Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que - Orangeburg, SC *** Date: June 14, 2012 Location: Dukes Bar-B-Que - Orangeburg, SC Interviewer: Rien Fertel

Transcription

1 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que - Orangeburg, SC *** Date: June 14, 2012 Location: Dukes Bar-B-Que - Orangeburg, SC Interviewer: Rien Fertel Transcription: Shelley Chance, ProDocs Length: 34 minutes Project: Southern BBQ Trail - South Carolina

2 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 2 [Begin Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que] 00:00:01 Rien Fertel: All right; you ready to begin? Okay; this is Rien Fertel with the Southern Foodways Alliance. It is June 14, 2012, a Thursday, still before noon, just five minutes to noon, and we are continuing on our South Carolina BBQ Trail for the SFA. I am in Orangeburg, South Carolina at 1298 Whitman Street, sitting in Dukes Bar-B-Que and have someone introduce them self. 00:00:37 Tony Kittrell: Hey; I m Tony Kittrell, birthday is May 6, 1967 and I m the manager slash one of the owners of Dukes Bar-B-Que. RF: And how long have you been the manager of Dukes Bar-B-Que? 00:00:49 00:00:53 TK: I took over management back in September of 2011, but have worked here since probably age thirteen, on and off, and been in my family since :01:08 RF: And you were telling me earlier about how your family came into Dukes Bar-B-Que. Can you tell me a bit more about that?

3 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 3 00:01:17 TK: This is the original building that Earl Dukes originated Bar-B-Que at and held his business here for a number of years. And then sold his business to two gentlemen that eventually sold part of it to my father, Harold Kittrell, and eventually he had two other partners that have all deceased and now it s six different owners. RF: And what were those two other owners names? 00:01:48 TK: James Antley and Thomas Myers. 00:01:51 RF: So, let s talk about your father first. So his name was Harold; is he still around? 00:01:55 TK: No, he passed away fourteen years ago. 00:02:02 RF: And why did he get into the barbecue business? 00:02:05

4 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 4 00:02:06 TK: Well, he was a carpenter and he wanted something that would be easier and more healthy for him, I guess as far as not working outside and so forth, so he decided to make a change and this is what he did. RF: Where was he born? 00:02:23 TK: Born in Canaan Community which is Cope, South Carolina, right out of Orangeburg. 00:02:24 RF: Do so he came here in 72 and was it a place he was eating at for a long time? 00:02:31 00:02:39 TK: He had and everybody enjoyed it and it actually a good friend of his had bought it from Earl Dukes and that s more how he got to know more about it and so forth. And then when his friend confronted him with buying a portion of it that s what he decided to do. 00:02:57 RF: And what do you remember about those first years? Was it a tough job for him coming from carpentry?

5 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 5 00:03:04 TK: Uh, you know, I don t know that I ever really asked him that or talked to him about that to be honest. But I m sure it was than working outside and swinging a hammer all day. But he he and the two other gentlemen, my Uncle James Antley and his brother-in-law Thomas Myers, they really made it what it is today. So we re just kind of picking up where they left off. RF: So these three men they were family through blood and marriage? 00:03:34 TK: Right, everybody was kin in some some way or another, yeah. 00:03:36 RF: And did they split up the workload? 00:03:41 00:03:43 TK: Yeah; usually they just rotated in and out and that that having to have a manager because one of the owners was usually here and, you know, look, things change with time and we ve we ve done some of that, where we hired a manager and so forth, so. And his name is Julian Etheredge and he s been with us probably twenty-five years, until recently, I d say five or six years ago, when he had a stroke. We kind of took back over the management but he still works here, so he s he s good to have. He s been like my father since my father passed away, so.

6 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 6 RF: Yeah; so let s talk more about Julian Etheredge. What what does he do now on a daily basis? 00:04:20 00:04:27 TK: Whatever needs doing. He s never complained, shows up when he s supposed to, been as reliable as anybody and probably fifty-percent of Orangeburg County things that he owns part of this place because he s been here so long and they always see him here. So he s he ll be hard to replace when he s gone, so. RF: And did he teach you either the business aspect or the food? 00:04:52 TK: He s taught me a lot. I learned a lot from just hands-on, but when I have a question he s who I go to, yeah. 00:04:57 RF: And let s talk about Earl Dukes; what do you know about his history? 00:05:07 00:05:16 TK: Not a whole lot to be honest. All this was prior to my coming around or either I was real young when all this took place. But he if anybody if you ask anybody in Orangeburg County about Earl Dukes, they know the name. They know he originated the barbecue around in the

