Downtown Spartanburg: Smoking Butt Heads BBQ opens, revitalizes historic Morgan Square spot

A friendly barbecue competition in Tyron, North Carolina, started Todd Smith on a journey where he discovered his passion for the cuisine and became a world champion pit master.

"We built a pit in my front yard, went up there and cooked it. There were like 100 teams in it, and we came in 50th so I said, 'You known what? Let's stay after this.'" Smith said. "It took us like two years to finally figure it out, but we started having successes and winning grand championship after grand championship."

Today, Smith brings his enthusiasm and nearly 10 years of competition trail-honed meticulousness to his new restaurant Smoking Butt Heads BBQ. The barbecue restaurant, taproom and music venue opened in the former Wild Wing Cafe (111 W Main St.) on Aug. 3, following an extensive interior remodel of the historic Greenewald's building.

Open Tuesday-Sunday, Smoking Butt Heads BBQ aims to bring good beer, good music and even better barbecue to Spartanburg's Main Street. For Smith, the barbecue being "good," means it could be better.

Here are four things to know about downtown's new barbecue spot:

The BBQ is award-winning

If you've ever wanted to be a judge at a barbecue competition, dinner at Smoking Butt Heads BBQ may fulfill those fantasies and then some. The restaurant's menu is filled with tried-and-true winners from Smith and his team's time on the competition trail, and everything from the meats to the sides and sauces is made in-house to competition standards.

Those standards are high when you're talking about world-champion barbecue, Smith said. The Smoking Butt Heads BBQ team, which competes on the Kansas City Barbecue Society (KCBS) circuit, won the 2020 World Invitational Championship, the 2020 Rufus Teague BBQ Throwdown, the 2016 BBQ Capital Cook-Off, and the 2014 NC-SC BBQ War among other prizes. Their trophies are displayed throughout the restaurant.

"When you get into that level of the World Championships, everybody has the same recipe pretty much. So it comes down to technique, the little details," Smith said. "And that's one thing that I have learned so much is the details, the technique, and I try to apply that to the restaurant."

Meats galore on the menu

The Judge's Plate is the restaurant's most popular item, so far, said Smith and it offers a generous taste of each of their prize-winning meats including their brisket, St. Louis-style ribs, pork medallions, and hot links, with diner's choice of scratch-made side and cornbread.

Another popular dish is their Sweaty Pig sandwich, a pulled pork sandwich with fried jalapeños and hot sauce. The menu also includes wings, flatbreads, wagyu burgers, and desserts.

Most dinner plates range from $15-20.

"We take the extra step. We wrap all of our meats, we slow smoke it; it's just that extra step to get it as close to competition as you can," Smith said. "We don't sauce our barbecue. Every one of our orders is made to order, so we don't chop anything; it's not all pre-made. So when you come in, that order is made for you, individually, and is hand sliced or pulled."

Dinner, drinks and weekend football

The downstairs bar is separated by a half-wall divider from the rest of the dining room and features several televisions behind the bar and above the tables for watching sports and patrons will have plenty of games to choose from. Smith said Smoking Butt Heads BBQ will have NFL Sunday Ticket and will show all of the games this season.

While the kitchen closes at 9 p.m., a hefty bar menu is available until closing and includes wings, pork sandwiches, loaded mac and cheese, fried ribs and BBQ flatbreads. The bar features 20 taps, offering local beers from Rockers Brewing Co. alongside national brands.

The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. Tuesday-Sunday and remains open until midnight Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Sundays and until 2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday.

Upstate SC bands and brews

The upstairs stage will be welcoming a mix of local and regional bands again under Smith's ownership, possibly as soon as next weekend. The band schedule will be announced on the restaurant's Facebook page.

"Think kind of classic rock, country, stuff like that. I'm sure we'll pull in some R&B," Smith said of the planned offerings.

A limited menu is currently available upstairs as well as a 20-tap bar with local beers and other popular name brands. Diners can enjoy food at the indoor booths or on the semi-open air patio, overlooking Main Street and Morgan Square.

Samantha Swann covers city news, development and culture in Spartanburg. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her at sswann@shj.com or on Instagram at @sam_on_spartanburg.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Smoking Butt Heads BBQ remodels Greenewald's building on Morgan Square