FLORENCE \u2014 When you think of the best barbecue in the South, what comes to mind?<\/p>\n
Is it the big cities of Austin and Dallas? Or maybe some of the more rural areas of North Carolina?<\/p>\n
What about Florence, South Carolina?<\/p>\n
According to Southern Living Magazine, the Pee Dee county could be a strong contender.<\/p>\n
Elliott\u2019s BBQ Lounge in Florence was recently ranked at number one on Southern Living Magazine\u2019s list of the top 50 best new barbecue joints in the South right now.<\/p>\n
The list was made up of restaurants that have opened in the South since Southern Living last released a ranking of new barbecue restaurants, which was in 2024.<\/p>\n
This time around, Elliott\u2019s BBQ Lounge tops the list of newcomers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFirst places don’t come around too often for anyone, so that’s definitely an honor to be named number one,\u201d owner Elliott Moss told The Post and Courier.<\/p>\n
Elliott\u2019s BBQ Lounge, located at 551 W Lucas St. in Florence, opened in 2025 and is embedded in Seminar Brewing. It specializes in whole hog barbecue \u2014 a rarity.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re one of the few places in the country, much less South Carolina, doing whole hog barbecue,\u201d Moss said.<\/p>\n
Southern Living also highlighted its sweet-glazed baby back ribs, thick pork steaks and smoked salmon. The restaurant doesn\u2019t feature a buffet or serve brisket, further setting it apart, Moss said.<\/p>\n
Getting a Southern Living ranking isn\u2019t anything new to Elliott\u2019s BBQ Lounge, though.<\/p>\n
It was just a few months after opening that Elliott\u2019s BBQ Lounge made it onto Southern Living\u2019s list of top 50 barbecue joints in all of the South, and earlier this year, Moss was recognized by Southern Living magazine as one of the top five people shaping Southern barbecue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
FLORENCE \u2014 When you think of the best barbecue in the South, what comes to mind? Is it the big cities of Austin and Dallas? Or maybe some of the more rural areas of North Carolina? What about Florence, South Carolina? According to Southern Living Magazine, the Pee Dee county could be a strong contender.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[14121,7834,14122,4350,14120,14119,3027,3025,3023,3026,3024,2390],"class_list":["post-13873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-north-carolina","tag-barbeque","tag-bbq","tag-elliott","tag-florence","tag-florence-county-news","tag-florence-news","tag-north-carolina","tag-north-carolina-dining","tag-north-carolina-food","tag-north-carolina-grocery-stores","tag-north-carolina-restaurants","tag-southern-living"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/vive.im\/@dc\/117281320581454505","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diningandcooking.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}