pigs” in Seneca, Little Pigs was clearly one of the most popular lunch places in Seneca, service up lots of bbq for the good people of Seneca. I just had a good ole pulled pork sandwich with their house made hot bbq sauce on the side and it was truly wonderful, they also had mild, vinegar, and Alabama white sauce on the list here as well.
Finally we went, back to Lake Keowee where Ted's wife and mother-in-law showed up to class up the joint a little bit. They brought some supplies for the kitchen, and we broke in the new Genesis with Ribeye’s and strip steaks from Wilson Processing Co, Inc. in Seneca. Wilson’s is definitely the place to go around Seneca for ribs, pork butt, briskets and steaks. The house made sausage looks great too, but we didn’t get a chance to try it.
All in all, it was a really fun trip. Ted's new retirement home and home community is going to work out great for him and his family. We also settled a long standing disagreement over who has the best mother in law. We agreed his is the best east of the Mississippi, and mine is the best on the west side!
If you’ve ever been to any of these places, let me know what you thought of them. If you’ve never been to this part of our great country, it certainly has a lot to offer. Being around the lake is wonderful, but there are also a lot of great hiking trails, fishing, and….. and did I mention BBQ??
Our first noteworthy stop on the long drive from St. Louis MO to Seneca SC was at Coal Creek Smokehouse BBQ in Rocky Top in Rocky Top TN, just north of Knoxville on I-75 for a little lunch. I had the “Granny’s Special” hickory smoked pulled pork, baked beans and slaw piled on top of home made corn bread. This was really awesome pulled pork served in a way I hadn’t seen before – highly recommend this stop to anyone traveling this stretch of I-75
Next stop, Ted’s new retirement home near Seneca SC. Enjoying the sunset and testing the fire pit were the first two priorities. We also put together a brand spanking new Weber Genesis E330! I noticed his new neighbors’ forest green 20+ year old Genesis. Turns out Ted’s new neighbor is a pretty cool guy too. They’ll be trading BBQ tips and recipes before you know it. Tom doesn’t know it yet, but there’s some awesome Q coming his way once Ted moves his 22” WSM down there.
Even though we got the Genesis up and running, we didn’t have a fully functional kitchen, so we tested out some restaurants in Seneca and Clemson. The pulled pork at Hogs and Hops in Seneca was to die for. It was as good as anything I’ve ever made – maybe better. We got to meet the pitmasters. Turns out that Hogs and Hops is run by a husband and wife team, and they’re both a lot of fun to talk BBQ with.
Man cannot live by pulled pork alone, so for dinner that night we went to Palmettos Smokehouse and Oyster Bar in Clemson where we got a couple of dozen oysters, one dozen raw, and one dozen “Redneck”. Redneck oysters were fire grilled with collard greens and parm cheese on top and we all really enjoyed the salty/bacony greens with cheese and oyster combo. We had some really awesome Jambalaya there as well. The menu there had pulled pork, brisket, and chicken but I was so full of other goodness I didn’t have room to try it.
The next day it was time to head just a bit north to visit my mom. My brother and I stopped off at SBH BBQ in Greenville SC which is not even a mile off of I-85. This is definitely a must try as well. These guys have a ton of trophies on display, including one from Banjo-BQ which, although I live a lot closer to KC and Memphis than August GA, this BBQ-and music fest is on my bucket list for BBQ festivals to go to due to the location and music included in the festival. Since we were taking food to Mom’s house, we ordered a pound of pulled pork with beans and slaw and 1 smoked turkey sandwich – holy moly – another great pulled pork experience! The turkey was also very good – very moist and smokey!
After all that awesome food, we needed a bit of exercise, so we played 18 at “The Walker Course” on the Clemson University campus. Neither one of us played our best round but it’s a beautiful course and everyone we spoke to was very friendly even if they were all little down in the dumps after ND beat the Tigers. It’s been a long time since I played on Bermuda fairways and rough. Hitting the ball out of Bermuda rough was not easy! The greens were also playing extremely fast.. The fall colors were really popping and the scenery next to lake Hartwell was fantastic.
And then… even more BBQ; We had pulled pork at “Little Pigs” in Seneca, Little Pigs was clearly one of the most popular lunch places in Seneca, service up lots of bbq for the good people of Seneca. I just had a good ole pulled pork sandwich with their house made hot bbq sauce on the side and it was truly wonderful, they also had mild, vinegar, and Alabama white sauce on the list here as well.
Finally we went, back to Lake Keowee where Ted's wife and mother-in-law showed up to class up the joint a little bit. They brought some supplies for the kitchen, and we broke in the new Genesis with Ribeye’s and strip steaks from Wilson Processing Co, Inc. in Seneca. Wilson’s is definitely the place to go around Seneca for ribs, pork butt, briskets and steaks. The house made sausage looks great too, but we didn’t get a chance to try it.
All in all, it was a really fun trip. Ted's new retirement home and home community is going to work out great for him and his family. We also settled a long standing disagreement over who has the best mother in law. We agreed his is the best east of the Mississippi, and mine is the best on the west side!
If you’ve ever been to any of these places, let me know what you thought of them. If you’ve never been to this part of our great country, it certainly has a lot to offer. Being around the lake is wonderful, but there are also a lot of great hiking trails, fishing, and….. and did I mention BBQ??