7 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 7 Southeast and I m not sure how many Dukes Bar-B-Ques are in the Southeast but they all originated from Earl Dukes. RF: Why are there so many Dukes Bar-B-Ques and how does that happen? 00:05:44 00:05:49 TK: I think it s just buying the franchise name more or less. This is the original place that Earl Dukes started and when we bought the business you buy the name also and that s how we we acquired it. I don t know if it s I think it s a franchise name and you can just buy it just like Chick-fil-A or anything else, so. RF: And have you heard any stories about Earl Dukes over the years? Have any come down from customers or other people? 00:06:09 00:06:15 TK: Yeah; some probably I don t need to say but a few you know he he did well while he had it open and when he got of age he handed it over to his son, Earl Jr. And when it was bought from Earl Jr. it was in the deal to not open another restaurant within ten miles for ten years. And he tried to open one in Cameron which is over ten miles away and then after ten years he tried to open it back in Orangeburg, but neither place succeeded. So that was that s all I know about him really. [Laughs]

8 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 8 00:06:56 RF: What kind of questions do people ask you about all the Dukes? Do they think they re all owned by one person, the travelers, people who don t know? 00:07:06 TK: Yeah, we get that all the time. People think that we re related to all of them and it s all family, Dukes, but we have nothing to do with the Dukes name really. But yeah, we hear that all the time. RF: And do any old family members ever come in and introduce themselves? 00:07:20 00:07:23 TK: Occasionally we ll have somebody that will do that but not on a regular basis. It s just kind of we we pretty much have our regular crowd every week and we have a lot of out-oftowners that come from up North to go to Florida for the winter and so forth like that and they stop in going and stop back in when they re coming back. But every now and then we ll have somebody stop in from the Dukes family wanted to know what s going on. 00:07:54 RF: So you re talking about people traveling and stuff and then how many travelers find you? What percentage of the business or how many people coming today that are new, never been here before, found this place through word of mouth or the internet or TV?

9 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 9 00:08:10 TK: Uh, usually every week we ll have somebody that s never been here before. You can tell when they walk in they don t know which way to go at the door. And usually we ll try to break them in, you know, and tell them the ropes on how to go through the line and so forth. And but usually you can you can pick those people out. When regular customers come in they know where to go and what to do and but you can pick those people out. But usually every every week we ll have some strangers here. 00:08:41 RF: And tell me about your regular customers. How would you describe them; where do they come from and how often do they eat here? 00:08:49 TK: We have I d say Thursday, we have probably seventy-five-percent of our customers on Thursday were here last Thursday and they ll be here next Thursday. Friday is probably the same thing for the lunch crowd and the Friday the Friday afternoon crowd kind of varies a little bit, it depends on what s going on in town, you know, with ballgames and so forth, like that. But it usually is pretty steady. We usually do more on lunch on Thursday and then more on Friday afternoon than Friday lunch, so it kind of balances out. RF: And where were you born? 00:09:24

10 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 10 00:09:31 TK: I was born right here in Orangeburg. 00:09:32 RF: And so you started working here when your father was here around the age of thirteen you said? TK: That s correct, yeah. 00:09:36 RF: What did you do or what s your earliest memories? 00:09:37 TK: When I first started I was a meat cutter, which pulled meat and chopped it up and then graduated into working inside. But, you know, first job, hey, you do whatever, so. 00:09:41 RF: And did you want to work here or did your father force you to? 00:09:56 00:09:59 TK: Probably probably forced me to to start with but I m glad I did and it s turned out to be a pretty good job, so.

