Another James Beard Award winner is coming to Birmingham.

South Carolina barbecue pitmaster Rodney Scott, who just last week won the James Beard Foundation Award for best chef Southeast, has partnered with Birmingham restaurateur Nick Pihakis of Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q and the Pihakis Restaurant Group to open another location of his Charleston restaurant Rodney Scott's BBQ.

Scott is the first African-American to win the Southeast chef award and only the second barbecue cook to win a chef award from the James Beard Foundation.

He will be in good company in Birmingham, where he will join Highlands Bar and Grill, which also won James Beard Awards this year for the most outstanding restaurant in America and for outstanding pastry chef.

Scott's new Birmingham restaurant will be in the downtown area, Pihakis said, although he said the lease on the property has not been finalized.

"What made me think about Birmingham is, that city is growing fast," Scott said Monday in an interview with AL.com. "It is a beautiful city. The barbecue scene there has always been mentioned to me by people from Birmingham who would come eat here (in Charleston) and tell me, 'Have you ever thought about Birmingham?'

"At first, I didn't. Then, after visiting the city so many times, I thought, 'Why not?' Every time I cook there, the folks seem to enjoy it. So why not just go ahead and give Birmingham a shot?"

Scott grew up in his parents Roosevelt and Ella Scott's barbecue joint, Scott's Bar-B-Que, in Hemingway, S.C., and he started working there full-time nearly 30 years ago, when he was 17. He cut and split his own firewood, and then came back and worked the barbecue pit from late at night until well in the morning.

"They not only cooked with real wood," Pihakis said. "They went out and got it."

Scott and Pihakis became friends after they were introduced by John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, and Pihakis recruited Scott to cook for a dinner during the Charleston Wine + Food Festival about eight years ago.

"He helped me on occasion, and I helped him," Scott said. "It grew into this relationship that was more than just two businessmen. We're like brothers. Nick was the best man at my wedding."

"I saw this hunger in him to learn," Pihakis added. "He taught me the humble part of the art of barbecue, and I taught him about the financial side of running a business."

Pihakis was the one who encouraged Scott to open a place of his own in Charleston, Scott said.

"Nick would visit me occasionally in Hemingway, and he kept telling me, 'You should think about opening somewhere else, opening up your own spot,'" Scott said.

"He kept mentioning it to me, and finally, I said, 'OK, let's give it a shot. Let's do it. Let's see how this thing goes.' We did. We pulled the trigger and opened up this one here in Charleston, and it's been a great year since we opened."

Rodney Scott won the James Beard Foundation Award for best chef Southeast during the 2018 awards show at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. (Photo by Eugene Galdones, courtesy of James Beard Foundation)

Scott opened Rodney Scott's BBQ in February 2017, and a little more than a year later, he won a James Beard Award in his first year as a nominee.

The other nominees for best chef Southeast, all from fine-dining restaurants, were Katie Button of Nightbell in Asheville, N.C.; Cassidee Dabney of The Barn at Blackberry Farm in Walland, Tenn.; Andrew Ticer and Michael Hudman of Andrew Michael Italian Kitchen in Memphis; and Mashama Bailey of The Grey in Savannah, Ga.

During his acceptance speech, Scott thanked Pihakis and chef Paul Yeck, the culinary director for the Pihakis Restaurant Group, for inspiring him.

The only other barbecue pitmaster to win a chef award from the James Beard Foundation was Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue in Austin, Texas, who won for best chef Southwest three years ago.

"I'm still trying to gather myself a week later," Scott said Monday. "I'm still surprised that everything went the way it did. We won the James Beard Award -- you know, a barbecue guy. Unbelievable.

"In a sense, it opened the door for a lot of other African-American guys that do barbecue because they sent me messages and gave me calls congratulating me. . . .

"It kind of tears down the walls," he added. "This is anybody's game now. It's not just some white-tablecloth chefs."

Scott said he also heard from a Charleston woman whose preacher cited his historic win during his sermon this past Sunday.

"The bits and pieces that I got was the pastor mentioned that my family gave me a skill instead of a worldly possession, and that I took that skill and made it grow and used it to make a positive return," Scott said. "That's deep."

The menu at Rodney Scott's BBQ includes slow-cooked whole hog barbecue, ribs and chicken, as well as catfish and a ribeye sandwich. (Photo by Andrew Cebulka)

The menu at Rodney Scott's BBQ features slow-smoked whole hog barbecue, ribs and chicken served with Scott's vinegar-based sauce, as well as such sides as collard greens, hush puppies, coleslaw, baked beans, potato salad, and banana pudding for dessert.

"The menu basically came from my childhood," Scott said. "My mom would cook banana pudding on Sunday. Baked beans, that was usually on a Wednesday night.

"I made this long list of things that I loved to eat and even the one or two things that I wouldn't eat, like collards," he adds. "We put them on the menu anyway."

In addition to Rodney Scott's BBQ, the Pihakis Restaurant Group portfolio includes several locations of Big Bad Breakfast and Little Donkey restaurants, as well as Saigon Noodle House in Avondale, Hero Doughnuts in Homewood and a Nashville location of New York's Mile End Delicatessen.

Over the next several months, the group plans to open a second Hero Doughnuts across from Paramount restaurant and bar on the southwest corner of 20th Street and Second Avenue North downtown, and another Mile End Delicatessen in the former Cosecha Urban Kitchen space at 1701 First Ave. South, across from Railroad Park.

Rodney Scott's BBQ should open within about six months after construction begins, Pihakis said. The target opening date is late this year or early 2019, he said.

While Scott will divide his time between his restaurant in Charleston and the new one in Birmingham, Pihakis said his group will identify an operating partner to eventually run the Birmingham location.

"I plan to bring the most positive things that I can to Birmingham," Scott said. "Like I said when I was coming to Charleston, I'm coming to complement, not to complicate."