South Carolina is the “Birthplace of BBQ,” and Florence County has been keeping the tradition alive for as long as we can remember. You’ll find four types of BBQ sauces in our state – mustard, light tomato, vinegar and pepper, and heavy tomato-based. Our part of the state tends to prepare the pork with vinegar and pepper or light tomato-based sauce, but as you visit our BBQ restaurants, you may just find the other two styles as well.

Traditionally the pork is cooked as a whole hog “low and slow” over a fire pit, just as the Native Americans taught the colonists. The pork is removed by pulling it in long strips, hence the name pulled pork BBQ. When we gather our friends and neighbors together for the process, we call it a pig pickin’. The BBQ heritage was brought about by a mix of Native American and Spanish colonists’ cooking techniques, and the state celebrates this culinary tradition through the SC Barbecue Trail.