Smoke Revives Southern Barbecue, Bluegrass, Boudin

Reviewed by The Free Times
By Dinah Wells

The woodsmoke-scented magic of the Lowcountry oyster roast is no longer reserved for landed gentry and Charleston vacationers with a map to Bowen’s Island. Raise your jelly jar of moonshine and welcome Smoke Southern Barbecue Revival, a new Midlands venue for barbecue, bluegrass and oyster roasts with a rollicking, Cajun-meets-Carolina sensibility.

On any given weekend night, a multigenerational, jeans-clad crowd can be found warming their hands around flickering oil-drum fires, making friends at the tin-roofed, open air bar and, on Thursday nights, listening to live bluegrass and shucking ridiculously cheap steamed oysters ($10 per piled-high basket). Yep, Smoke is that new barbecue place in Blythewood you keep hearing about, and it’s absolutely worth the 20-minute drive.

Opened in the latter half of 2009, Smoke is a casually hip, countrified spot with family friendly prices, strong links to Columbia’s downtown arts scene and truly exemplary slow-cooked pulled pork ($7 lunch, $9 dinner, with two sides and homemade cornbread). These people are barbecue aficionados, and one bite of the deeply smoky, pit-cooked barbecue confirms it. The pork carries such a rich flavor profile and tender texture that it doesn’t need a drop of sauce — and I was raised to put extra sauce on my Big Joe Q. Still, Smoke makes Midwestern red and spicy vinegar barbecue sauces, and its Midlands-style mustard sauce would make Shealy’s proud.

Smoke is the family business of attorney, filmmaker and Plowboys band leader Tom Hall; barbecue circuiteer, author and one-time Charlotte Observer writer Dan Huntley; and former asset manager Heath Sessions. The soul-food menu is punctuated by Cajun treats such as Huntley’s porkalicious fried boudin balls ($3), Gumbo ya ya ($2.50/cup, $4.50/bowl) and house-made andouille sausage as well as ribs, brisket, pulled chicken, salads, burgers, sandwiches, pork tacos, and a gargantuan platter of pulled pork nachos ($7) that, on a recent visit, wanted for much more guacamole (but isn’t that always the way with guac?). A wild salmon entrée ($14), baritone in its smokiness and grilled so slowly that the flesh became almost custardy, really blew my mind and I savored every bite during a live set by Danielle Howle on opening night last November. Sadly, the salmon has been relegated to “occasional special” status due to lack of demand.

Beers both “lite” and microbrewed ($2.50 to $5) flow on tap and by the bottle, and wines by the glass range from grocery store values to wine store discoveries ($4-$8), thanks to Smoke’s ongoing relationship with local wine rep Michael Cramer. In fact, the restaurant is gaining quite the reputation for its absolutely off-the-chain, six-course wine dinners, which feature book signings by Southeastern lifestyle authors such as veteran Lowcountry game warden Ben Moise and the chefs of Hot & Hot Fish Club restaurant in Birmingham, Ala.

Sellout crowds at long, white tableclothed banquet tables feast on virtuosic, nouvelle cuisine preparations of freshly caught South Carolina shrimp, sea trout, May River oysters and McClellanville crab, as well as local quail, venison, lamb, suckling pig and seasonal produce — all served on Homer Laughlin china and paired with plentiful wines and craft beers at the unbelievably low price of $40 or $50 per ticket.

Smoke also caters; they did a recent event for mayoral candidate Steve Morrison, and they’re cooking for the upcoming sold-out Slow Food Columbia BBQ at City Roots farm.

During normal service at the restaurant, there’s also an indoor buffet ($8 lunch/$10 dinner) with Southern mainstays like barbecue, hash and rice, green beans, cobbler and terrific — though obviously not homemade — fried okra. (Which is a shame, because the fried oyster batter at the Moise dinner was an epiphany.) Out back, the bar, picnic benches and communal hand-built oyster-shucking tables are abutted by a giant woodpile (a magnet for adventurous children), a collard patch and a big field in which Hall envisions building a playground, brewery and bakery.

In a way, though, this lends balance to those citified, locavore ideals. Meaning, no community is going to get alienated here. If you just want your meat-n-three for lunch so you can get back to your Fairfield County roofing job, Smoke’s got you covered.

The power of Smoke Southern BBQ Revival is this: You get more than you thought you wanted, be it food, drink, music, camaraderie or spontaneity, and it makes you feel good. Smoke offers genuine welcome to anyone inclined toward some barbecue, oysters and ole-timey music, saying, “Come one, come all, and Laissez-les, y’all!”