Smoking Stokes BBQ

Address:  1622 Augusta St., Greenville, SC

Phone:  864-242-9716

Web site: http://smokinstokesbbq.com/

Cards: yes

Hours of operation: Mon-Thursday, 11-3; Friday 11-8; Saturday, 11-5

The first thing I noticed about Smoking Stokes BBQ is that I had to park around the corner because the parking at this strip mall restaurant is remarkably limited.

The second thing I noticed when I went in was all the trophies that lined the walls around the restaurant.  The owner of Smoking Stokes was on the cook-off circuit for years and has, literally, won hundreds of trophies.  In fact, in 2000, back when the SC state championship was still being held in Charleston, he was named State Champion. (Now the SC State Champion is named by the South Carolina Barbeque Association after a year-long contest over 35 different events around the state in which winning teams are awarded points based on their placement in those contests.)

But the third thing I noticed about Smoking Stokes was how good the barbeque is.

Smoking Stokes has lots of regular followers in Greenville (they were voted Best of Greenville back in 2003) and he serves up a big plate of barbeque with or without sauce, as you request.  Request it without, by the way, and then try his sauces, all of which are quite interesting and most of which are very good.

Smoking Stokes lives up to its name in another way; you can really taste the smoke.  Which reminds me, I’ve found it interesting that in the Pee Dee every restaurateur that I’ve asked (and that’s a fair number) tells me that their customers don’t like their barbeque to be too smoky, whereas in the up-state the people seem to like a healthy dose of hickory and oak smoke.  It’s simply a regional difference that one should be aware of.

But, as I was saying, you get real championship style barbeque at Smoking Stokes and the sides are all good, at least all of those I had.  The ribs were superb.

The next time I went in I didn’t mind having to park across the street and walking a bit.