11 Small-Town South Carolina Diners Locals Drive Out of Their Way For

Ask a small-town South Carolinian where to eat, and they won’t send you to a chain.

They’ll point down a back road toward a cinderblock building with a hand-painted sign.

These are the small-town diners worth driving clear across the county for.

1. Sweatman’s Bar-B-Que

Follow Eutaw Road out of Holly Hill, and you reach a plain white farmhouse where the pitmasters cook whole hogs over wood coals out back.

The pork comes out pulled and tender, ready for a splash of the gold, mustard-based sauce the Midlands is known for.

You load a plate with pork, hash over rice, and cracklin, then pay at the counter.

One catch keeps the crowds honest: The doors only open Friday and Saturday.

Plan your week around it.

The cracklin sells out first.

2. Scott’s Bar-B-Que

Drive to the little town of Hemingway, and you’ll find Scott’s cooking whole hogs the slow way, over coals shoveled from a burning wood pile.

Scott’s chops the pork and splashes it with a vinegar-and-pepper sauce that carries a kick.

It bites back.

The Scott family has cooked this way for generations, and Rodney Scott learned the pits here before a James Beard Award made him a national name.

He runs his own spots now, but the Hemingway pit still belongs to the family.

Get there early on a cook day because once the hog runs out, that’s it.

3. Shuler’s Bar-B-Que

Shuler’s has pulled Pee Dee families into Latta for a buffet that runs long and cheap.

You’ll find pulled pork, fried chicken, hash, collards, and mac and cheese down the line.

Then comes the banana pudding.

Many regulars swear the dessert table alone earns the trip off I-95.

Latta is a small Dillon County town, the kind with one water tower and a courthouse square.

Go hungry.

4. Miller’s Bread-Basket

Miller’s Bread-Basket brings Pennsylvania Dutch cooking to Main Street in Blackville, a farm town in Barnwell County.

The Mennonite kitchen bakes its own bread and rolls fresh, and the aroma reaches the sidewalk.

Fill a plate with fried chicken, meatloaf under stewed tomatoes, and broccoli-rice casserole.

Save room, though.

The pie case up front holds shoofly pie and coconut cream, nods to the family’s plain-community roots.

Some people drive in from Aiken just for a loaf to carry home.

5. T.W. Graham & Co.

The fried flounder comes off a boat that tied up a few streets away, sweet and crisp at the edges.

T.W. Graham & Co. works out of a small storefront in McClellanville, a fishing village on Bulls Bay.

Gert’s crab balls are the other draw, rolled from local blue crab.

It’s about as fresh as seafood gets.

Shrimp off the same waters turns up on half the plates.

6. Shealy’s Bar-B-Que

Shealy’s has fed Batesburg-Leesville for decades from a sprawling dining room off Columbia Avenue.

The buffet leans on Midlands mustard barbecue, though the fried chicken pulls just as many hands.

Add hash over rice, green beans, and a slab of banana pudding.

The place fills up on Sundays.

Church crowds and road-trippers pour in after services, so the line can stretch toward the door.

Nobody seems to mind the wait.

7. Juniper

Local peaches, field tomatoes, and butter beans land on the plates at Juniper, depending on what the farms sent over that morning.

The farm-to-table dining room fills an old brick storefront on Ridge Spring's Main Street, and it has run for more than two decades.

Chef Brandon Velie cooks it fresh.

He rewrites the menu with the season, and the weekend brunch pulls people from Aiken and Columbia.

One week it leans Southern, the next it wanders toward Italy.

8. Duke's Barbecue

Duke's Barbecue keeps things plain in Walterboro, with a cinderblock building and a buffet you serve yourself.

The pork wears the yellow mustard sauce the Lowcountry favors, and hash ladled over rice sits right beside it.

Cash is a safe bet.

Several towns run their own Duke's, each under a different branch of the family, and locals argue over which is best.

The Walterboro spot closes Mondays and Tuesdays, so check the days before you drive.

Colleton County knows the drill.

9. See Wee Restaurant

Old wooden store shelves still line the walls at See Wee Restaurant, a former general store on Highway 17 in Awendaw.

The she-crab soup has won a shelf of awards, and the fried shrimp outsells everything else on the menu.

Order the fried green tomatoes.

Nothing about the room is fancy, and that's the charm of it.

The parking lot stays full straight through lunch.

Awendaw barely registers on a map, but the crowds still find it.

10. Steak House Cafeteria

The Steak House Cafeteria has served Walhalla from the same Main Street spot for generations, up in the Blue Ridge foothills.

You grab a tray, slide it down the line, and point at fried chicken, cube steak, and hash browns.

The rolls come out warm.

Prices stay low, and the servers likely know the regulars by name.

Oconee County folks treat it like a second kitchen.

The line moves fast.

11. Summerton Diner

Hand-patted cheeseburgers pull people off I-95 to the Summerton Diner, on a short Main Street near Lake Marion.

Many regulars call them the best in South Carolina.

That's a big claim.

The kitchen also turns out patty melts, pimento cheese on Texas toast, and breakfast served all day.