11 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 11 00:10:09 RF: And did you you said you managed the restaurant for a little while before coming back? Is that 00:10:13 TK: No, I just worked here. I would work here about forty-three hours in three days. So I ve I ve put my share of time in [Laughs], but now I don t have to work quite as many hours here, but we have a good crew right now. I can't I definitely can't take credit for what we do; it s it s all our employees that make it happen, so. RF: Okay; did you ever leave to or have you worked here through? 00:10:39 00:10:44 TK: It s kind of on and off through the years. I also have a landscaping business that I run. And when my dad passed away I I did quit working here for a while, because I just thought I d lost some of the interest when I lost him. But after a few years I realized that, you know, that s probably not what he wanted and that s when I started coming back working some, so. RF: Did you have other siblings that worked here and did your father have other children? 00:11:09

12 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 12 00:11:12 TK: I have a brother and a sister. My sister as far as I know has never worked here, but my brother, he s also chopped meat for many years and he s worked inside a little bit none of them were interested in it like I was, so I just I stuck around. RF: Did did your dad love working here? It sounded like he did. 00:11:31 00:11:35 TK: He did; he enjoyed it. Actually my two uncles, well my uncle and Thomas Myers, everybody enjoyed working here and enjoyed seeing the people every week and we ve gotten to know a lot of good people by being up here. And we see them every week and and look forward to seeing them and talking with them and everything. So yeah, they enjoyed it. RF: And was your well, your father was when people came in they expected to see him? Was he kind of like part of the fabric of this place? 00:12:03 00:12:14 TK: Yeah, I think so. A lot of people when he was gone a lot of people asked about him you know because they missed seeing him and didn't know what had happened. And the same thing with my uncle and Thomas Myers, the same thing, and so that meant a lot, you know, to know that they were a figure that people were used to seeing and enjoyed talking with and so forth, so yeah. They were missed.

13 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 13 00:12:41 RF: And so you came here September of last year. And how long did you wrestle with that or did you know you wanted to come back? 00:12:53 TK: No; it was everything was pointing in the right direction, so I just yeah. It didn't take long to make that decision. RF: Do you still landscape? 00:13:02 00:13:03 TK: Still do; hopefully my guys are working right now. [Laughs] I do that Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday and then they do it without me Thursday and we don t work on Friday or Saturday so. So far it s working fine, so we ll see. Hopefully it continues. 00:13:18 RF: All right; so let s talk about the food. You serve from a buffet line. And tell us what s on the buffet. Can you describe it? 00:13:27 TK: We have rice, hash, barbecue chicken, fried chicken. We have green beans, baked beans, macaroni and cheese, slaw, potato salad, pickles, bread. It s nine dollars to go through the buffet and it s all you can eat and your drink is included. It s a good place to eat if you want to some

14 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 14 people take advantage of it but overall we have a good crowd [Laughs] that that gets good food at a good price, so it keeps them coming back, so. 00:14:05 RF: How do people take advantage of it? This is something you know, I just read a story in the news just a month ago about there s a lawsuit I think somewhere else about someone taking advantage of a buffet. 00:14:18 TK: I you know, I didn't mean to go that extreme on it but some people eat more than nine dollars worth of food is what I meant. [Laughs] But overall it s pretty good. I mean we just try to give good food at a fair price and hopefully you know it will work out in our favor so. 00:14:34 RF: Tell me what because I didn't know and a lot of people listening don t know; I didn't know what hash was before I came here last week or earlier this week, so what is hash? Can you describe hash? 00:14:45 TK: Hash some people call it stew, a Brunswick kind of like a Brunswick stew or, you know, it has several names. I I ve always known it as hash and it s mainly just meat and potatoes and onions ground together to make a blend. Some people have a mustard base. Some

15 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 15 people have a ketchup base and doctor it with different ingredients. Some people put liver in it to add different flavors. Our hash is one of our secret recipes. RF: Without giving us, you know, exactly what s in it can you tell us if it s ketchup-based, mustard-based, what what the base is and maybe how it s spiced, the spice level? 00:15:19 00:15:28 TK: Ours is a ketchup-base and spices not a whole lot of spice other than salt and pepper and, you know, mustard and ketchup so. No real secret spices, but it s just the way we do it all together. 00:15:48 RF: And I ve seen just at a couple places I ve seen people eat it differently at different places. How do people eat hash here at Dukes? 00:15:55 TK: I would say ninety-percent put it on their rice and eat it that way. And some people put it on top of their meat. Some people put it under the meat. You know it s all different you see it all, but ninety-percent probably put it on top of their rice and eat it that way. RF: Has anyone ever put it on their white bread, on their piece of bread, sliced bread? 00:16:13

