In the same way many people remember where they were and what they were doing when they first heard a piece of life-changing news, Jim Roller remembers where he was and what he was doing the first time he ate real barbecue. He remembers it so vividly because it was life-changing.
"I'm not lying when I say it was an epiphany," Roller said. Roller, an English and journalism teacher at Fort Dorchester High School, is the founder of destination-bbq.com, a website he hopes will become THE definitive site for all things barbecue in South Carolina. (Umm, hopefully he'll show some mercy on this one when he starts laying waste to his competitors). Roller is a College of Charleston graduate who got his masters degree from The Citadel. He's originally from Cheraw, though, and that's where the seeds of a deep and abiding barbecue love were first sewn in him. He was an eight-year-old taking part in some Cub Scout activities the first time he had authentic, wood-smoked pig. "We had gone camping somewhere as a troop and during the activities, I became aware that some of the adults were tending to whole hogs cooking over wood coals," Roller said. "That was a curiosity, but it really was just something in the background of the overall event." It went from background to forefront in short order. The next day, his troop returned to the church. At some point he wandered alone into the kitchen where he found mounds of delectable, pulled pork sitting unattended on big metal trays. Being a typical boy, curiosity and temptation and "hey that smells good" got the better of him, so he grabbed some of meat and tasted it. "It was one of those 'wow' moments in life that you can never forget. I had never tasted anything like it and it was beyond my understanding, but it was fantastic. The best barbecue takes me back to that moment," Roller said. Roller has found "best barbecue" on a number of his eating excursions, including Scott's in Hemingway, McCabe's in Manning, Sweatman's in Holly Hill, Jackie Hite's in Batesburg-Leesville, Hudson's Smokehouse in Lexington and Midway in Union. His knowledge on where to find the good stuff largely stayed in his own head until 2012. For the first time in a few years, his son Camden didn't make the Cal Ripken All-Star team in baseball. That meant a summer devoid of tournaments and travel. Roller's wife, Heather, suggested they embark on a summer barbecue tour. Rather than just leave a series of sauce-stained plates in their wake, she also recommended writing a blog about the experience, which is how destination-bbq.com was first born. "We were pretty prolific with it at first, visiting something like 12 restaurants that summer," Roller said. He, Heather and Camden documented those 12 visits online, with all contributing to reviews. They really didn't pull any punches when recounting their experiences, making note of disinterested servers and sucky food. They deemed one establisment's sauce as being "obnoxiously vinegary" and another place's meat as being "meh", though they also heaped praise on restaurants when warranted. He called the barbecue at Scott's "sublime," "tongue-tingling" and "exceptional." They had fun and generated some interest with their colorful reviews, but it was hard to keep up the pace with which they began. "As the summer ended and we returned to work (Heather is also a teacher) the blogging waned," Roller said. "We continued to eat barbecue anytime life provided the opportunity, but the writing sat on the back burner." Recently, Roller decided he either needed to do more with his site or just pull the plug altogether. The idea for how to enhance it came partly out of necessity and partly out of pure aggravation. Camden was playing in a baseball tournament at Myrtle Beach. As is the family's custom, they tried to find a new barbecue restaurant on their trip. Roller had heard of a place called Radd Dew's near Conway and decided to go there, but found it already closed when he arrived at 4 p.m. on a Sunday. They headed down 701 toward Georgetown, figuring they could find something on the way. Heather tried searching for restaurants on Google, but wasn't having much luck. "Then I thought about the South Carolina Barbecue Trail map that the South Carolina Department of Tourism put out and she tried looking on that, but it is too cumbersome a process and the map is not really interactive," Roller said. Roller said the map, which promotes South Carolina barbecue eateries, has some value, but not really for on-the-spot restaurant locating. "Yeah, they have a map with a lot of markers in place, but you have to look on the legend to figure out which marker is what restaurant. Then once you knew what the restaurant was you could Google it to find out more, get directions, etc. It was in that moment that I decided I needed to make an interactive version of the South Carolina Barbecue Trail map. In fact, I began to take their map and literally make it 'clickable' but I soon realized how limited that vision was," Roller said. Roller wanted to take it a step farther. He wanted a map that could figure out a person's location, then tell them which restaurants were near them. Once he found the right software, the "S.C. BBQ Locator Map" was born. Once he started making his map, he realized that the map made by the state is not complete. He has 45 more restaurants on his map than on the official Barbecue Trail Map and says he's sure his isn't even complete yet either. He adds restaurants to it whenever a new one is brought to his attention. Anyone can go on the site and set a mileage radius. The locator will give you a list of every barbecue restaurant within the distance you set, then provide directions, hours of operation and other important information. The feedback has been positive so far. Roller actually attended a South Carolina Barbecue Association judge's seminar in Conway recently. An attendee, unaware that Roller was in the room, raised their hand and asked if anyone had heard about a new online barbecue restaurant locator. The folks conducting the class were familiar with the locator and actually recognized Roller, inviting him to come up and tell everyone about it. Roller is not content to sit still with his latest website update. He plans some some other tweaks, including the addition of a setting that will filter the restaurants based on whether or not they serve mustard-based, vinegar based or tomato-based sauces. (He himself prefers vinegar, but the sauce he and Heather make at home is mustard-based...because they are decent, right-thinking individuals with immaculate tastes). He's also adding a section to his site where anyone can submit recipes for sauces, rubs, sides or anything barbecue-related. For truly dedicated barbecue afficianados, Roller's website and locator are not just convenient and helpful, they are, well, kind of life-changing.
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