The 2025 Georgia Tour – John Tanner’s Barbecue Blog
I started Wednesday, Day 2 of my Georgia Tour, with a fine breakfast at Sweet Mama’s with my Georgia Food Guru and the close friend of everyone in a food-related business in Georgia and beyond. This armed, Keith McLendon, I prepared for the number one destination of my trip. We drove around for a bit — St. Simons is lovely — and then headed to Southern Soul at 20220 Demere Road. We’d been there the day before for Southern Soul’s impressive pork chop sandwich. Today would be the big day for their widely and enthusiastically praised barbecue and I was very excited.
We entered at the 11:00 am opening and, after a concise discussion, we placed an ambitious but reasonable order, the three-meat special with pork, brisket, and ribs. For our sides we naturally selected collards and Brunswick stew. AS we moved away, Keith asked if Griffin were there. Not yet. We sat at the counter, and presently learned that the brisket wouldn’t be ready for an hour. Would we like to wait or get something else? We said “Sausage” in unison. It didn’t occur to me to say “Both,” which in the event was just as well.
Soon Griffin appeared and after greetings and introductions he asked what we’d ordered. In a few minutes I learned just how dangerous it can be to travel with Keith. Here’s our tray for two, Keith-sized.
When I saw the food, my mind leapt to a scene from the film, Fort Apache (link). Then I took a breath and focused. Don’t expect a lot of in-progress close-ups, especially after I got my fingers on that first rib.
Where to start? Pork, of course. My reaction, as I plunged into a state of bliss, was to wonder if they had two cookers out back, an offset for the brisket and a direct heat for the pork. It seems unlikely, but it was oh, so tender, lush, and fragrant with smoke and pork. A+.
Next a rib. So good! So good! So good! Smoky, flavorful, with a just-right texture, this is a first class rib. So I had another. And another. And … that was a lot of ribs. You’ll note that at this point I haven’t said a word about sauce. None was needed it, at this point or any other. The meat was that good.
The sausage was a surprise, a marked change from the routine jalapeño and cheese or hot link. This sausage was graced with fennel, thyme, and oregano, among other things — Italian seasonings! But Southern Smoke’s was much more subtle than the usual run of Italian sausages, which I dearly love, not lacking in flavor. but layered with flavors that went well with the other meats. This is the sausage that Griffin had added it to his usual onion gravy to kick the gravy for those delicious pork chop sandwiches up a notch. Make that notches. How did he think of that? Griffin is a conjourer.
I turned my attention to the half chicken that had wandered onto the tray. I headed straight for the dark meat, of course, and it was superb, succulent and smoky. A sense of duty made me try the white meat and it, too, actually was moist, not at all dry. Chicken breasts that good are as rare as … I’m not going to say hens’ teeth. Really rare.
When you’re gorging on meat, you really need some vegetables, so I did serious work on the collards,
which were tangy and peppery, with a leaven of meat flavor. They excelled, with a fine pot likker. Ah, and the Brunswick Stew.
It was exceptionally good with serious chunks of freshly smoked meats and multiple layers of flavor. The touch of vinegar and pepper, key elements of a top Brunswick stew, hit just right on the back side of the palate. Griffin deserves shouts of praise for his recipes and for managing the daytime operation. Here’s a picture of the three of us.
As at any great barbecue place, the crown goes to his partner, Harrison Sapp, the pitmaster who owns the night. As Harrison says on the website, “I start fires and cook bbq. That’s what I do.” Simple, straightforward, and invaluable. Would that it were so simple to do it so well, so expertly. That “simple” contains countless elements of attention, skill, and magic. Harrison and Kitty and Griffin also started the Firebox Initiative to help restauranteurs and workers who need help. and they often do in the wake of COVID, inflation, and so many other problems. The Southern Soul folks are good people, and I honor them all, including the poor soul who dropped the biscuits.
After eating almost all of that food, Keith and I sauntered — well Keith sauntered, I waddled — over to the Smoke Shop. That’s the gift shop next door, where along with a wide array of swag they offer treats from (drum roll) Stuckey’s! Remember Stuckey’s? They had hundreds of places across 30 states. Then the founder died, the small company was purchased by a big company and withered away. The family retrieved the remnants and now that wonderful bit of yesterday is being revived by one of the current generation, Stephanie Stuckey. I’d earlier stopped by a Stuckey’s in Manning, South Carolina after my Charleston RoadFood Crawl stop at D&H Barbecue, and picked up a Pecan Praline for later.
Whoa! That was a big, beautiful hit of sugar and pecan, like a pecan pie on crack. It swept me back to my candy bar-centered youth (without recalling may trips to the dentist.). It was great! At Southern Soul I grabbed an Original Pecan Log.
The Pecan Log is a whole bunch of pecans wrapped around a nougat core. It’s a gentler infusion of sugar, with pecans the main attraction. Still, both were very sweet and both conjured up memories of my youth and vacation trips in which my brothers and I spent hours in tieback seat of the family car, arguing and punching each other. Good times. Stuckey’s is a powerful trigger for memories well worth a stop as you travel.
Southern Soul, though, is a destination. St. Simons itself is a vacation destination on its own, but Southern Soul with the marriage of Harrison’s meats and Griffin’s recipes is special. It’s worth a stay in St. Simons or Brunswick just to eat there, and worth a day trip from anywhere between, say, St. Augustine and Charleston. It elevates Brunswick as a premier stop on the trip down I-95 to Florida.
Make it a point to go to Southern Soul. Try all the meats. Report on the brisket. My friend Julie Rokala was just bragging about their burnt ends, and Julie knows. But find a way to go. Eat. Enjoy.
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