Elliot’s BBQ Lounge and Seminar Brewing, Florence, South Carolina – John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog

Finding an outstanding new barbecue place, especially one that honors traditional cooking techniques, thrills me. I found on my way back from my 2025 Georgia Barbecue Tour — you’ll get to read all about the Tour soon. I pulled in at 551 West Lucas in Florence and tried Elliot’s BBQ Lounge.

It was wonderful, delicious. Elliott Moss cooks whole hog barbecue over wood coals and the quality is right up there with the likes of McCabe’s in Manning and Scott’s in Hemingway. That’s high praise indeed.

I went in after a light day of eating, just a barbecue and three breakfast at Fresh Air Barbecue and hash at Sconyer’s, both over the Georgia line, and the Dukes in Anderson. I sat at the bar — Elliot’s shares space in a old former pecan warehouse with Seminar Brewing — and ordered a pork plate with collards and succotash. I hadn’t had a lot of vegetable during the Georgia Tour.

On the upper right are a touch of creamy slaw, some pickles you can barely see, and a fried pork rind. Is that a garnish or an amuse bouche?

That pork was terrific. It was tender, rich, smoky, and succulent. It was lightly mixed with an honest vinegar-pepper sauce, and cooked directly over oak and pecan coals in a masonry pit, the way pork should be cooked. It was everything you would want in whole hog barbecue. Well, some corn sticks or hushpuppies would be nice, but still. This was great barbecue.

The succotash was quite good, with vegetables that had texture (in May!), and the collards were tasty, although I think they added some sugar. The dollop of slaw was fine and the pickles were honest pickles with texture and vinegar to counter the richness of the pork, instead of those flimsy bread and butter abominations you tend to get in cities.

There is a city side to Elliot’s. They don’t serve hash, at least right now, and they do sell beer. And they’re open on Sunday and Wednesday, which is a blessing for those who homeward plod their weary way on I-95 when all other barbecue places seem to be closed. But then Elliot’s not a typical concrete block barbecue place, as you may have noticed.

That pecan warehouse Elliot shares with Seminar Brewing is ginormous. There’s room for the entire brewing operation and acres of seating. Here’s one portion, including the brewing vats in the back left.

The noise level was surprisingly low during my visit, just a cheerful hum of conversation. That and the uniformly friendly and helpful staff make it a lively and fun spot.

I finished, paid, and ambled over to the barbecue side where a server offered a tour of the pits. Elliot Moss was there and showed me around. The barbecue operation is off to the side (the far left in the first photo), with the cooking safely outside the main frame. A burn barrel about 10 feet tall produces the wood coals that go under the beautiful extended pig-pink masonry pit. It has room for seven hogs, and when hog fat hits the low and slow coals and the smoke perfumes the pork, friends, that creates sensational barbecue.

There’s also space for ribs and things like salmon and smoked macaroni and cheese.

I also got a look at some recently delivered South Carolina hogs that come from just down the road in Kingstree. I’d have taken a photo if they’d been hanging free instead of being wrapped in heavy plastic. Still, I could almost see them cooking on that big pit.

It was a great tour with a widely honored chef. Elliot Moss, a Florence native, enjoyed hosannas of praise for his wood-cooked whole hog at Buxton Hall in Asheville from the James Beard folks, Garden and Gun, and many, many others. After a great run, Buxton Hall closed and Elliot moved back home. He opened up his BBQ Lounge just as I finished the Great Charleston RoadFood Crawl, and I was crushed not to be able to try his barbecue then. I mentioned my disappointment that I hadn’t ordered the smoked macaroni and cheese. Elliot offered me some that I devoured back in my hotel room, my face shining with joy.

I’ll order some on my next trip as one of my vegetables. I’ll add that Elliot Moss seems like a great guy. He’s relaxed, open, and affable, just a good man raised in Florence. The accolades and prestige haven’t gone to his head at all. We don’t get that a lot in Washington.

I’d planned my Georgia Tour so I could stay overnight in Florence so I could enjoy both the barbecue and the beer. It turns out that Seminar has a fine product. I sampled their New England style Pixel IPA, one of three IPAs Seminar offered that day. It was very good indeed, good enough for me to buy some to take to the 5th Annual Beer Snob Pig Picking (stay tuned) even though I’d already picked up something.

I enjoyed my meal immensely, but not just for the food. I sat next to Moe, a young man who’d moved to Florence from Southern California, that false paradise. Moe’d had some problems growing up, and actually lived rough for four long years. The prodigal returned home, and Moe, his mother, and some other family packed up and moved to the Carolinas, and Moe has turned his life around. He’s clean, he’s working, and he’s not only able to pay his mother’s rent, but does. Moe knows a young lady who works in the kitchen at Elliot’s, so he goes there after work. He misses the Mexican food he grew up eating, but he loves the food at Elliot’s, and perhaps one of the cooks, too. Moe seems like a good guy. I enjoyed our conversation and I both liked him and truly admire the strength and courage that led to his reformation. I celebrate him and wish him the best.

There are so many reasons to try Elliot’s. I didn’t even mention the ribs, the boiled peanuts, or the cornmeal-fried smoked catfish, which sound interesting indeed. If you’re headed down I-95 on your way to Florida or headed back home, Florence is a good overnight stopping point. That would allow you to sample both the barbecue and beer, the latter in moderation. If you’re just passing through or if you live within, say, 200 miles of Florence, it’s well worth the drive to try that barbecue. Do stop in and try Elliot’s. It’s a must stop.

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