(upbeat rock music) - My name is Chris Williams.

We are in Lexington, South Carolina.

We are at my restaurant, Roy's Grille.

Roy's Grille got started, I started back in 2014.

I had been in the business since a teenager.

I'd always wanted to own my own.

I finally found a way.

God made it possible.

My grandfather, unfortunately, had passed away before I had the opportunity to open it, so it only felt right naming it Roy's Grille.

You know, his name was Leroy Carter.

So, a lot of the things that I have on my menu, I actually named after him.

You know, The Carter's Club, you know, all of our barbecue sauces, all kind of have somethin' to do with him.

But if I had to give a few people's favorite dishes, it'd definitely be our nachos.

We take our pulled pork, and we make nachos with 'em.

We have pulled pork nacho.

We have a blackened chicken nacho.

They love our pulled pork, our ribs, all of our barbecue.

And then we also have a burger that we call the Bacon Jalapeno Pimento Cheeseburger.

We make our own pimento cheese in-house.

We cut, cure, and smoke our own bacon in-house.

And they really, really enjoy that sandwich.

First of all, our location makes us unique.

You know, we're in the corner of a gas station.

You know, we can't forget about that.

You know, barbecue's barbecue.

Every pitmaster puts his own unique spin, his own unique twist, on his barbecue.

So I would have to say, my rub, the way I make my sauce, and of course, my location, you know, would make my barbecue unique to South Carolina.

If South Carolina was a plate here at Roy's Grille, it would definitely be our slow-smoked pulled pork with some of our ribs served with the side of our collard greens and our hash and rice, maybe a little potato salad on the side.

Definitely South Carolina on the plate.

We're gettin' ready to make one of our signature barbecue sauces that we make here at Roy's Grille.

I'm getting ready to make the Sweet Sassy Red, which is our light, tomato-based barbecue sauce.

So, here we go.

(upbeat rock music) Well, one of the things that's helped me in my business is gonna be the Chef and Bachelor's program.

The South Carolina Chef and Bachelor's program was started by eight years ago by then-Governor, Nikki Haley, and Chef Brandon Velie.

He's the Head Chef of our Juniper's out in Ridge Springs.

It was created to highlight local chefs that are kinda off the beaten path.

So that brought a lot of notoriety and recognition to me, being that I'm in a gas station.

That helped a lot.

But what it also did, was it helped springboard me into my next move.

Actually, this is my current location, but we're getting ready to move to a larger location in Irmo in about a month.

It's gonna be at 7971 Woodrow Street, Suite 5, Irmo, South Carolina.

So, just the culmination of everything I've done in my career, plus the ambassadorship, has definitely helped catapult me to the next level in my career, so I'm grateful for it.