If this is your first trip to South Carolina, walking into Maurice’s Piggie Park can feel like stepping into a world where barbecue is its own language. The smoke, the mustard sauce, the hash and rice — it all looks good, but it doesn’t exactly come with a translator.

In this blog, we’ll help you order like someone who grew up on barbecue in West Columbia, not just someone passing through.

Start With the Pork

In South Carolina, especially around the Midlands, barbecue usually means pork. At Maurice’s Piggie Park, that’s pit-cooked pork ham slowly done over wood coals until it’s tender and full of smoke. If you want the most classic order, start there.

Here at Piggie Park, we pull the ham and chop the meat so you’re getting the style of barbecue that locals have been eating here for generations.

Don’t Skip the Mustard Sauce

If you’re used to red, tomato-heavy sauces, South Carolina’s mustard-based sauce will be new territory. Around here, it’s not a side note — it’s part of the identity.

At Maurice’s Piggie Park, the gold sauce is tangy, a little sweet, and built to match the smoke coming off the pit. Locals put it on meat, dip their hushpuppies in it, and let it run into the hash and rice on the plate.

Most meats will be served with the Southern Gold Original sauce, but if you’d prefer to add it on your own, please ask upfront when you order, and our kitchen staff will do their best to accommodate that request.

Try Hash and Rice the Way Locals Do

Hash and rice might be the most confusing part of the menu if you’re not from here, but it’s one of the most South Carolina things you can order. Think of hash as a slow-cooked, savory pork stew, served over white rice. It’s rich, smoky, and built from the same respect for traditional South Carolina cooking that drives the pit.

Locals treat it as more than a side dish. For some people, hash and rice is the reason they come in the first place, with barbecue on the plate as a bonus. If you want to order like you’ve been here before, make sure hash and rice is on your tray somewhere.

Build a Plate, Not Just a Sandwich

You can absolutely grab a barbecue sandwich and call it a day, but many regulars think in terms of a full plate. That usually means:

  • Meat
  • Hash and rice
  • Coleslaw
  • Bread or a bun

It’s a simple setup, but it lets you taste everything that makes South Carolina barbecue what it is — the protein, the sauce, the hash, and the sweetness of the coleslaw all working together.

Choose Sides That Fit the Tradition

Everyone has their favorites, but there’s a pattern you’ll see a lot: something creamy, something tangy or crunchy, and something that soaks up sauce. Slaw, beans, mac and cheese, and classic Southern vegetables all have their place next to barbecue.

The goal isn’t to chase trends. It’s to round out the plate so every bite feels like a proper Southern BBQ meal.

Don’t Forget Dessert (and Sweet Tea)

No South Carolina barbecue meal is really finished until you top it off with a glass of fresh-brewed Southern sweet tea. Around here, that sweetness cuts through the smoke and sauce and turns a plate of BBQ into a proper Southern meal.

And if you want to order like someone who grew up on it, add banana pudding. The kind that feels like something a grandma would make — creamy, simple, and just sweet enough — is exactly what locals reach for to finish off a tray of pit-cooked pork and hash and rice.

Eat It Here, Take It With You

Part of the Piggie Park experience is sitting down to a plate of pit-cooked barbecue while it’s still warm from the line. Another part is how easily it turns into a family meal, tailgate spread, or next-day leftovers.

If you’re just passing through, ordering a plate for now and a larger to-go order for later isn’t overdoing it — it’s how a lot of locals handle game days, events, holidays, and weekends.

The One Rule: Respect the Pit

However you build your order, the bottom line is simple: everything starts with the smokehouse. Real wood coals, time, and tradition are what set South Carolina barbecue apart, and Maurice’s Piggie Park Barbecue has held onto that approach for decades.

If this is your first time in the state, ordering like a local isn’t about getting a secret menu item. It’s about understanding what matters here: pit-cooked pork, mustard sauce, hash and rice, and a plate that reflects the way South Carolinians have been eating barbecue for generations.