a place · SCTrue BBQ

A Black-owned pit on D Avenue in West Columbia, opened in 2010 by the brothers Ernest and Milton Zanders after years of selling from street corners and events. The wood-fired pits are visible from the front parking lot. Hash and rice is what the place is known for and what it sells by the pint and the quart alongside pulled pork, ribs, pork chops, brisket and chicken. It is open four days, Thursday to Saturday and no more. A second True BBQ trades in Myrtle Beach.

Ernest Zanders started the business and Milton, his brother, took over as head cook. They built it up selling barbecue on street corners and at events before they took a building in West Columbia in 2010; a 2026 local piece says fifteen years rather than sixteen, which is the sort of drift an anniversary line picks up. The hardest stretch is recent and it is in the record because Hannah Wade put it there for the Post and Courier's Free Times on June 25, 2022: a relative, Bryan Williams, died of a heart attack in early October 2021, and just before Christmas that year Milton's wife had her fourth stroke. The restaurant kept its doors. Wade also reported that national attention came when Eater named the hash the best in the state — the original Eater piece and its year are not on this disk, so that reaches this record at one remove. The Campaign for Real Barbecue certified the pits for burning wood rather than gas, and the directory EatOkra lists the business as Black-owned. The Free Times profile itself, which names both brothers and the head cook, never uses the phrase.

Wood-fired pits sit where a customer can see them from the parking lot. Pulled pork, ribs, pork chops, brisket and chicken come by the plate; the hash — the Midlands stew of pork cooked down — goes over white rice and also sells by the pint and the quart to take home. Cards and cash are both taken. There is no buffet.

Open Thursday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., closed Sunday to Wednesday, at 1237 D Avenue, West Columbia. A second True BBQ trades in Myrtle Beach and is also on the wood-certified list.