Big Pigs BBQ sits on a plain commercial stretch of Georgetown, no waterfront view, no historic building, just a modest roadside spot that smells like hickory smoke from fifty yards out. That smell is the whole pitch.
I ended up here on a Wednesday at noon, which turned out to be exactly the right move. The parking lot was half-full of pickup trucks and a couple of work vans, which is a reliable indicator that the food earns its keep. The dining room is simple — vinyl booths, a few tables, paper napkins — and the counter staff moves with the efficient calm of people who have done this a thousand times.
Georgetown doesn’t have a surplus of dedicated barbecue spots, which makes this one matter more than it might otherwise. The pulled pork is the main event, and it’s good: tender, with enough smoke to be honest but not so much that it tastes like a performance. The chopped variety comes with a tangy mustard-based sauce on the side, and the combination is exactly what you want after a morning on the water or just a long drive down from Myrtle Beach.
The ribs come out with a proper bark and a little chew — not the fall-off-the-bone style that’s more brag than barbecue. The chicken, which I wasn’t expecting much from, was genuinely moist and had clearly spent real time over the smoke rather than finishing in an oven. Order a half-chicken if you’re hungry; it’s the kind of portion that makes you loosen your belt and feel fine about it.
Sides are the backbone of any barbecue joint, and Big Pigs doesn’t cut corners. The collard greens have that slow-cooked depth — a little pot likker in the bottom of the container if you get them to go. The mac and cheese is thick and not gluey, the hush puppies come out hot, and the baked beans have a smokiness that suggests they’ve been cooking near something with actual fire.
Prices are reasonable by any measure, and by Georgetown standards they’re practically generous. A full plate with two sides runs somewhere between nine and thirteen dollars depending on the protein, and that’s a full meal. The sweet tea is what it should be: cold, sweet, and bottomless.
The hours are the one thing worth planning around. Big Pigs keeps lunch hours and tends to run out of certain cuts by mid-afternoon on busy days. Showing up after 1:30 on a Friday is a gamble — the ribs especially go early. A weekday lunch, before the construction crews arrive in force, is the sweet spot.
There’s nothing here that’s going to land in a food magazine, and the place doesn’t seem to want that. What it does have is consistency, real smoke, and an unpretentious approach to barbecue that Georgetown doesn’t have enough of. If you’re passing through on Highway 17 or spending a few days in the area, it’s worth building a lunch around.
