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When barbecue chef Ted Huffman runs out of food, his Bluffton BBQ closes, no further discussion necessary or accepted. Oh, he’ll have more the next day, unless it’s Sunday, Monday or Tuesday.
See, Huffman has rules, and he sticks by them. He’s open Wednesday through Saturday at State of Mind Lane in Bluffton’s Promenade, 11 to “9-ish” the first three days and from noon to “9-ish” on Saturdays. “9-ish” generally means whenever the barbecue runs out, as it often does.
“I cook for the next day, and when it’s gone, it’s gone. Until the next day,” the pony-tailed, 56-year-old Huffman said through a cloud of Nicaraguan cigar smoke. Normally, when he’s not surrounded by barbecue smoke he’s enveloped in cigar smoke.
The Florida native is often mentioned when local debates turn to the most accomplished pitmasters in the Lowcountry. Huffman’s been cooking pork for decades but only in the last few years has he gone professional. He regularly cooks at local events, at Palmetto Bluff to-dos, and caters parties and gatherings. When he gave up his regular job as a propane gas engineer, he took over the barbecue business of the late Oscar Frazier, who operated the old red train caboose for a time on May River Road.
“It was my dream come true to finally have my own barbecue joint,” Huffman said recently as he sat in Bluffton BBQ off S.C. 46, a spare rib’s throw from old town Bluffton’s four-way stop. “When we had to move from the red caboose, I was idle for about a year and a half, and then we built Bluffton BBQ. It’s been a great success, even though someone tried to tell me that Bluffton couldn’t support another barbecue joint. We’ve proved them wrong.”
Huffman opened with the help of his wife, Donna, publisher of Bluffton Breeze, their son Will, and several friends who pitched in, including former Bluffton Town Council member Charlie Wetmore.
Speaking of Town Council, Huffman was elected in November to the council. “I don’t have political aspirations. I just wanted to try and do what I can to help Bluffton.”
He’s able to do more politically and at the restaurant after emergency surgery for a severe case of diverticulitis in May. “I’m fine now. It was touch and go for a while there, but now I just can’t eat fatty food. Or, pizza, for some reason. Maybe it’s the cheese.” The community rallied around Huffman, organizing a fund-raising event to help the Huffmans handle the some $50,000 in medical bills.
Huffman doesn’t have any grand theories about what makes his pulled barbecue and ribs unique, except that it’s about freshness and “timing, and the trinity of wood, hickory, oak and pecan” used to smoke his pork. “And, sometimes cherry,” he adds with another puff of cigar. (We didn’t ask him if he uses cigars to smoke his barbecue.)
And, he doesn’t recommend smothering his barbecue. “A simple, light red sauce is all that’s required. Pork needs to stand on its own.” M
