Opened by Bobby Griffin Sr. in 1985, now run by his son, Bobby Jr., Bobby's Bar-B-Q is a restaurant unique to the South and to the CSRA in particular.
In the gastronomically enlightened America of 2023, most food-savvy people appreciate southern food and a place like Bobby's as vital parts of the nation's culinary landscape. However, eight years before Bobby's opened, when we wrote the first edition of a cross-country restaurant guidebook called Roadfood, people in barbecue-deprived states knew little about smoke-pit cooking. The book's editor in New York was troubled by the very word barbecue. "It's a verb," she instructed, "not a noun."
We politely advised her that it may be a verb in places where home cooks don silly aprons and chef's toques to "barbecue" (i.e. grill) weenies on the patio, but hereabouts barbecue is a noun, a noun that refers to the food you eat, as in "Shall we have barbecue for lunch?" And it's what you call a place that makes it: "Which of Aiken's barbecues do you like best?"
The editor also was disturbed by how many buffet restaurants were included. She soon learned that in the world of barbecue, especially in South Carolina, buffet-style service hearkens back to the old custom of a celebratory weekend pig pickin'.
My point is that Bobby's is the real deal in every respect. Its bill of fare is a catalog of regional barbecue preferences.
Of course pork is the main attraction, available pulled with occasional bits of chewier bark and also as meat hacked up so fine it feels fluffy. Both varieties are subtly smoky, wanting little more than a jot of the tangy-sweet mustard sauce that is South Carolina's signature condiment.
Ribs are an extra-cost option, brought to the table by a member of the staff. They're messy and cumbersome, nothing like tidy baby back ribs. Some massive strips of meat slip right off the bone; others need to be yanked. Some melt in your mouth; others require a good chew.
As is true of nearly every all-you-can-eat barbecue in this area, chicken is the alternate meat, here offered both fried and baked. Fried pieces come encased in skin so lush that it could be poultry-flavored bacon.
Return trips to the buffet are part of the meal. That's important because there isn't nearly enough room on one plate for all the inviting side dishes made by longtime cook Kathy Greene. Hash on rice, hushpuppies, candied yams, flat beans and baked beans, field peas, greens, okra, mac & cheese, corn on the cob, potato salad, cole slaw, two kinds of pickle chips and curls of salty, shatterproof deep-fried fatback compete for positions on the plate.
Like all worthy barbecues, Bobby's is humble. And yet any honest definition of the hifalutin term "artisan cuisine" would have to include it. Having watched pitmaster Bobby Griffin, Jr. carve a whole hog at a picnic he catered, I can assure you that this man truly is an artisan. At under $20 for a meal, his edible art is a good deal indeed.
Bobby's Bar-B-Q: 1897 Jefferson Davis Highway, Warrenville, S.C. 803-593-5900. https://bobbysbbq.com
