We’re holding all food & beverage workers close this holiday season. A few important reminders:

Southern Smoke’s offices will be closed from December 24, 2025, to January 4, 2026 to give our team a chance to reset before the new year. We look forward to connecting on Monday, January 5, 2026.

Emergency Relief Fund: Applications will be paused from December 17, 2025, to January 4, 2026. If you have an ongoing case, you can continue working with your case manager. If you are seeking financial assistance due to a crisis, please check back and apply when applications reopen on January 5.

Behind You Mental Health Program: Applications remain open, and services will be available in January. The earlier you apply, the quicker we can determine eligibility, and you can be ready for when services commence.

Texas Hill Country Floods: Applications closed on 12/16.

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Rodney
Chef Image
Scott
Charleston, SC /
Rodney Scott’s BBQ
WHERE WILL I BE COOKING:
The Throwdown

Pitmaster Rodney Scott has been cooking whole-hog barbecue over wood coals since he was 11 years old. For the next 25 years he worked with his family in their bbq stop in Hemingway, SC until 2017 when he opened Rodney Scott’s BBQ in the North Central neighborhood of Charleston, SC. In the same year the restaurant was named one the 50 Best New Restaurants by Bon Appetit Magazine and in 2018, Scott was awarded the James Beard Foundation’s award for Outstanding Chef Southeast. In 2019 Rodney Scott’s BBQ opened a second location in the Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL and in the summer of 2021, a third location in Atlanta, GA bringing whole-hog, South Carolina-style barbecue, along with his famous “Rodney’s Sauce” to another part of the South.

Rodney has been the subject of a full episode of the award-winning Netflix Chef’s Table series and worked as a judge on Food Network’s BBQ Brawl for two seasons. His cookbook, Rodney Scott’s World of BBQ, published by Clarkson Potter was released in the spring of 2021 to great fanfare. His hard work, friendly manner and respect from his peers has offered Rodney many opportunities to travel around the world and cook alongside chefs and pitmasters in New York City, Belize, Uruguay and Australia.