16 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 16 TK: Yeah, I ve seen that plenty of times. Some people take bread and sop it up, the good ol Southern-style, so yeah. 00:16:16 RF: So why do you think hash excuse me hash is so important in this part of the country, this part of South Carolina? 00:16:26 00:16:34 TK: Hmm, I would say just Southern tradition. People expect rice and hash when they have barbecue and I think it s just what they ve grown up knowing and that s what they continue to want. So, I don t like it. RF: You don t well okay, no; that s you don t eat hash? 00:16:50 TK: I don t eat hash. 00:16:53 RF: Why and this is from when you were a kid? 00:16:54

17 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 17 00:16:55 TK: Uh, yeah. I ve just never acquired a taste that you know I just it s not that it s bad. I could eat it and I eat it occasionally just if somebody says, you know, taste this. And but it s not something that I prefer or would get. But it s just my taste buds. RF: Did other members of your family not eat hash? 00:17:13 TK: Hmm, not that I remember. I think everybody did except me. [Laughs] 00:17:18 RF: Do people make hash at home here? 00:17:22 00:17:24 TK: I I would imagine some do but you don t hear of that a lot. Usually if somebody is going to do a cookout at the house they ll call us and say, Hey, we want to buy a gallon of hash or whatever, so we sell a lot of takeout orders. RF: How much hash do you go through in a in the three days a week that you're open? 00:17:41

18 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 18 00:17:47 TK: Probably [Pause-Thinking] somewhere in the neighborhood of probably fifty gallons I would say. A cooking will do I d say about two, four, six, eight, ten about ten gallons and we do about three to four cookings a day, so. You know wintertime is usually busier than summertime. With the heat business slows down a little bit. RF: And who makes the hash? Is it one person; are certain people entrusted with the recipe? 00:18:26 00:18:30 TK: It s one guy that we have right now and he s been here a couple years and he s his main thing is he s consistent and that s what we need, so he s doing a fine job with it right now. RF: What is his name? 00:18:43 TK: Russell Hughes. 00:18:44 RF: How long has he been making or working here? 00:18:48

19 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 19 00:18:53 TK: I would say about two and a half years. We put him on the hash probably about two years ago and it seems to be the same day after day which is what we wanted and and haven't had to change anything up. So, as long as he doesn t change we won't change. RF: So it s the same hash recipe that goes back to? 00:19:09 00:19:12 TK: Right; yeah, original that we started with. And I told you earlier, you know, we have the philosophy if it s not broke don t fix it, so we haven't changed recipes in forty years, so. 00:19:29 RF: And let s talk about the barbecue. What kind of barbecue do you do? How do you describe it? 00:19:34 TK: Uh, it s hams and shoulders is all we cook and we we mix that together at a two-to-one ratio. RF: That s shoulders and hams, two-to-one? 00:19:46

20 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 20 00:19:48 TK: Two shoulders to each ham and that s how we cook it and that s how we chop it up and that s how we serve it. And it keeps it from being too greasy. It keeps it from being too dry. And usually a lot of people ask us about whether we how many whole hogs we cook a week and so forth and we just cook hams and shoulders. And we use Boston butts for our hash. So it s been that way since I can remember, so that s what we stay with. RF: So you never did the place ever do whole hogs? 00:20:25 00:20:27 TK: I think originally maybe they did, but not since I ve been working here or prior to that so I would say the past thirty-five years, no. We ve cooked hams and shoulders. 00:20:45 RF: And tell me we were talking earlier before we started recording about meat prices. I m really interested in that how they ve increased over the past decade. Can you say something about that? 00:20:59 TK: I remember probably ten years ago and so forth, back when I got into the numbers of it a little bit, paying fifty-nine, sixty-nine-cent per pound for pork, for shoulders or hams. And now we re paying like $1.25, $1.29 a pound and it s been that way for probably two years. It hadn't fluctuated a whole lot, so yes, it s a big difference and, you know, forty fifty-cent doesn t sound

21 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 21 like a lot but when you do it times the volume that we do it s it adds up quick, so yeah. It s changed. [Laughs] RF: What reasons your distributor, what reasons do they give you? 00:21:43 00:21:48 TK: Everything [Laughs], anything and everything to make it sound like it was okay gas, one thing, the economy, you know, just anything and everything, which we ve had to increase our prices to compensate some of that. And the past two years we ve probably been on an even keel where we re happy and, you know, everybody is happy with with our prices. We d like to keep it that way. 00:22:16 RF: And do you on the subject of hogs and whole hogs do you remember ever eating whole hogs at people s houses around here growing up in this area? 00:22:27 TK: Yeah, I ve been to a bunch of pig-pickins is what we call them and we we still do cook whole hogs if somebody asks, you know, for us. If they want us to do it we ll be glad to do it but we don t specialize in that and sometimes we don t have the room if they want it. Probably in the next couple weeks we ll probably have to do one or two with July 4 th coming around. So we

