Melvin's Legendary Bar-B-Q

“The Bessinger legacy, kept on Folly Road since 1939”

Melvin's carries one of South Carolina's most storied barbecue dynasties into the present. Melvin Bessinger opened his first restaurant in 1939, and the family has been refining the same mustard-based sauce and whole-hog technique ever since. The James Island location on Folly Road is a pilgrimage stop for SC purists, a place where the recipe matters more than the decor and the plate looks the way it has for generations. The mustard sauce is the standard the rest of the state measures against: tangy, a touch sweet, with a depth that only comes from a recipe left alone for decades. It coats pulled pork that pulls apart in soft, smoky strands. The whole-hog plate, served with hash and rice, is as complete as Lowcountry barbecue gets, and the onion rings are the sleeper order regulars quietly stack on the side. This is heritage cooking that never had to modernize because it got the important part right the first time.