The Best I Ever Had: BBQ
Scott's BBQ in South Carolina, Lexington BBQ in North Carolina, or City Market in Luling Texas —Take Your Pick
The following piece, updated here, was published at “Old Ones Dream” April 18, 2013, and as a piece of “Magnolia Elegy: Place In the Edisto Fork” April 14, 2022.
Having grown up rural in the 1940s and 50s in low country South Carolina, the best BBQ we ever had was likely to be found within a one hour walk or 15 minute tractor ride. In an old brick storefront on the main street of Cope across from the railroad depot was Duke’s BBQ and I remember that they served every Friday night and the hash was wonderful. The local community ate there in swarms for decades until transportation and communication got out of hand and attention turned to fast food and larger towns. Different branches of the Dukes family had BBQ shops in some of the small towns in Orangeburg and Dorchester counties. Earl Dukes BBQ hit the big time in Orangeburg and was open several days each week. Earl Dukes, Jr., had a rock and roll band (The Rebelaires) and cut a 45 RPM vinyl on Delta Records (Don’t You Know the Reason Why) that got some play, at least locally.
BBQ preparation style and sauce; and trimmings such as hash on white rice, cole slaw, pork skins, and sliced white bread; varied by community and region. In South Carolina the BBQ served in the southern low country, the Pee Dee region, the Sand Hills and the Up-country are each distinctly different. The Pee Dee style is very similar to that of adjoining eastern North Carolina and is seasoned primarily with salt, black pepper, and red pepper and served with a vinegar based sauce - as opposed to sauces containing catsup and/or mustard and/or mayonnaise and/or other condiments as featured in other areas of South Carolina. The headquarters for the Pee Dee style BBQ, considered by many to be the best, might be Scott’s Bar-B-Que (as featured in The New York Times and Time Magazine) in Hemingway, South Carolina, and Lexington BBQ in (western?) North Carolina. There is much debate in the Carolinas as to which regional BBQ is the best. There are some new kids on the block (for instance Bib’s in Winston-Salem and 12 Bones in Asheville) that are not traditional Carolina BBQ and include some western accent such as brisket, smoked sausage, pinto beans and cornbread instead of white bread.
In April 2011, T and I went camping in the Texas Hill Country. Our initial destination was Blanco Settlement at Blanco Texas north of San Antonio, south of Johnson City, and southeast of Fredericksburg. East of Seguin we dropped off of I-10 on US 183 to pickup Texas Highway 80 and head northwest to San Marcos bound for Blanco. About 4 miles from I-10 we came to Luling and stopped to have lunch. We were on the main drag (East Davis St) which was on the east side of the railroad and we walked up to a BBQ market but it was closed that day. Two men were visiting at a picnic table out front and directed us up the street to City Market in a brick storefront, furnished with picnic tables. At the back of the dining room is a door in and a door out of the smoke house where you stand in line at the meat counter and order your meat(s) which they slice to your order and sell by the pound served on sheets of butcher paper. We grabbed each end of our butcher paper and walked out with sliced smoked brisket, pork ribs and smoked sausage garnished with sliced raw onion and whole fresh jalapeños. We took a position at one of the picnic tables and went to the sides counter and purchased our Shiner Bock, slaw and pinto beans and served ourselves some of the house sauce. The tables seemed to be filled with various business men, country folk, and tourists. The large group at the next table was in the area for a wedding and they were heading out after lunch to do the tour at the Spoetzl Brewery - fun. T and I left with bellies full of the best BBQ meal we had ever tasted, and the beginning of our love affair with Central Texas BBQ.
As our knowledge of Texas “Q” grew, we learned that we had stumbled blind into the holy of holies - a shrine for many Texas BBQ purists; City Market, 633 E. Davis St. Luling, Texas 78648. We learned that Texas Monthly magazine has a BBQ web site and a smart phone BBQ Finder App. We learned that Central Texas BBQ is (of course) BIG - The New York Times recently ran a feature announcing that Texas Monthly had named a full time BBQ Editor. We learned that Texas business men fly their planes from large towns to small just for lunch. We learned that, identity theft being the sincerest form of flattery, there is a BBQ joint in Houston named Luling City Market that sells Luling City Market BBQ sauce (so be careful when you Google - but you already knew that).
Of the top 5 BBQ markets on the Texas Monthly Top 50 list (each with a perfect 5.0 rating) City Market is in Luling, Kreuz Market and Smitty’s Market are in Lockhart 17 miles north of Luling, The other two, Snow’s and Louis Mueller’s, are also located nearby in the country east of Austin. We have not yet eaten at the others in the top 5 but we have since eaten at others on the top 50 list and they were all good. We like Cooper’s in Llano just fine but we returned to City Market on our next trip in 2012 and we like it best. It was very frustrating to rock and roll through Luling on the train in March and look out of the window across East Davis Street and see City Market and not be able to stop. It was the best I ever had.
City Market sounds absolutly incredible. The way you describe stumbling into it makes it even better. That vinegar based Pee Dee style BBQ has always been my favorte too. The regional variations across the Carolinas and Texas are facinating to explore.