Best Barbecue Joint In GA 2025 Grills Smoky Flavor: Southern Living

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, GA — Southern barbecue lovers have named the regional "kings of the grill."

The readers of Southern Living have voted Southern Soul Barbeque on St. Simons Island as Georgia's 2025 Best Barbecue Joint, the magazine announced this month.

Southern Living hosted a survey that included at least 10,000 voters making their selections from July 10-Aug. 21 last year.

Being served a taste of victory, Southern Soul was named among 16 of the South's best barbecue eateries that were decided by readers.

"The results have been fairly consistent in recent few years, with a familiar cast of old favorites tending to bubble to the top. There are always a few surprises in the mix, though, and the top picks for 2025 are quite reflective of the current state of barbecue in the South," Southern Living writer Robert F. Moss wrote in his report.

"For starters, there’s a blend of old and new. Roughly half the joints in this year’s list are more than 50 years old, and the other half were founded in the 21st century. Only one opened during the fallow years of the 1980s and '90s."

Southern Soul first came to fruition in 2006 before being re-established in 2010, according to the restaurant website. It was initially pop-up location along the Palm Coast before moving to its St. Simons home.

Sometime after a visit from "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives'" Guy Fieri in 2010, Southern Soul sustained a fire that burned the property, according to the restaurant website.

"That might have been the end of the story, but the local community rallied to ensure the doors would remain open, and the team continued to operate out of a neighboring location (Ziggy Mohoney’s) while the restaurant was under re-construction," read the company website.

Eight years later, Southern Soul founded the Firebox Initiative, "a nonprofit dedicated to financially supporting the needs of food service workers in crisis within our community," read the company website.

See what Southern Living says about Southern Soul Barbeque:

"In 2006, Harrison Sapp and Griffin Buffkin transformed an old St. Simons service station into an island barbecue oasis, and this year it reclaimed the crown as the best joint in Georgia. Southern Soul was among the early wave of new-school restaurants that opened just after the turn of the 21st century, giving contemporary twists to old Southern classics. Smoky pulled pork and savory Brunswick stew are served alongside Sapp’s unique brown sugar and honey-glazed ribs, and they’re accompanied by creative specials like pit-cooked meatloaf or pastrami sandwiches and smoked chicken tortilla soup."

Southern Soul Barbeque: 2020 Demere Road; (912) 638-7685

See Southern Living's full ranking online.