Name: Roddey’s BBQ Address: 250 S. Cherry St, Rock Hill, SC 29732 Order: Brisket and barbecue sandwich combo (link to menu) Pricing: $$
Monk: Roddey’s BBQ is the barbecue venture of Seth Roddey and his dad Ken in Rock Hill, South Carolina just south of the border from Charlotte. While Ken has been smoking barbecue for 25 years, the duo began catering in 2014. However, it wasn’t until about a year ago that Seth bought a food truck and started regular service in Rock Hill. Not the most fortunate timing during the pandemic and whatnot, but they have stuck it out.
Roddey’s BBQ smokes their pork, brisket, and ribs on an Ole Hickory pit at a commercial kitchen at their house using hickory splits. They then set up at a vacant lot for service every week off S. Cherry Street across from District Three Stadium, the home stadium to local football powerhouse Northwestern High.
The USDA prime brisket was well smoked and had good flavor, but was not overly peppery in the style of a central Texas brisket. Orders came with a mix of both fatty and lean, and I preferred the fattier cut though the lean made a nice foldover.
The pulled pork sandwich had good bark mixed in but was not overly smoky. Both combos came with a peppery mayo-based coleslaw and when the sandwich was topped with the slaw and the Roddey’s vinegar-based sauce, it made for a darn fine bite.
I like that Roddey’s is a family affair, and the barbecue is certainly worth keeping an eye on and seeking out. You can find Roddey’s BBQ Wednesdays through Fridays at 250 S. Cherry St in Rock Hill.
Name: Legal Remedy Brewing Brewpub Address: 129 Oakland Ave, Rock Hill, SC 29730 Order: Pulled pork sandwich (link to menu) Pricing: $$
Monk: Legal Remedy Brewing opened their original brewpub in 2015 in an old auto dealership in Old Town Rock Hill. In addition to the beer, the original location serves upscale brewpub eats with a focus on house smoked meats, going so far as to have a “Warden of Woodsmoke” overseeing the menu. Those smoked meats included pork, brisket, turkey, and wings but there is also a smoked meatloaf dish on the menu.
It would seem as if Legal Remedy is finding success in Rock Hill as they have since opened a second location in the form of a farm to table restaurant dubbed the “Legal Remedy Cantina” that serves seasonal food from local farmers and producers. The brewpub location on the old auto lot has quite a bit of outdoor seating when the weather is nice and it was pretty packed on a clear Saturday night when I visited recently with the Monk clan in tow.
Having ordered the southern poutine appetizer between Mrs. Monk and me, I went simply with the pulled pork sandwich instead of the Carnivore Sampler platter with all of the meats. The southern poutine is topped with smoked jalapeño pimento cheese, pepper jelly, and crumbled LRBacon and was a wonderful, if not exactly needed, start.
The pulled pork sandwich was comprised of pork that was not overly smoky but once the it was topped with the coleslaw and LRBeer BQ sauce it was more than passable. I gobbled it up pretty quickly and without complaint.
In addition to the other standard brewpub fare, there’s also a smoked meatloaf made from the trimmings of their smoked turkey, beef brisket, kielbratsas (from The Peach Stand), and pork, mixing with ground beef. Brunswick stew is also on the menu as are house cured versions of reuben and pastrami sandwiches. Plus their beer is not too bad either.
Much like Pinehurst Brewing (which I reviewed earlier this year), Legal Remedy has put a focus on smoked meats to above average results. Next time I’m back in the area, I’ll check out the rest of their offerings to see how they stack up.
Name: Pinehurst Brewing Company & Smokehouse Address: 300 Magnolia Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374 Order: Smokehouse sampler with hush puppies, mac and cheese, and collards (link to menu) Pricing: $$
In 2019 as part of Pinehurst’s efforts to maintain and improve upon their courses and resort offerings, Pinehurst Brewing Company opened in the brick building that housed the town’s former steam plant that had powered the resort since 1895. On the beer side, they recruited the head brewer Eric Mitchell from the well-regarded Heist Brewing in Charlotte. As for food, smoked meats plays a huge part in the menu and head smoker Chris Dowd also originally came from the Queen City (though he moved to Laurinburg in 1989). He quit his office job about 20 years ago for barbecue and eventually made his way to Pinehurst Brewing when they opened in 2019.
Inside the historic brick building, they have certainly played up the heritage of the old plant. Weathered photos cover the walls, In the sunroom where we were seated, all tables were made from a single tree that was on the property including the two large high top tables that each can seat 10-12. Underneath the naturally-edged table, the legs are comprised of old pipes, valves, tanks, dials and fittings.
