SEC Network’s Emmy-winning food show ‘TrueSouth’ to highlight South Carolina restaurants
For seven seasons, the SEC Network series TrueSouth has told stories of restaurants and their people across states in the SEC’s footprint.
Now the Emmy-winning series’ next episode is set to highlight restaurants in Upstate SC.
TrueSouth’s Upstate episode is set to air at 8 p.m. Monday, Nov. 4 on SEC Network and stream live on the ESPN app. The episode will highlight several SC hot dog spots, and TrueSouth host and writer John T. Edge said two that will receive particular focus will be Holmes Hotdogs in Spartanburg County and Saxon’s Hot Dogs in Abbeville.
Edge is an Oxford, Mississippi resident and the author of the book “The Potlikker Papers: A Food History of the Modern South.” At Saxon’s, the hole-in-the wall spot at the intersection of Highways 72 and 28 in Abbeville, he lauded the chili dogs, which can hit the spot any time of day.
“I love that chili dog there and I love Sue Beasley, the owner, who was so kind and welcoming,” Edge told The State. “I love any place where you can get a chili slaw dog at 7 in the morning for breakfast. That’s the real measure. Is it breakfast as well as lunch? In Abbeville, it is.”
Meanwhile, Edge said the show learned about Holmes Hotdogs through his friend Byron Morris, of Spartanburg. Edge calls Morris a “hot dog obsessive and a good soul.” Edge said Morris gave him a printed dossier that was a ranking of Morris’ favorite hot dog places in the Upstate, which eventually led Edge to Holmes.
Acclaimed short story author George Singleton, who lives in the Upstate, serves as the TrueSouth team’s guide in the upcoming South Carolina episode. Edge said Singleton was a perfect fit for that role.
“We’ve realized making the shows that, really, our shows are like little short stories,” Edge said. “And George is, to my mind, the best short story writer in the South and one of the best short story writers in the country. He’s certainly the funniest short story writer working, I think.”
Edge said Singleton helped the show’s crew come to know parts of rural, working class South Carolina.
“It’s culture in the old mill towns and mill villages of South Carolina,” Edge said. “It’s following this guy who loves his place and loves his people, and shows us his place and his people, and we ate a goodly number of chili slaw dogs in the process.”
The upcoming South Carolina show is TrueSouth’s fourth episode of the seventh season. The series is directed by Timothy Horgan and produced by Wright Thompson, the longtime ESPN writer and author of the bestselling “Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon and Things That Last.” TrueSouth has turned its focus through seven seasons to locally owned restaurants across the South, from barbecue joints to burger greasy spoons to Chinese restaurants in roadside hotels and beyond.
“It’s a show about identity in the South in this moment,” Edge said. “We are attempting to show what the South is in this moment, and reflect it back to Southerners so they can see and hear people who look like them, people who act like them, people who sound like them. We don’t show up with a political agenda, we don’t show up with a social agenda.
“Our only agenda is to tell the stories of these places where we land and try to turn the camera and the mic toward the people who live there.”
Editor’s note: The State’s Chris Trainor is an Abbeville native and had conversations with TrueSouth’s John T. Edge a year ago during the scouting stage for the coming South Carolina episode, including talks about Saxon’s and other restaurants. He is listed in the credits of the Nov. 4 program. The show talks with numerous sources and residents about any given episode.
