Middleton's Village BBQ

“An 1892 family vinegar-pepper sauce on Highway 17”

Pitmaster Eliot Middleton has generations of family history in the McClellanville area, and he built his Awendaw pit around a sauce that predates almost every barbecue joint in the state. The vinegar-and-pepper recipe traces to his great-great-grandmother in 1892, reputedly a worker on the area's post-Civil War farms — a heritage story few pits anywhere can match. Destination BBQ calls the result truly authentic South Carolina barbecue. The roadside spot on Highway 17, a converted biker bar with a big outdoor pavilion, plays like a backyard family reunion: cornhole, bonfires, and weekend live music. The cooking backs the setting. Pulled pork carries that sharp 1892 vinegar tang, the St. Louis-cut ribs pull clean, and the fried ribs are the curveball that regulars order to convert first-timers. Banana pudding closes it out. The whole place runs on lineage — a specific family, a specific sauce, a specific stretch of coast — rather than a concept.