Hector Garate
Palmira Barbecue | Charleston, SC
NOVEMBER 2024
Everything changed for Hector Garate when his wife bought him an offset smoker. Although he had worked in restaurants and bars before, he discovered that his true passion was barbecue. During the pandemic, Garate started to cook in the smoker and dove into the technique and science behind barbecue. His early creations were rooted in Texas barbecue traditions, but as his style developed, South Carolina techniques and nostalgic Puerto Rican flavors soon found their way into his smoker as he began to tackle whole hog cooking. Garate built a cinder block pit and taught himself to weld, building a larger smoker on his own before hosting his first pop-up in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina in 2021.
Over the next few years, Garate continued to build a following for his barbecue through pop-ups and residencies at food halls while solidifying his relationships with local pig farmers and producers. In 2023, after receiving a wave of accolades, he found a brick-and-mortar location for his concept and started to build out the space. Palmira Barbecue opened in February 2024. At the new restaurant, named after his great-grandmother, Garate is drawing on his personal experiences to create distinct dishes and bold barbecue, and is demonstrating his technical skill as a pitmaster along the way. He is focused on supporting local farmers and is determined to pave the way for more genre-bending concepts in the barbecue space. With another smoker in the works, Garate is gearing up for large-scale production, building and training his team, and connecting with the local community.
2024 StarChefs Charleston-Savannah Rising Stars Award Winner
