Scott's Variety Store - Hemingway, SC

From the moment John T. Edge's discovery hit the web, my plans were solidified: just get there, I told myself. And today, I did.


Edge goes through the major details in the link; I have nothing else to offer on this matter other than to point out that "variety store" is a bit of a misnomer--beyond some cold storage for beverages, the store contains little more than paper towels, canned beans, some watermelons outside, and some fried pork skins in ziploc bags at the register. It's dank and real; the press changed nothing.

You pull up to the counter and see this:
I only had $50 in cash on me, sorry.

You can see that the pig, chopped and ready to go, is sitting under saran wrap: I got there at 12:15PM and the meat was lukewarm; my guess is that it comes off the smoker and into the shop between 9-10AM (the audio slide show at the Times indicates that people tend to come and grab it at 10AM). I ordered a pound, sauce on the side (typical Eastern-style pepper sauce); they threw in some white bread, utterly perfunctory though it was.

Apologies for the blurry shot:

I ate at Lexington BBQ, Allen & Son, and The Pit the previous day, so I found the hybrid Western/Eastern style of Scott's a fitting capstone. Here, they cook the whole hog; unlike A&S (discards the skin) and The Pit (coarsely chopped), however, Scott's pulls its product and serves it "surtido," with plenty of pickins' from the butt, shoulder, and elsewhere--there's bark, skin, chunks, et al. While I loved the robust pigginess of A&S and The Pit, Scott's abstract mastery, with its varied textures and porcine intensity, was Ornette Coleman to their John Coltrane; I can only imagine what it's like with a bit more skin--should have asked!--and fresh from the smoker.

Beautiful.

Scott's Variety Store
2734 Hemingway Highway (Brunson's Corner)
Hemingway, SC 29554
Phone: (843) 558-3629