Barbecue this serious was never going to stay a Saturday-only thing.
This Georgia spot started small in 2006. It quickly grew into a full-time operation with smoke at the center of everything.
The restaurant still runs from its old gas-station location on St. Simons Island. That setting gives the place plenty of character before the food even arrives.
Oak-fired meats carry most of the attention. The rest of the menu keeps the Southern comfort going without making the meal feel overworked.
I’d say the biggest clue is simple: when barbecue outgrows one day a week, people were clearly showing up for it.
The Restaurant Started With One Smoker And Saturday Service
The story begins before the restaurant ever moved into its current building.
Harrison Sapp bought his first smoker in 2005 and began working on his barbecue pork recipe. In 2006, he partnered with Griffin Bufkin, and Southern Soul opened its first retail pop-up in the courtyard at Palm Coast.
Barbecue was served only on Saturdays at first.
That schedule soon expanded to two days a week and then three, giving the young business more room to grow without jumping straight into a seven-day restaurant.
The big move came in 2007.
Southern Soul relocated to an old gas station near the roundabout on St. Simons Island and officially began full-time operations.
That former filling station became the restaurant’s permanent home, turning a roadside building once designed around cars into a smokehouse centered on oak-fired meat.
The business now opens every day, but the original Saturday-only chapter remains part of its history.
The change from one smoker and one service day to a full restaurant happened quickly, yet the basic menu direction stayed clear. Pork, smoke, Southern sides, and barbecue built the foundation long before the restaurant became a seven-day operation.
The Former Gas Station Still Houses The Smokehouse
The current Southern Soul building did not begin life as a restaurant.
It was an old gas station at the island roundabout before Southern Soul moved in during 2007.
The compact roadside setting gives the restaurant a very different footprint from a purpose-built barbecue hall or large chain location. Smokers, kitchen space, ordering areas, dining space, and the daily flow of customers all operate from the converted property.
The location has also carried the restaurant through most of its history.
In 2010, a fire destroyed the building. Southern Soul continued operating temporarily from nearby Ziggy Mahoney’s while the restaurant was rebuilt.
After reconstruction, the business returned to the same location and continued serving barbecue there.
Today, the former gas station still handles daily service beginning at 11 a.m.
Monday through Thursday, the kitchen serves through 7 p.m. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday continue until 8 p.m.
The building may have started with fuel pumps, but its current purpose is entirely different. Oak smoke, brisket, pork, ribs, turkey, chicken, sausage, sides, and desserts now define the property.
Oak-Fired Meat Gives The Menu Its Center
Southern Soul describes its barbecue as oak-fired and slow-smoked, and the current menu gives you several ways to build a meal around that style.
Pulled pork remains one of the core choices.
Beef brisket is available chopped or sliced, while half-slabs and full slabs of ribs keep pork on the heavier side of the menu.
Smoked turkey breast adds a leaner option, and smoked chicken comes in both plate and family-style formats.
Smoked sausage and smoked wings broaden the selection even further.
Sandwiches keep things simpler. Brisket and pulled pork can both be ordered on buns, giving you a smaller format without moving away from the smokehouse side of the menu.
The restaurant also offers a Southern Soul Sampler built around two or three meats.
Southern Soul offers four house-made barbecue sauces alongside pulled pork, brisket, ribs, turkey, chicken, sausage, and other smoked meats.
Four house-made barbecue sauces are part of the current lineup, so the same smoked meat can take on a different direction depending on what you add at the table.
The menu gives beef, pork, poultry, and sausage all their own place instead of building everything around a single signature cut.
One person can go straight for brisket, another can choose ribs, while turkey, chicken, sausage, or pulled pork keep the table from looking identical.
The Side Menu Covers More Than One Kind Of Southern Staple
The meat gets most of the attention at first glance, but the side menu is broad enough to change the shape of the plate.
Potato salad and Soul Slaw cover the chilled options.
Collard greens, barbecue beans, and Hoppin’ John bring in familiar Southern staples with more substance.
Fried okra, hushpuppies, and hand-cut fries give you three fried choices.
Brunswick stew and brisket chili add two spoonable dishes that can sit beside the barbecue or take up more room on their own.
The current menu also lists Hoppin’ John as black-eyed peas and rice, making that side easy to understand before you order it.
Different combinations can take the same smoked meat in several directions.
Brisket with collards and beans looks very different from brisket with fries and slaw. Pulled pork can sit beside Hoppin’ John and hushpuppies, while turkey can pair with potato salad or fried okra.
The restaurant’s regular menu does not currently list mac and cheese as a standard side.
Instead, the main lineup stays with the sides available now, giving you vegetables, beans, rice, chilled salads, fried items, stew, chili, and potatoes to work with.
Daily Service Keeps The Former Filling Station Busy All Week
Southern Soul now runs on a schedule that looks nothing like its first Saturday-only setup.
The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. seven days a week.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday service runs until 7 p.m.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday stay open until 8 p.m.
That makes lunch available every day, with evening service extending later as the weekend approaches.
The St. Simons Island location remains the same former gas station Southern Soul moved into in 2007.
You will find the restaurant at 2020 Demere Rd, St. Simons Island, GA 31522, near the island roundabout.
The current schedule makes the restaurant accessible throughout the week without relying on the limited operating days that defined its earliest years.
More than one part of the menu is also available in family-style quantities, including pulled pork, ribs, brisket, turkey, sausage, wings, and chicken.
That gives the smokehouse a broader service range than sandwiches and individual plates alone.
Banana Pudding And Daily Cobbler Keep Dessert Short
Southern Soul does not bury dessert under a long list of choices.
The current menu keeps the sweet side focused on banana pudding and house-made daily cobbler.
Banana pudding stays on the menu as a regular option.
The cobbler changes with the day, adding a rotating dessert beside the more constant pudding.
That short list comes after a much broader run of smoked meats and sides.
A meal might begin with brisket, ribs, turkey, sausage, chicken, or pulled pork, move through collards, Hoppin’ John, fried okra, barbecue beans, fries, hushpuppies, potato salad, slaw, stew, or chili, and then finish with one of the two desserts.
The dessert menu does not try to compete with the size of the barbecue selection.
Instead, it closes the meal with two familiar Southern choices.
The same straightforward approach shows up throughout the restaurant. The smoked meats have clear names, the sides are easy to recognize, and dessert keeps the decision simple.
Banana pudding gives you the steady choice.
Daily cobbler gives you the one part of dessert that can change from visit to visit.
Southern Soul Has Collected Recognition Without Changing Its Core Menu
Southern Soul has spent years appearing in national barbecue coverage while continuing to serve from the same former gas station.
Its official history records a long run of recognition from food and travel publications.
In 2019, Southern Living named Southern Soul the Best Smokehouse in the South for the third consecutive year.
The restaurant also appeared on Southern Living’s list of the South’s Top 50 Barbecue Joints in 2023.
In 2026, Southern Living readers selected Southern Soul as Georgia’s best barbecue joint in the publication’s state-by-state barbecue survey.
Those honors arrived long after the first Saturday pop-up, but the restaurant’s current menu still circles back to the food that launched the business.
Pulled pork, brisket, ribs, turkey, chicken, sausage, and wings remain at the center.
Four house-made sauces sit beside that lineup.
Collards, Hoppin’ John, fried okra, Brunswick stew, barbecue beans, potato salad, slaw, fries, hushpuppies, and brisket chili fill out the side menu.
Banana pudding and daily cobbler finish it.
Nearly two decades after Southern Soul moved into the converted gas station, the restaurant still operates from the same roadside building, still opens at 11 a.m. every day, and still builds its menu around oak-fired, slow-smoked barbecue.