American South
Not finding any restaurants representing an untried country and with food trucks on deck for next week I decided to add another variation to the theme and look for restaurants that represented regional American cuisines. So I might not need a passport to visit their home area (unless SC doesn’t update their drivers licenses then I’ll have to use my passport card) but it’s still from outside the area. Figured it made sense to start on the home turf with some pork BBQ from a local establishment.
In this case I decided on 521 BBQ in Tega Cay just up the road from me.
There are in a little strip mall and don’t have an outdoor pit or big smoker outback with guys shoveling in coals or anything but I understand they do smoke their own meat. When you go in there are some tables and the bar up front and then down the left side of the restaurant there is a fair amount of additional seating. The bar area has a few flat screen TVs showing sports and a nice selection of craft beer. As a side note it amused me that the bartender had to go look in the back to see if they had any Michelob Ultra when someone asked for it. Since it was right there in my face that’s how I started my visit, with one of the craft draft beers. Specifically it was a DuClaw Sweet Baby Jesus. I know that might sound like a questionable name and it didn’t provide salvation but it was tasty.
As you might have noticed this is a darkish beer. That’s because it is a chocolate peanut butter porter. When I picked up the beer the foamy tan head gave off a distinctly peanut butter scent and the first sip backed that up with a peanut buttery taste. I didn’t get much chocolate from it but the slight bitterness expected from a porter was there along with the peanut butter. It was smooth and delicious but really kind of heavy for the lunch I had planned.
I ordered a combo tray that came with two meats and two sides. Chopped pork and ribs were the meat selections while baked beans and collards were the sides I settled on. While I waited on the entrée they provided a complimentary basket of hushpuppies to keep me occupied.
They came with some honey butter spread that I’m sure would have been good but I just ate a couple plain. They were slightly sweet with just a vague hint of onion. Not my Granddad’s hushpuppies but acceptable. It was just a few minutes though and the main attraction was delivered.
If it looks like a lot of food that’s because it was. I started with a small taste of each of the sides before digging into the meats. The baked beans were made with a smoky, sweet thick bbq sauce that was the predominate flavor. They had some bacon and onion as well to balance the sweetness a bit. The collards looked great and you could see they had added some pork in with them. I can’t lie, the first bite had an sort of fishy taste that almost made me quit it right there. I don’t know if it was just some weird combination of the aftertaste of the sweet smoky beans and the savory collards but man the initial reaction was not cool. I waited a second and tried them again and didn’t get the same taste so I could proceed. They were ok, texture was good, not mushy like some and the pork was ok but smoked, salted meat would probably have been a better flavor choice.
The ribs on the other hand were great from start to finish. There were two ribs in each of the pieces and they were generously coated in the sweet, smoky sauce. They were not fall off the bone ribs but the meat came away from the bone cleanly as you ate them. The chopped pork was delivered without sauce just the smoked, chopped meat and you had three options of sauces at the table. The previously mentioned smoky, sweet sauce, plus mustard based and vinegar based sauces made up the choices. The pork itself had a mild smoke flavor with salt and was edible plain but much better with sauce. Being from an eastern NC family I loaded mine with the vinegar sauce after segregating a couple of small portions to sample the other two. It was a bit sweeter than I prefer but not bad. The mustard sauce was nice and tangy and the other sauce was ok in the beans and good on the ribs and decent on the chopped pork too.
Final verdict for me is the place is solid but nothing exceptional based on what I had. After the beer I’d say the ribs were probably the next best thing. If you’re in the area and feel like getting some BBQ you’ll do okay if you stop in.
