Sweatman's Bar-B-Que

Friday-and-Saturday whole hog in Holly Hill since 1959

Sweatman's Bar-B-Que is a barbecue restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina.

Sweatman's has cooked whole hogs on open pits every Friday and Saturday since 1959, and the schedule has never bent — two days a week, no days off from the tradition. The all-you-can-eat buffet is set in a converted farmhouse outside Holly Hill, about an hour northwest of Charleston, and the drive is part of the ritual. This is Midlands whole-hog barbecue in its purest form, a place that measured success in decades of doing the same thing right.

The hogs cook over hardwood coals and come to the buffet with a distinctive mustard-vinegar sauce that marks the Midlands tradition. The hash and rice is made the old way — organ meats and onions, cooked down for hours into something dense and deep — and the cracklins reward the patient. Sweet potato casserole rounds out a plate you are meant to refill. Sweatman's is the rare place where time genuinely stops and the only thing that matters is the smoke coming off the pit.

• Style: Lowcountry / South Carolina Style
• Price: $
• Neighborhood: Holly Hill
• Serving since 1959

What to order

• Whole Hog (all-you-can-eat buffet)
• Hash & Rice
• Cracklins
• Sweet Potato Casserole

How it scores — 9.2/10 overall

• Smoke: 9.4/10
• Bark: 9.0/10
• Tenderness: 9.3/10
• Consistency: 9.1/10
• Value: 9.6/10
• Atmosphere: 8.8/10

Visiting

• Address: 1427 Eutaw Rd, Holly Hill, SC 29059
• Phone: (803) 496-1227
• Website: https://sweatmansbbq.com

Hours: Fri–Sat 11:30am–8pm

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