Why Maurice’s Piggie Park Is a Columbia, SC, Institution Since 1955

Restaurants in a growing metro area come and go. A few stay long enough that people stop giving directions by street name and just say “the one by the interstate” or “the one on Devine.” Maurice’s Piggie Park has been in that category in the Columbia area for more than seventy years, and the reason isn’t nostalgia. It’s the pits.

Families here have been eating the same pit-cooked pork, the same Carolina hash, and the same golden mustard sauce across generations. Grandparents brought parents. Parents bring kids. Meanwhile, the business grew from one West Columbia restaurant into eight locations across Columbia, Lexington, and Irmo, plus catering and nationwide shipping.

Here’s how a single family recipe from 1939 turned into a Midlands landmark, what has stayed the same, and what to order if you’re walking in for the first time.

A Family Recipe That Became a Restaurant

The story starts before the restaurant. Joe Bessinger introduced his tangy mustard sauce to locals in Holly Hill, South Carolina, in 1939. His son Maurice grew up around the pits and learned the work early: how to hold a fire, how long a pork ham takes, and how the sauce should taste when it’s right.

In 1953, Maurice and Barbara partnered with family and started a restaurant in Charleston. Then in 1954, they moved to Winston Salem, NC to open another restaurant on their own, and had their first child, Lloyd. After missing their home state of South Carolina, they decided to move down to Columbia where Maurice had trained at Fort Jackson while serving in the Army, and that’s where they opened their first Midlands restaurant in West Columbia in 1955 and brought his father’s secret sauce recipe and pit-cooking techniques with him. The restaurant at 1600 Charleston Hwy in West Columbia is the original location started in 1955.

What happened next is the part that made it an institution. The family didn’t sell, didn’t sign away the production of the sauce recipe, and didn’t swap out the wood-fired cooking methods for gas and electric methods that run cheaper and faster. Second and third generations came into the business and worked side by side, Father with son, Grandmother with granddaughter, Uncles with nephews and nieces, cousins with cousins, and the tradition now spans five generations of pit cooking.

What Hasn’t Changed in Seventy Years

Longevity in barbecue usually comes down to refusing to cut the one corner that would make everything easier. Here, that corner is the fire.

• All-wood cooking. Pork hams, ribs, and brisket are slow-cooked over hickory wood coals. No gas and no electric. The coals go 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
• The original sauce recipe. Southern Gold® is still made from Joe’s recipe. It’s still made in secret every week by only one family member with the original recipe. It’s the same sauce on the meat in the restaurants and the same sauce in the bottles that ship out.
• Carolina hash and rice. Hash is a Southern dish that’s been around for hundreds of years, made here with lean pork and barbecue ham, potatoes, onions, bell peppers, golden mustard, brown sugar, and cooked by one person every day. It’s served over white rice, the way it should be.
• Family ownership. The business is still run by the family, which is why the recipes haven’t been reformulated for a supply chain.

Those four things are the whole reason a plate here tastes as it did decades ago.

How the Midlands Footprint Grew

One restaurant became a set of “pit-stops” across the middle of the state. There are now eight locations: West Columbia on Charleston Highway, Irmo on Lake Murray Boulevard, downtown Columbia on Elmwood Avenue, Columbia on Devine Street, Northeast Columbia on Clemson Road and O’Neil Court, and Lexington on West Main Street and South Lake Drive. Irmo, West Columbia, and Clemson Road all have large dining rooms for group gatherings.

The reach didn’t stop at the dining rooms. Catering runs across South Carolina and beyond, including full-service catering for weddings and corporate events, delivered drop-offs for offices and parties, bulk pickup for larger gatherings, and food truck catering. 

Shipping went further still. Flying Pig® Express sends frozen, fully cooked barbecue and Southern Gold® sauce to homes across the country, which is how someone who grew up in Lexington and moved to Denver can still get hash on the table at Thanksgiving.

Being Part of the Community

An institution is measured by what it does when it isn’t selling anything. The family supports causes it cares about: local youth sports, U.S. military members and veterans, and Alzheimer’s care. New this year by popular request, schools and groups can also set up Spirit Night fundraisers through the restaurants.

That’s the quieter half of why people here feel ownership over the place. It shows up at the ballfield, in the fundraiser, and at the long table after a funeral or a wedding. Over seventy years, that adds up to a lot of shared history around one menu.

What to Order the First Time

Keep it simple and let the pit do the talking. Start with pit-cooked pulled pork with Southern Gold® on it. Add a side of Carolina hash and rice, because it’s the dish most likely to be new to you and most specific to this part of the state. If you’re feeding a group, ribs, BBQ chicken, and fried chicken cover almost everyone at the table.

Come hungry to any Maurice’s Piggie Park location, or order online for restaurant pickup or delivery. If you’re planning a gathering instead, reach out to the catering team, and we’ll handle the food.