By Becky Billingsley

Thursday, January 13, 2011, Pawleys Island - Chefs at the new Sanford's Southern Fried Smokehouse in Pawleys Island are having a blast in their enormous kitchen equipped with enough culinary toys to handle any menu project.

The kitchen is as big as the dining room, and it has a 24-foot line. Everything gleams, like a steam kettle that came from the culinary department at Johnson & Wales University when it was in Charleston. This steam kettle will hold 100 pounds of potatoes, 100 pounds of corn on the cob, 50 pounds of shrimp and 50 pounds of sausage, which is a big pile of Frogmore Stew.

This deluxe kitchen is courtesy of Dwayne Christen and Rodney Long. They own the Sanford's and the building it's in at the Mingo retail center, and they also own PoBoys Discount, which is a restaurant equipment store in Georgetown.

Sanford's Smokehouse is the men's original concept. The building has been three other restaurants in the four years since the development opened: Bummz, Buzz's Roost and Tailgator's. All three of those eateries had beach flair, but Sanford's is more nostalgic with a home-spun decor featuring lots of old trunks and car replicas.

In the bar area, which is enclosed and warm for now but is open-air in good weather, there is a deluxe Old Hickory smoker that will hold 550 pounds of meat on a rotisserie system of 12 four-foot racks. Executive Chef Rob Doerr is burning hickory and oak for now, and soon he's adding pecan wood to the smoking recipe.

"It's like Christmas for us in the kitchen," Doerr said on a recent Thursday night. "We can make everything in house and from scratch because of the equipment."

When Doerr and his kitchen colleagues, Ted Martin and Torin Postal, aren't having fun doing things like purposely giving the smokehouse door a satisfying backwoods squeakiness, they are tweaking their smokehouse menu. Of course smoked meats are front and center, with choices like beef brisket, chicken, salmon, ribs, kielbasa and prime rib. They even smoke tomatoes for their house pasta recipe and portabello mushrooms for a mushroom burger.

Somebody had a lot of fun writing the menu with dish descriptions like "Big Ole Ugly Catfish" and "Mess of Fried Green Tomatoes," but beyond the countryisms is tasty food.

We tried the Blue Crab Fondue ($7.53) and loved its smooth and rich Vermont sharp Cheddar cheesiness and the house-made potato chips that come with it, but there wasn't much crab in there.

Other appetizers ($5.22-$12.83) include Peel and Eat Shrimp, Smokehouse Nachos, Fried Pickles, Wings, Potato Cake and Shrimp Hash, and a "huge" Beef Rib with fried onions.

There are salads ($3.47-$11.10) like Cobb and Caesar; Vegetable Beef Soup and Soup of the Day; and Vegetarian Black Bean Soup served with green tomato relish and sour cream.

For our entrees my dining partner and I chose the ribs and the salmon. His ribs ($13 for a half rack) were falling off the bone with moist and smoky-tasting meat. Barbecue competition purists will tell you the meat should be tender but not falling off the bone, but I like them both ways. You get two side dishes with most entrees, and my friend had fried corn on the cob, which he loved, and double-fried French fries, which he thought were too greasy and limp.

My salmon ($15) had a terrific smoke flavor and while almost every bite was moist, there were a few bites around the edges that were a little dry. The drizzle of sweet barbecue glaze was good, but I would have liked a little more.

My sides were collards and tomato pie. The collards were not chopped and were too spicy for my taste. I would have liked them better if they had been chopped so I could put a little on my fork with a bite of meat. The tomato pie was the best I have ever eaten. This one had a lacy-thin pastry pie crust and lots of creamy cheesy sauce, and I can't wait to go back and have more.

Both of our entree plates also each had one sweet crispy golf ball-sized hushpuppy, and one palm-sized hoecake, which is like a silver dollar corn pancake.

A few other entrees I'd like to try on future visits include Prime Rib with horseradish cream sauce; Barbecued Beef Brisket; Smoked Chicken; Fried Green Tomato BLT with applewood smoked bacon and garlic mayo; and Southern Fried Chicken Livers topped with country ham and sweet onion confit.

Children have a few $5 choices such as Buttered Noodles or Fried Shrimp, and they come with one side dish. For dessert there's Peanut Butter Pie, Key Lime Pie, Bread Pudding and Ice Cream. I was too full for dessert, but I heard other diners making enthusiastic sounds over their Bread Pudding.

Sanford's Southern Fried Smokehouse is at 251 Willbrook Blvd. in Pawleys Island, and the number is (843) 237-5400. Operating hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays.

If you'd like to have a couple hundred pounds of Smoked Beef Brisket or Frogmore Stew for your next get-together, general manager Cynthea Church will hook you up.