Bringing Barbecue and Brunswick Stew to the Lowcountry

story by JEANNE REYNOLDS          photos by PAUL NURNBERG

Mike and Nancy Reilley may serve up Kansas City’s world-famous style of barbecue five days a week at KC Mike’s Smokin’ restaurant off Boundary Street, but their story doesn’t begin with barbecue at all. It all started with Brunswick stew.

The couple met when Nancy was working as a software developer on a contract in Kansas City, where Mike worked in sales for Panasonic.
“I overstayed,” Nancy says with an almost straight face.

They soon married. Nancy continued working for a software company, and Mike left office life to build houses. He also enjoyed smoking and grilling for family and friends during his time off. But Nancy grew up in Atlanta and was used to having Brunswick stew with barbecue.

“It seemed odd to me that a barbecue town like Kansas City had never heard of Brunswick stew,” she says. “My parents still lived in Atlanta, and I’d go home to visit them to get my fix, then I’d come home and whine, ‘Why can’t I get good Brunswick stew anywhere?’”

But Mike boasted competent culinary chops and wanted to make his new spouse happy, so he started making … and making … and making Brunswick stew. He tweaked his recipe for the next 12 years until Nancy agreed it was just right.

Now, it’s important to understand this Brunswick stew isn’t the soup-like concoction served along the North Carolina coast. The Reilleys’ version is based on the stew popular in Brunswick, Georgia, near Nancy’s roots. It’s much thicker and made with three kinds of meat — pork butt, beef brisket, and chicken breast — all smoked before grinding, plus speckled butter beans, other vegetables, and seasonings in a tomato base. Described as “barbecue in a cup,” it can be a meal by itself or served over rice, grits, potatoes, or pasta. (The Reilleys also recommend hot buttered cornbread on the side to complement the stew’s flavor.)

DRAWN TO THE LOWCOUNTRY
Mike continued cooking up batches of Brunswick stew for family and friends in Kansas City and Atlanta until the couple decided to relocate to the Lowcountry in 2015.

“We wanted to be within driving distance of Atlanta to make it easier to visit my mom,” Nancy says.

“And we wanted to be close to the water,” adds Mike, who was looking forward to retirement, including boating, fishing, and golf.

The Reilleys started by looking on Google Earth up and down the East Coast. Myrtle Beach was too far north, but Beaufort kept popping up, they say. They came on a visit and spent three days looking at homes, but, apparently, a lot of other people had the same idea, as all eight properties they booked in advance to look at were gone by the time they arrived. After a second scouting trip also was unsuccessful, they ended up renting a home they found online sight unseen and moved that May.

A NEW (AD)VENTURE
Nancy continued her remote job while Mike started what was intended to be a part-time gig making and selling their Brunswick stew at local fairs and festivals, and then from a tent on Lemon Island, near the Maritime Center on Okatie Highway. He quickly found his unique dish was as popular in Beaufort as it had been back home, selling more than 500 cases (that’s 6,000-plus quart jars) the first year.

“I never dreamed it would grow to what it did,” Mike says.

And it didn’t stop there. “I was smoking so much meat to go into the stew, people started asking me if I’d sell them the smoked meat. Then truckers stopping by would ask for lunch, so I started selling sandwiches and chips, and then sides too.”

The business soon outgrew the tent and their small smoker, leading the Reilleys to add KC Mike’s Smokin’, a brick-and-mortar restaurant on Sea Island Parkway on Lady’s Island, in 2018. And again, customer requests led the business in a new direction.

“I got approached by a customer and friend about doing lunches for her daughter’s school,” Mike says. That soon grew to several schools, requiring an even larger kitchen. So the couple opened another KC Mike’s location at 2001 Boundary Street in the summer 2019 and closed the Lemon Island location that December to focus their resources on the two in-town restaurants.

BUMP IN THE BARBECUE ROAD
Then the pandemic hit. Schools closed and stopped providing lunches while indoor restaurant dining was shut down, limiting service to carry out and curbside. But the Reilleys persevered. A state grant and federal Paycheck Protection Program loan helped, but so did a lot of loyal and new customers.

“A lot of customers came because they wanted to support small businesses during the pandemic,” Nancy says. “Some people told us they were eating lunch out every day to support local businesses during a difficult time.”

“We were one of the few businesses that grew our customer base during COVID-19,” Mike adds. “A lot of new people found us, and we got a whole new crowd.” That included younger people, he says, noting the typical barbecue joint demographic is 40 to 60 year olds.

Still, like many business owners struggling to survive the pandemic, the Reilleys were forced to downsize, closing the Sea Island Parkway location and consolidating their operations into the larger Boundary Street restaurant. As they began reopening the patio and limited inside dining over the next year, they made the difficult decision to make the Lady’s Island closure permanent and continue focusing on the Boundary Street location.

“We loved our first little restaurant, but we had to choose to move forward with the larger space to grow our business and continue our recovery,” Mike says.

AND STILL GROWING
KC Mike’s recovery included yet another new twist to the business: the opening of KC Mike’s Back Room in the fall 2021. Part bar, part party venue, and part pool room, the Back Room offers food, drink, and fun from 4 p.m. to close on weekdays and noon to close on Saturdays. The spacious room includes four pool tables, games, four TVs, a jukebox, USB charging ports, and free Wi-Fi, plus a full bar and a special menu.

First responders can enjoy free pool on Friday nights, while ladies cue up for free on Saturday nights. Pool teams also compete several nights a week in the American Poolplayers Association eight-ball pool league.

The Back Room also hosts group events, club meetings, and parties. But KC Mike’s will also bring the fun to customers’ locations with its catering services, offering boxed lunches for meetings, buffets for parties, and per-person menus for wedding receptions and other special events.

RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
The Reilleys say the keys to KC Mike’s success are simple: “The quality of the food and the service,” says Nancy.

“Our food is great,” Mike agrees. “Our collards are the best in South Carolina. We have people get upset if we’re out of collards.”

They’re so good, the couple says, some customers will pass them off as their own when company is coming. “We have ladies who tell us they take them home, and put them in their own pot on the stove and say they made them,” Nancy says.

Military families are a big part of KC Mike’s clientele, particularly on Wednesdays when they’re preparing for a family gathering on Thursdays before Friday graduations at Parris Island. And new Marine grads get a free meal on Fridays. But new customers continue to come from the surrounding area too.

“It amazes me — we had customers in yesterday who’ve lived here five years, and it was their first time in the restaurant,” Mike says. And how many of those first-timers typically come back again? “100 percent!”

A FAMILY AFFAIR
About nine employees keep the smoker hot and the pots bubbling at KC Mike’s, including the Reilleys’ son, Matt, the restaurant’s head line cook.

“We run the restaurant like a family business,” Mike says, although it’s more “like herding cats,” according to Nancy.

“I come out and personally greet every table as often as I can and sometimes sit and talk with them,” Mike says. “All our regulars expect that.”

The Reilleys say they’ll eventually sell the business and retire to enjoy more free time.

“It’s a young person’s business,” Mike says, noting he hasn’t been on a golf course in two years and sold his boat after not using it for a year and a half. But he also takes pride in how KC Mike’s has introduced new tastes to Beaufort. “This town has exploded about brisket and burnt ends.” (If you don’t know what burnt ends are, go to KC Mike’s and try them. Enough said.)

Meanwhile, Mike and Nancy are celebrating 27 years of marriage in May — a fact that seems to surprise them as much as their somewhat unexpected career path.

“We’re both Type A personalities,” Mike laughs. “It’s amazing we’re still together.”