‘We’re cooking’: Popular Lexington restaurant in gas station grabs statewide acclaim
The smoke lets you know.
It’s a familiar sight for those who have driven past Roy’s Grille, the small restaurant tucked away in an unassuming Exxon gas station along West Main Street in Lexington. There is often a large black grill in the parking lot, with smoke billowing from its stack, a telltale sign that something good is cooking, low and slow.
Chris Williams, Roy’s owner and chef, has a name for that smoke.
“I call it the Bat-Signal,” he says with a laugh, noting how the smoke rising from that grill has a way of drawing in customers.
Williams has been drawing more than just the attention of hungry customers lately. He’s also garnered acclaim from the highest reaches of state government.
On Jan. 6, Williams was one of three people recognized by Gov. Henry McMaster as 2022 South Carolina Chef Ambassadors. This marks the eighth year of the program, and the state’s chef ambassadors are called upon to represent South Carolina at food festivals, media events and other forums. It’s an effort meant to promote agribusiness and tourism, two of the Palmetto State’s leading industries that generate billions of dollars each year.
The 38-year-old Williams, who has been working in restaurants since he was a teenager, opened Roy’s Grille in the Exxon station at 711 West Main St. in Lexington back in 2014. The business is named after his grandfather, Roy Carter, who died in 2013. Williams also runs a catering business called William Christopher’s.
Williams said he was thrilled to be one of South Carolina’s chef ambassadors for 2022.
“It’s an honor for me,” said Williams, a native of the town of Olar. “Being a Black man coming where I come from, a small rural town like that, it is an honor. I stand on the shoulders of my ancestors and people who came before me who allowed me to have this opportunity. I succeeded because they did.
“I’m proud to be able to carry the torch. Not the business torch, but the torch to want more, and to go out on your own and get it. To be a chef ambassador really just puts the crown on it.”
As he chatted with a reporter from The State on a recent morning in Roy’s narrow kitchen, Williams was a swirl of practiced, efficient motion. He chopped potatoes, onions and peppers. He scrambled and fried eggs, cooked onion sausage and bologna, toasted bread for sandwiches on a flat-top grill, all while taking phone calls, running the cash register and prepping for the coming lunch shift. And he did it all while never breaking stride on the interview. You got the feeling that Williams could literally run Roy’s kitchen with his eyes closed.
“We’re cooking, brother,” said Williams, who currently has just one other employee at Roy’s. “The misconception is that this is gas station food. No, this is a restaurant in a gas station. ... There’s a perception to (being located inside a gas station), and I get it. But this is what I could afford when I first got started, and this has fed my family. I cater out of here. We do it all.”
Regular customers and pulled pork nachos
Roy’s has a robust breakfast menu but is perhaps most known for its lunch offerings, which include burgers, cheesesteaks, wraps, fried fish and more. The main event is the barbecue and accompanying sauces, which Williams makes in-house. The chef said Roy’s didn’t start out focusing heavily on barbecue. There was a time when he only served it on Thursdays. That eventually changed to a daily offering, because of customer demand.
“People started showing up on various days of the week and asking for it, and I would tell them (barbecue) was on Thursdays,” Williams said. “And they’d say, ‘Then we’ll see you on Thursday.’ I was like, ‘Hmm. OK, let me change my model.’”
Over time, he’s added twists to his barbecue repertoire. For instance, he said pulled pork nachos with homemade queso have become a big seller.
If you spend any amount of time in Roy’s, you will see a rotating cast of regular customers stream in, most of them ordering from memory without even glancing at a menu. Williams greets many of them by name.
On a recent Friday morning, Lexington’s Tristan Broadwater popped in to Roy’s and ordered a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and some hash browns. Broadwater said she had surgery just before Christmas and had been resting during her recovery, and one of the first places she came when she was able to get out and about was Roy’s.
“It is home cooked, and I love home cooked food,” Broadwater said. “I’ve been looking forward to this since they told me I could drive again. This is the first place I came after my doctor’s appointment.”
While Williams notes the Roy’s Grille space at the Exxon has been a blessing, he admits he has given thought to growing into a bigger establishment. But he notes a number of factors, including a pandemic that is dragging into a third year, play into his considerations.
“I’m just taking a little time to figure it all out,” Williams said.
Meanwhile, the phone keeps ringing at Roy’s, and there are sauces to be mixed and sandwiches to be made. And the smoke from that grill continues to rise, a signal to hungry passers-by that something special waits behind the doors of an old Exxon station.
This story was originally published January 10, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
