News - Entertainment - Dining Out

Friday, Sep. 19, 2008

Dining out: It’s worth the drive to find Ron’s Pig Palace

This column offers a sampling of dining experiences in the area. It is not intended as a review of the restaurant other than to provide the reader with one diner's experience.

Ron’s Pig Palace BBQ on Wheels

Location: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesdays Smith’s Paint and Body Shop, Saturday at S.C. 49 in Lake Wylie; and Friday at Walgreens near Baxter Village in Fort Mill; and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday at S.C. 49 near Auto Zone in Lake Wylie

Phone: (704) 547-9425; catering (803) 831-2812

Web site: www.ronspigpalace.com

Ambiance: On-the-go barbecue

The fire engine red “buggy” with large yellow lettering and pink “sleepy” pig, always draws a crowd. Answering the call for great Carolina barbecue, the Pig Palace on Wheels parks in several locations throughout the county each week.

On Thursday, I was in the mood for a good, juicy pork sandwich, so I headed to the buggy, parked near the BP station and Auto Zone off S.C. 49. I wasn’t alone. It was a gray, drizzly day, but lots of people were standing in line for what Ron’s delicious dishes.

There’s sandwiches with barbecue pork and beef, sliced pork, chicken with the bone for $3.25 to $4.50. There’s plates that come with slaw, pinto beans, pickles, bread and sauce that includes sandwich offerings plus ribs, and trays with a choice of beans, slaws, fries or hush puppies for $5 to $7.50. There’s sides and sauces “made fresh daily,” so if you’re looking to feed the office or something to pick up for dinner, check out the pound of pork ($10) or beef ($12), rack of ribs ($25) or half a rack ($13), along with sweet or barbecue slaw and beans.

There’s also hot dogs, pig nuggets, fried apple pies onion rings and more.

I grabbed my bag lunch of barbecue sandwich, hush puppies and a sweet tea and retreated home. (Sometimes, I like to head down to the docks at Buster Boyd Access or somewhere else on the lake to it as a picnic lunch.)

The sandwich is enormous, and the sauce is great. It’s messy, and oh, so juicy good. Now, I’ll tell you I don’t like slaw, but since I forgot to tell the friendly buggy staff that, when I bit in to feel and hear the extra crunch, I realized something: Barbecue slaw is like adding lettuce to a tuna or egg salad sandwich, it’s just something to add more texture, and I liked it.

After filling up on the barbecue, I didn’t have much room for all of those big hushpuppies, and I forgot to order extra sauce for dipping anyway. (I tried barbecue sauce bought from the grocery store, but it doesn’t cut it when it’s put up against Ron’s sauce.) So, I shared with them with my puppy. A friend of mine in Missouri had told me a story that slaves would make the deep-fried cornmeal dumplings and throw them to the dogs while carrying food from the kitchen (a separate building) into the house telling the “puppies” to “hush.” I never knew if this fact was true, so a quick Internet search (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hushpuppy) revealed several stories, including this one. Needless to say, my puppy did hush.

Ron’s Pig Palace is definitely worth wheeling to, and don’t forget to grab some napkins!