The menu states that the meats from the smokehouse are smoked on “high quality local oak and hickory woods” and while I wasn’t able to lay eyes on the smoker itself, this interview with Dowd claims they are using a stick burner.
As is standard, I went with the sampler to try a bit of everything on the menu. The chopped pork was a large large portion that had some rub sprinkled on top but unfortunately I didn’t get a lot of smoke and found it to be just average. There are four sauces to choose from including an eastern NC vinegar sauce, which gave the barbecue the tang I was looking for.
Brisket came in just one thin slide and had good bark and flavor. The sausage was a bit overdone; charred on the outside, but paired well with the IPA beer mustard sauce. The smoked chicken was well smoked and they managed to make the skin crispy, not rubbery
The sides were strong at Pinehurst Brewing. The sampler comes with two sides and we added another; we went with mac and cheese, collards, and hush puppies. All were well executed and Mrs. Monk gave the collards praise, which isn’t always a given considering how seriously she takes her collards.
Pinehurst Brewing Company will be part of the recently announced Pinehurst Barbecue Festival in September, and they have a good thing going in less than two years up and running. On a warmer day, they have a great beer garden and outdoor bar which would be a nice way to enjoy a beer after a round of golf or after a meal.
Name: The Smoke Pit Address: 421 Cox Rd, Gastonia, NC 28054 Order: Tres Amigos combo (brisket, pork, and ribs) with turkey, sausage, hush puppies, fried okra (link to menu) Pricing: $$
Monk: Since the last time Speedy and I visited The Smoke Pit’s original location in Concord four years ago, they’ve steadily expanded into other cities across the Piedmont of NC. I visited the downtown Salisbury location in early 2017 and they’ve since opened up in Monroe and more recently Gastonia about a year ago. I’ve always enjoyed my visits to The Smoke Pit but for whatever reason tend to forget about them a little bit. However, with BIll Spoon’s closing in September and Speedy in Charlotte for the day, it was time to figure out if The Smoke Pit was worthy of a top 5 spot on our Charlotte Big Board.
Speedy: Well if we must eat more delicious barbecue, Monk, then we must. We pulled up to The Smoke Pit Gastonia, which was a stand-alone building in a larger shopping center. Barbecue in commercial shopping centers always worries me, and this was a pretty ugly building, so the real question was whether this incarnation of The Smoke Pit could overcome these challenges. So Monk and I entered, waited in line for a few minutes, and placed our order to find out.
Let’s start with the star of the show: the St. Louis-style ribs. When tasting ribs, you always hope and pray, but rarely receive, the perfect bite. Tender meat that is easy to bite through but doesn’t fall off the bone. That’s what we got at The Smoke Pit. Monk and I ordered the dry ribs, which were meaty, well seasoned, and flavorful. A truly outstanding effort.
Monk: Definitely glad we went for dry over sauced. One of the better pork ribs I’ve had recently, and agree that it did have that perfect bite.
The brisket came out a little on the dry side and was mostly lean even though we asked for a mix of both lean and fatty. Still, it had a nice bark and a good taste. The sausage at The Smoke Pit appears to rotate regularly and on this day they had a solid jalapeno cheddar version, which Speedy sadly couldn’t partake in. All in all, I think what he did miss out on was a solid but unspectacular sausage.
Speedy: The chopped pork was cooked well and had a bit of smoke flavor, but was a little dry. Adding some Lexington style sauce quickly remedied this, but I would have liked a little more bark chopped in. Still, the pork was quite good and worth ordering. Not to jump the gun on the sides, but Smoke Pit also has a good red slaw, so the pork sammie would make for a strong order.
On the drive over to The Smoke Pit, Monk and I had a conversation about how smoked turkey tends to be a little underrated at the best ‘cue joints, and can be incredibly flavorful. So we decided that if Smoke Pit had turkey, we’d order it, and sure enough, it was listed as a new menu item. It was worth it. You always worry about turkey being dry, but that was not the case at Smoke Pit. Their turkey is cajun seasoned, which is a nice touch. My one complaint is that I wish the seasoning penetrated the meat a bit further, as there were some bites where I wasn’t able to taste the seasoning.
Monk: Speedy already touched on the red slaw, which complimented the slightly dry pork perfectly. We also got hush puppies (of course) and fried okra, which was a bit of a last minute audible. Both were above average, though I was unable to tell if they were scratch-made or not.
Speedy: The meal at The Smoke Pit’s Gastonia location was solid all-around. There wasn’t a single item that I wouldn’t order again, and we had a standout meat in the ribs. For my money, it’s worthy of the big board.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
