Wiley’s Championship Barbecue: The Place of Fine Swine Dining

December 4, 2023

South Magazine,

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Photo: D. Paul Graham

Out of Savannah’s 26 barbecue joints, Wiley’s Championship Barbecue stands out as the pinnacle for savory meat and finger-lickin’ sauce. Fueled by exemplary customer service and a delicious attention to detail, some of those details, like its 35-year-old original barbecue sauce, are cloistered in a locked safe.

Other details are not so private, but allude to Wiley’s standard, like how the restaurant exclusively smokes its meats with pecan wood for a delicate, yet pronounced, smokey flavoring. As Owner Nate Shaffer put it, “anyone can have a recipe. The artform is preparing, and making sure that it is cooked properly.” But what sets this BBQ apart is how the business treats each customer as family. Just behind the front doors, you can find a map tracing Wiley’s customers to every corner of the globe, with an international following that’s well-earned. Wiley’s won back-to-back Kansas City Barbecue Society National Championship titles in 1999 and 2000. However, the restaurant has retired from competition. As Shaffer put it, there is no need to compete when you’re already at the top. Shaffer and his wife, Melinda, jointly run Wiley’s after buying the business from the wife of the late founder, Wiley McCray, who died in 2018. The Shaffers recently established the Smoke Foundation of Georgia, which takes a portion of the restaurant’s profits and donates them to a charitable cause in Savannah.

4700 Highway 80 East / Savannah, GA / wileyschampionshipbbq.com

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