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Taste a Generations-Old Legacy at Gardner Boys BBQ
Story by Laz Denes
The red Gardner Boys BBQ trailer is a fixture at special events throughout the Carolina Sandhills and the surrounding region. Brothers Chris and Scott Gardner, along with Scott’s partner Shelby Smith, bought the trailer in 2018 to make it easier to take their show on the road from their home base in Chesterfield.
The mobile kitchen is where they prepare and serve up their signature chopped pork and “junk fries,” along with other popular creations that electrify the diners’ palates.
Not surprisingly, Gardner Boys BBQ’s popularity has grown steadily over the years, but there’s 1 particular fan who left the impression of a lifetime—Jason Bradley DeFord, better known to music fans as Jelly Roll.
The encounter happened at the spring 2021 Mudbash at the Outback ATV Park just across the North Carolina state line in Laurinburg. Jelly Roll, still several months away from his meteoric rise to fame, headlined the event’s entertainment lineup. The Gardners provided food for the event staff and entertainers. Jelly Roll took a particular liking to their BBQ Pizza. Chris, Scott, and Shelby were taken aback by the long line of customers at the trailer after his performance.
A Brush With Greatness
“When he showed up, his song ‘Save Me’ was playing on the trailer’s sound system, and Jelly started singing along, entertaining the crowd,” says Jeff Gardner, Chris and Scott’s older brother and the self-described senior adviser of the family barbecue business. “He had stopped his tour bus at the trailer, asked to come inside, and was graciously welcomed. He ordered pizzas to go, took some pictures, and was on his way.”
Chris, Scott, and Jeff represent the fifth generation of Gardners to carry on the family’s legacy of pork barbecue, dating back to 1865. It may go back even further, Jeff says, but the family has not been able to document that because the Charleston County courthouse and all the records it held were destroyed during the Civil War.
As boys, the brothers learned the “low and slow” method of smoking pork over a wood fire from Daddy Gardner, their father, William, who passed away in 2008. William was a man, they say, who would literally give up the shirt off his back for someone in need and had a deep passion for feeding people.
In their youngest days, the Gardner boys were charged with keeping the fire burning by adding coals when necessary during the 8 to 12 hours William took to barbecue pork. Long before the days of meat thermometers, William could tell from the sound of the meat drippings how the rendering process was progressing, and a simple touch of the grill’s tin lid let him know how close the pork was to achieving its target temperature. Once cooked, the meat was chopped on a sheet of plywood and doused with William’s simple sauce, incorporating black pepper, red pepper, salt, and vinegar.
After their father’s death, the Gardner brothers were determined to keep the wood fire burning. They worked to finetune William’s sauce recipe, which they describe as “possibly a little harsh to the uninitiated,” and they concocted a dry rub recipe involving garlic, herbs, and peppers to maximize the flavor of their meat offerings.
A New Chapter
The brothers’ barbecuing prowess soon became known far and wide. Community organizations enlist their services for catering events and fundraisers that have collected as much as $12,000 in 1 day.
Then came the trailer, and things began to really take off. Chris and Scott are in charge of the meat production, while Shelby oversees the business side, including event bookings and general operations. They set up shop in various locations on an as-needed basis multiple times each week and use the Gardner Boys BBQ Facebook and Instagram accounts to let diners know where they are. They also make the rounds at noteworthy special events and serve local businesses when they feed their workforces.
This summer, the Gardners will take their business to a new level with the opening of their first brick-and-mortar location on West Main Street in their native Chesterfield. It’s a modest structure known by the locals as the Freeze King building, where the Gardners made the most of the 4 burgers-for-a-dollar deal when they were kids. Today, the brothers look forward to offering locals a dine-in location to enjoy their creations while writing a new chapter in their family’s evolving barbecue legacy.
“We had good leadership growing up. We can’t live up to it, but we can try,” Jeff says. “That legacy is a big part of what we do, and there’s a joy that comes with that. But like Daddy Gardner’s joy in feeding people and being in community with people, that’s really the motivation for everything, well beyond the business side. The drive is still just seeing people happy and hanging out.”