Long before you arrived at the Orangeburg Mall this weekend, the hickory-smoke permeating the air told you something mighty good was on the grill.

It was the Second Annual Garden City Bar-B-Q Cook-Off, a two-day event that drew more than 1,000 BBQ lovers and 37 competition teams, nearly double that of last year.

"We bring that salt air," quipped eventual winner Everette Brown, of Murrell's Inlet-based team Inlet Boys BBQ.

The Garden City Bar-B-Q Cook-Off held at Orangeburg Mall this weekend was sanctioned by the S.C. Barbecue Association as a points competition event.

The SCBA sent 42 certified judges to Orangeburg to score the entrants, who build up points through the year at other cook-offs.

Similar to the NASCAR points system, the team with the highest points total after the Carolina Q Cup in October is deemed the year's champion.

Meantime, following behind Inlet Boys was Q-2-U in second place; Palmetto Cookers, third; Pa's Pit, fourth; and Pioneer Cookers, fifth.

Contestants began the show down Friday night with an "Anything But Pork" competition, which saw entrants such as catfish stew, prime rib and a seafood gumbo called "Shrimp Nasty."

Crossing the finish line in first for "Anything But Pork" was Bubba's Backyard BBQ and their chicken drumsticks. Inlet Boys showed pork isn't their only forte, coming in second with some reportedly nuclear-powered stuffed jalapeno peppers. And third went to Pioneer Cookers' smoked prime rib and special sauce.

Proceeds realized from the competition go to the Shriner's Hospital in Greenville, a medical facility dedicated to treating seriously injured youngsters.

"The whole thing is for the children," said Nan Van Faussein, assistant with the First Citizen's (Bank) Cookers. "It's just phenomenal that they care enough about the crippled children, the burned children."

After Friday night's anything and everything but pork competition, the cookers got down to the serious stuff -- pork barbecue.

Wando's Roscoe Kellehan, who took first place at last year's event, said he's placed at least 140 times in previous events, a feat which may seem incredible until it's understood he's been doing this for 20 years.

"This ain't my first rodeo," Kellehan said.

Retired from the Charleston Navy Yard, Kellehan uses a recipe handed down from the previous two generations in his family.

Citing vinegar as his main ingredient, Kellehan seemed more interested in the weather than divulging any more about his recipe.

Despite having taken home a vast number of trophies, he did admit, however, it wasn't always that way, particularly in the beginning.

"I was on the phone with my wife," he says, laughing, "how much of this, how much of that?"

Lining the Roses parking lot all the way down to the Shell convenience store, there were big grills, little grills, silver grills, black grills. Grills on wheels and grills that sat still.

But the Cameron Cookers team, made up of Richard Nickel, William Bull and John Roland, had perhaps the most unique grill of all -- the rear section of a 1978 Chevrolet Monte Carlo.

Friends since childhood, the trio began their barbecuing debut at last year's event with their grill on two wheels. Nickel jokes that the idea for the car-grill may have been "Bud Light-induced."

"We tried to come up with a great story about swerving to miss a kid in the road," Nickel says of the grill. "But it was just in somebody's front yard."

The trunk-grill features a fold-down license plate which reveals what used to be the gas tank nozzle. It's now the spout the teams uses to pour water to the tank beneath.

The guys add that the soot that builds up on the original rear window of the grill serves as a taste indicator.

"The more the window blackens the better we'll do in the competition," Roland said.

With a trailer hitch welded into place where the front half of the car used to be, all that's needed is for the trio to make a grocery run and they're ready for the next competition.

"For the most part, we have it down pretty much," Bull said.

Another group that seemed to have it down was that of the First Citizen's (Bank) Cookers headed by Billy Reynolds, ably backed by Terry Stack, Tina Rigden and Nan Van Faussein.

During the "Anything But Pork" competition, Reynolds' entry of broiled quail defies description and tastes anything but like strong game.

"He's got a secret recipe," Stack said. "He doesn't tell us."

"He had it marinated before he got here," Rigden said.

Sampling Reynolds' quail or the dozens of different barbecue flavors were St. Matthews residents Stephanie and Ronnie Spigner, who, undaunted by 50-degree weather, came to Orangeburg just for the events. They both agreed the "Q" was excellent.

"We like barbecue," Stephanie said. "We've noticed it varies from county to county."

The Spigners were among a crowd that over the two days perhaps topped 1,500 people, a number which can sometimes see some rowdiness, but, in Orangeburg, retained the characteristics of a church outing.

"I was really impressed with that," Van Faussein said. "It was just a family atmosphere."

T&D Staff Writer Richard Walker can be reached by e-mail at rwalker@timesanddemocrat.com or by telephone at 803-533-5516. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

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