Our heart goes out to the family of Ms. Ella Jane Scott, the owner of Scott’s Bar-B-Que, a small rural place named the best barbecue joint in the South by no less than author and Southern Living barbecue editor...
Our heart goes out to the family of Ms. Ella Jane Scott, the owner of Scott’s Bar-B-Que, a small rural place named the best barbecue joint in the South by no less than author and Southern Living barbecue editor Robert Moss. ?
Scott’s Bar-B-Que sits in Hemingway, South Carolina, a tiny town well away from any city and far from any interstate or other major route.?You don’t happen upon Hemingway.?You have to want to go there, and because of Scott’s, people do.?
I wrote about my first to visit to Scott’s here.?By that time, Scott’s had gained the attention even of the likes of the New York Times and Anthony Bourdain. The James Beard Foundation awoke to the smokes and gave their first barbecue chef award to Ms. Scott’s son, Rodney, then Scott’s pitmaster — and also one to Tootsie Tomanetz of Snow’s BBQ in Texas.
Now famous, Rodney Scott set off on his own in 2017 to great success — his eponymous place in Charleston earned the #25 spot on Moss’s list, and he has a string of additional locations around the South. I’m sure some people assumed that without Rodney, Scott’s would wither away.
Far from it. The Times missed the deeper story, the special importance of barbecue families.?Great barbecue has been in the Scott blood since it was founded in 1972 by Ms. Scott’s husband, Roosevelt Scott. The place flourished under his leadership, and it continued to thrive with Rodney on the pit. When the load fell on her shoulders, Ms. Scott maintained — some would say improved (it moved up in Moss’s rankings) — both the high standard of barbecue
and the distinctive atmosphere of Scott’s, at once friendly and no-nonsense.
I flow to South Carolina and ate at Scott’s again last year. You can see that review and compare it to my first, linked above.?You also can read a review of Rodney Scott’s, from the same trip.?We hope and trust that when the grief recedes there’ll be another talented Scott to take the helm in Hemingway and continue the family tradition.
We mourn for the Scott family and for those who knew her well and loved her deeply.?I pray that God will embrace the soul of Ms. Scott, and temper the wind to the shorn lamb and give the family comfort and peace.
