Caterers in Easley

The Soul Roll tends to get ordered before anyone has fully settled in: a house creation of greens and pork served with sauce, the sort of thing you won't find spelled out on many menus. It shares the board with brisket, burnt ends, ribs, hand-pulled pork, and smoked wings, plus a rack of BBQ sauces brought to the table so you can dial in your own plate. These days Smitty's cooks from a downtown Easley storefront on East Main, a move from its original Calhoun Memorial Highway spot, though the approach hasn't changed since Allen Smith opened in 2018 after teaching himself brisket on a smoker he'd bought on sale. The catering side and the food truck carry the same plates out to weddings, events, and at-home gatherings around the Upstate. Reviewers keep singling out the brisket and burnt ends as some of the best smoked meat around here, backed by the old-school mac and cheese, seasoned greens, and jalapeño cheddar cornbread a lot of us grew up on, with banana pudding and peach cobbler to finish. It was voted Best New Restaurant of the Upstate in 2023 and has since drawn a widely watched BBQ eating challenge to its counter. Work your way across the smoker and the sides enough times and you'll land on the one favorite that's yours to defend.

Chef Beks Catering is an Easley caterer serving events across the Upstate, handling both the food and the delivery that comes with it. Its hours run seven days a week, which leaves room to plan around a Saturday reception or a weekday office lunch. The menu and the kinds of events they take on come straight from the caterer, so it is worth reaching out directly to line up the details for your date.

Taste of Distinction started as a catering kitchen and built enough of a following that owners Doris and Joe opened a restaurant alongside it. Catering still comes first here, handling weddings, church and school events, corporate lunches, birthdays, and grand openings out of the Easley kitchen, with private event space available at the location by appointment. What most of the Upstate knows it for, though, is the Sunday buffet. Reviewers describe a spread that runs deep: around a dozen meat choices from ribs to chicken, a full run of vegetable sides, soups, and Southern staples cooked from scratch. The kitchen also builds catering menus to a theme, from Southern comfort food to Italian to a taco bar, so a booked event rarely looks like anyone else's. A few things pull people back in particular: the turkey and dressing casserole, mac and cheese that turns up as a favorite in review after review, stuffed mushrooms, meatballs, and peach cobbler to finish. Presentation gets named nearly as often as the food itself, and folks who worked directly with Doris tend to mention her by name. It fits a wedding or a company lunch you want handled without fuss, and the Sunday buffet makes an easy family outing after church.