22 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 22 we do it; we don t like I say, we don t advertise it. We don t specialize in it but we ll do it to make customers happy, so. 00:23:03 RF: Do you find people eating more or less barbecue than they did in the past, say ten twenty years ago? 00:23:12 TK: I would say more. I d like to think that anyway and I hope it continues. We have more competition in town now than we did before. And but, you know, the population is growing also so I think it all balances out and I think everybody is doing their fair share, you know, of business. And we have our loyal customers who keep coming back and hopefully they will continue to do that, so. RF: How many people do you get in here on a big lunch day? 00:23:41 00:23:46 TK: People ask us that all the time. We don t we don t count them. We require if you come back through the buffet to get a clean plate so there s no way to count plates and keep up with it that way. Usually we know about whether it was an average day or better than average or less than average usually by the money amount at the end of the day. [Laughs] But usually it it s

23 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 23 pretty consistent. We do, you know, I would say within 100 people the same every week, so you know give and take a little bit, so. 00:24:28 RF: And there s one I think one big buffet or food item that we haven't talked about and that s the sauces. Can you tell us about the various sauces you have? 00:24:37 TK: Both of our sauces are made right here. One is a sweet sauce and one is a hot sauce. And those are both secret recipes that have been here for forty years. And, like I say, we make them right here. We have a big vat that makes twenty-five gallons at a time of our sweet sauce, that s our biggest sauce that we use. The hot sauce, we ll we do that about once a month, we ll make that, and just refrigerate it until we need it if need be. And it it ll set you on fire if you re not used to that kind of stuff, so. But we have usually you can tell. I could stand at the door and tell you this guy is going to eat hot sauce and this guy is going to eat sweet sauce. RF: You ve seen you know; you ve seen them before? 00:25:26 00:25:28 TK: See them see them every week and you kind of pick and choose and you know. After a while you ll know. But yeah; I don t know what y'all ate but sweet sauce is what we re known for.

24 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 24 00:25:43 RF: I ate a little of both. What s the base of the sweet sauce? 00:25:47 TK: It s it s a ketchup-base sauce. A lot of people have a vinegar-based sauce, which our hot sauce does have vinegar in it. But our sweet sauce is is ketchup-based. RF: And what color is it? It s unlike other barbecue sauces. Can you describe the color? 00:26:02 00:26:07 TK: It s almost like a rust color, in between yellow and orange I guess is what you would say. It s it s I ve always said it looked like rust gravy is what I called it when I was little but. And like I say, most everything here hasn t changed in forty years, so. That s the way they used to make it. We used to make it by hand and, you know, of course didn't have to make twenty-five gallons at a time, but we used to make it by hand in a basket or in a big tub with a whisk whisker. And anyway times changed and business has grown and we had to go to a mixer, which is a good thing I guess. RF: And I ve seen the sauce called I mean well, let me ask you this first; is this sauce similar to other sauces around the area? Is it an Orangeburg-type sauce? 00:26:57

25 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 25 00:27:08 TK: I think so. There is Earl Dukes still sells his sauce in Orangeburg. Some of the local grocery stores carry it and I think he sells it all over the South South Carolina I know, but maybe the Southeast but. RF: This would be old Earl Dukes family because he s? 00:27:30 00:27:33 TK: Earl Dukes family that I guess Earl Dukes, Jr. and his family or whoever that, you know, used to be here and as far as I know they do well with it and we you know, that s something we ve considered several times, marketing our sauce, but we never got to it around to it yet, so we ll see maybe in the future. 00:27:54 RF: So why do you think this one sauce lives kind of only within Orangeburg, this this style of sauce? 00:28:03 TK: I guess it s just a Southern tradition that everything started with around here and just continued over the years and years and, like I said, if if it s not broke we re not going to fix it, so. We re going to leave it as is until it quits working.

