Melvin’s BBQ

David Bessinger From Charleston’s Original Barbecue Family Shares the 80 Year History of Mustard-Based Barbecue

The Bessinger family name is synonymous with the tangy, yellow barbecue sauce that put South Carolina on the map as a mustard-based BBQ region. It was 80 years ago that the now famous sauce was first used by Joseph Bessinger in a Holly Hill, SC, restaurant. Three generations later David Bessinger, owner of Melvin’s Barbecue in Mt Pleasant and on James Island, still uses the same Golden Secret sauce his grandfather created 80 years ago.