“I’m not taking any sort of responsibility for you trying ‘Texas Style BBQ’ in Camden (bleepity bleeping) South Carolina,” my friend and occasional fellow blogger Jed Blackwell said, via text.
Recently, I was facing a very long road trip to watch Lewisville play at Lamar. When I have a road trip of that length, I try to do a little advance research and plot a course to eat barbecue. As I have mentioned here many times before, I consider smoked, seasoned and lightly sauced meat to be the finest food man can consume and if you disagree with that, I’m not saying you’re a bad person, I’m just saying you’re terribly wrong and perhaps not very bright. Anyway, my path to Lamar would run toward Great Falls, through a small slice of Lancaster County, on through Beaver Creek to Liberty Hill and then to Camden. From there, I would hop on I-20 to Darlington. I learned the hard way during baseball season that if you don’t eat before you get to Lamar, you ain’t eating, Hoss. Someone who is from Lamar had actually warned me about that in advance, but I did not heed their advice. I like to eat at local, non-chain restaurants whenever possible and was certain I could find something…I could not and I did not. I actually went through the motions and asked my phone for a list of restaurants near Lamar and, uh, let’s just say my idea of “near” and hers varied greatly and one of the options was a gas station. I’m sure their roller grill hot dogs are divine, but I decided to pass. So, I made it to Camden and had to make a quick stop to buy a new notebook. I noticed that right across the street from the CVS I pulled into there was a place billing itself as a “Texas-style BBQ” restaurant. I was intrigued. That led me to send a group text to three friends, with Jed being the first to respond. He refused to endorse the place…not because he’d eaten there and not liked it, but because the idea of a place in Camden being full of Texas goodness seemed absurd to him. The other two friends only offered up that they’d never heard of the place, but one made an off-handed comment intended to be funny. “If there’s only two people in there, run!” my friend (and also occasional blogger) James responded. That actually planted a seed, though. If the place is full of locals, that’s usually a sign that good food can be had. I recall my trip to North Augusta a few years back that led me to pull into a BBQ place I’d never heard of. There was one person in the restaurant, but I went ahead, sat down and ordered the buffet. It was the worst food I’ve ever tasted in my life. The vegetables were all straight out of a can, the meat had zero flavor and the sauce tasted like old soup and misery. The fact that only one person was in there at the start of what should be the busiest time of the day (supper) should have been a huge hint that I should have perhaps explored other dining options. The parking lot at this place in Camden (Westfall’s Texas Style BBQ) was already pretty full at only 5:40 p.m. That was a good sign. I went inside and there was a line, so the cars outside obviously didn’t just belong to employees and weren’t some clever ruse designed to throw food sleuths like me off the trail. I quickly checked the menu and found it to be simple and uncluttered. That’s a good thing in my book. A place I USED to consider one of the state’s finest barbecue eateries had a buffet consisting of pulled pork, pork skins, ribs, hash and rice. That’s all. All of those things were exquisite, partly because their entire focus was on crafting perfect meat, not making 20 different sides and cooking chicken and sausage and whatever else. That place changed, going the “we’re going to cook everything now” route and the quality suffered. Price is something to look at too. That horrid buffet in North Augusta was something like $7.50 for all you can eat. Now, I’m not saying good food can’t be had for good prices sometimes, but a price that low shows one of a few things – either they buy very cheap, inferior goods or they can’t draw a crowd based on great flavor, so they try to lure you in with a low price. Westfall’s was very reasonable, but they weren’t giving anything away, either. Now, my preference is always pork when it comes to the realm of smoked meats, but I figured a place billing itself as “Texas-style” would probably specialize in brisket. So, I ordered a brisket sandwich to go, which came with a pickle, my choice of side and sauce. I opted for the tater salad and the “sweet and spicy” sauce. My hope was that I would only have to use the sauce sparingly. I ate my supper as I made it onto I-20. The brisket had great texture, which is hard to get, frankly. You want it cooked enough to be tender, but not so tender that it is basically roast beef. This had the balance you’re looking for. There was some smoke flavor, it was juicy and the spice was subtle. I ended up not needing much sauce at all. The tater salad was a little sweeter than I prefer, but that’s a matter of personal preference, it was good and the taters were cooked correctly, with just a little bit of snap left in them. So, if you find yourself on the road and hungry, remember to look for lines, look at prices and find a place that doesn’t try to be all things to all people, menu-wise. You’ll rarely be disappointed. Jed should have taken responsibility and recommended the place I ate. If he had, I’d really owe him one.
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