26 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 26 00:28:19 RF: And has anyone ever guessed about why this sauce is because it s a totally unique color? Has anyone guessed about why it s that color and why? TK: Yeah, people ask all the time. You know I can't tell them and I can't tell you, so. [Laughs] 00:28:30 RF: Oh not but guessed like the history of the sauce? 00:28:36 00:28:38 TK: Right, well, like I say, I don t know who came up with the recipe or this wasn t Earl Jr this wasn t Earl Dukes recipe. This is what my father and and the other owners came up with at the time, so. That s you know, I wish I could go back and ask a bunch of questions but that s something I would I don t really know the answer to. All I know is what we ve been doing forever and ever and that s what we will continue to do. RF: Which is your favorite sauce? 00:29:07 TK: The sweet sauce. 00:29:08

27 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 27 00:29:10 RF: You put it on your barbecue or on other items? 00:29:11 TK: Right; I put I put the barbecue on my rice, since I don t eat hash, and then I put sauce on it. RF: Do other people do that too, barbecue on rice? 00:29:20 00:29:21 TK: Yeah, you see a lot of that. And even on some of our takeout plates people request the hash be put in a cup instead of on the rice because they might want to put it on bread or whatever. I don t know, but we we have that pretty regular, too, so. RF: What kind of rice is it? 00:29:37 TK: White rice, we cook that here, too. We cook everything here. 00:29:38

28 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 28 00:29:47 RF: Well just one or two more questions. What why do you think barbecue is so important in South Carolina? I mean there s restaurants everywhere. It s there s you know people traveling through the State eating just barbecue. Why does barbecue matter so much here? 00:30:04 TK: Uh, I don t really know other than Southern tradition is known for barbecue just like Texas is known for beef or whatever. So, it s just you know the Coast is known for the seafood. I think when people think of South Carolina and Georgia and places like that they think of good ol barbecue. And that s the way it s always been, so, you know, I think that s ninety-five-percent of it anyway. RF: Have you have you been able to travel around other parts of the South and eat their barbecue? 00:30:33 00:30:40 TK: Occasionally I will if you know, I don t seek out to do that but, you know, if we re on vacation or something of that nature, I ll try other places just to see. And, you know, I ve come across some pretty good ones and then some, you know, that I didn't care for. But I think it s it s whatever your acquired taste is, you know. Like I say, we have our regular crowd. They keep coming back so hopefully it ll continue that way.

29 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 29 00:31:17 RF: I m looking out at the dining room right now. We re in the corner of the dining room and there s a pitcher of sweet tea on every table. How how far does that go back? Why do y'all do it? 00:31:31 TK: We ve been doing that ever since we ve been in business here. It s the barbecue, hash, and rice, our sauce, sweet tea, and sliced bread are just what people come here for. And it s been that way. The other stuff in between all that is take it or leave it for a lot of people. They come just for for the atmosphere and and sweet tea and the. And we re known for our sweet tea, too. A lot of people say we have the best in town, so we re not going to change that either. 00:32:11 RF: So your family, your father and his two business partners bought this place forty years ago. And well first, are y'all doing anything, any sort of anniversary, forty-year anniversary? 00:32:22 TK: No, uh-uh, we don t go back for anything like that. We they wouldn t it wouldn t mean anything I don t think, so because they all came in at different years. My dad just came in in 72. I m not sure of the date, so it was a year or two later, but RF: But they came here in 72 and Dukes was around for, you know beyond that. 00:32:40

30 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 30 00:32:47 TK: I m thinking somewhere in the neighborhood of maybe ten years, something like that. I m like I say, that was before my time, so I m not, you know I was a youngin when my daddy bought into here, so I m not sure exactly how long Earl Dukes had been here. RF: And what does Dukes mean to the community, to Orangeburg, to the area? 00:33:01 00:33:07 TK: I would say anybody in South Carolina has heard of Dukes Bar-B-Que and they all think they re all related some kind of way but it s it s not but just about anybody has heard of the name, so. RF: And is there a rivalry in between between the Dukes Restaurants? 00:33:22 00:33:28 TK: No, not really. We re we re friends with a couple of the other ones that s local around here. There is another one in Orangeburg and we re good friends with him. And he does his business you know, his regular business and we do ours and everybody is happy. 00:33:45 RF: Well, I want to thank you very much. This was if you want to add anything, but this was very informative; thank you.

31 Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que 31 00:33:51 TK: We re done I believe. [Laughs] I appreciate it. 00:33:53 RF: Thank you, sir. 00:33:54 TK: All right; thank you. 00:33:56 [End Tony Kittrell Dukes Bar-B-Que]