Maurice's BBQ Piggie Park — Restaurant in Irmo

Friday night about 8, driving from Myrtle to Greenwood, and where can we stop for dinner? It won't take me too long to find a BBQ joint that someone has recommended to me and tonight that BBQ joint is Maurice's Piggy Park. We hustled up and arrived about 45 minutes before close. The restaurant was very empty but clean.

If you've read any of my reviews… you know what I'm here for. The BBQ Pulled Pork comes in several options, there is a Big Joe or Little Joe sandwich or the Pitmaster Plate. Since I was approaching bedtime, and I didn't want to overstuff myself, I opted for the Big Joe sandwich.😉 There is also an option to make it a basket which includes fries, slaw and hushpuppies, but it was getting late. Unfortunately they had already broken down the machine for the evening so there wasn't any sweet tea available. I guess that's the price I paid for coming late.

The Big Joe BBQ sandwich came on a nice large brioche bun, and was piled high with BBQ. The pork has a definite golden color to it, but it didn't taste like mustard sauce. I couldn't find any bark or smokiness to the BBQ. The flavor was very mild but I found some good sauce to smother it with. I sampled their Vinegar BBQ and Hickory Red BBQ sauces and both were good. I decided to stray from my normal vinegar and went with the Hickory Red. I really liked the flavor of this sauce.

Overall, Piggy Park BBQ is somewhere around the middle of the road for fast food BBQ. (Is that an oxymoron?) Don't set your sights too high and you will not be disappointed. But then again if it's late night BBQ you crave… this could...

Visited friends for NYE, ate here on my way out of town.

Was greeted by an energetic fellow. Was gonna buy a plate with 2 sides and add another side, the cashier talked me into a 3 side plate to save me money (my local place doesn’t have a 3 side plate 🤷🏻‍♂️).

I got the pulled pork, Baked Mac, Brisket Beans & Slaw.

Pulled Pork had a good smoky flavor, but a yellow color, which was weird. I got 3 BBQ sauces from their Sauce Bar, their Mustard Sauce which was okay, Red Sauce it was thick and tangy with a hint of sweet, and a vinegar based sauce which was my favorite.

The sides were great too, the Mac was nice and cheesy with a good crust, the baked beans were slightly sweet and smoky. I had asked if the cole slaw was sweet, cashier said it was, but it was more vinegary than I figured it would be, but was good.

All in all, a tasty treat on my way back to GA.

[EDIT] went back for another visit. Pulled pork was just as good, as was the Mac & Cheese. But I tried the “Carolina Hash & Rice”, was very similar to Brunswick Stew, but didn’t have veggies. Was not bad, but would’ve been better with corn, tomatoes and potatoes 😆. But I tried a different sauce this time; the Hot Pepper Vinegar sauce. It reminded me of a sauce from my childhood and flooded me with memories; it was very spicy and...

Worst BBQ in SC, the 5 star reviews must be friends and family or paid reviews! I tried them exactly once, when I first moved to SC, and it was absolutely disgusting. And then later I learned about the founder, Maurice Bessinger, who died in 2014, and who was a lifelong extremely outspoken racist, white power advocate, and KKK member, who also used his restaurant to promote his views including distributing pamphlets proclaiming that slavery is God's will and that the white man is the superior race... He also apparently at one time put up a sign in the restaurant stating "The law makes us serve ni**ers, but any money we get from them goes to the Ku Klux Klan."

If you don't know then PLEASE Google Maurice Bessinger for yourself and read about his life! DO NOT GIVE THIS COMPANY BUILT ON HATE YOUR MONEY! And just because I know someone is going to defend this place and give some sob story about how his family runs it now and they aren't like Maurice was... IT HAS THE MAN'S NAME ON THE BUILDING STILL! If they really wanted to distance themselves from this racist's legacy and reputation, they could easily take their money and launch their own new brand that has nothing to do with the man who proudly preached hate and discrimination. They get no sympathy, and no more...