What town around Charleston whould be best for a new upscale casual restaurant? (Mount Pleasant: transplants, living)

[Gayella]

Upscale restaurants do better where the old money is. That would be in downtown Charleston. Restaurants come and go and you may be able to find one that you can renovate that has what you need. Tourists go there more than any other local town or city but when the season is over you will want the revenue from those locals who can afford it. Charleston is trying to reclaim areas of the city that have been allowed to deteriorate and so the city is renewing itself. It will give you a chance. Mt. Pleasant is your next bet. If you want to get the best of both then Daniel Island is the best place as mentioned. Your best bet is to market yourself out the wazzoo. Join every chamber of commerce in the area and stay in touch with your builders associations as they know what is going on in the community better than anyone. They are in tax offices for permits all day long and hear what is happening as far as growth. They are the ones who informed me that Dorchester won the "Six Flags over SC" contract which will be going in right off I-95 within about 5 years so that Dorchester Road/Hwy 61 connection between I-95 and downtown Charleston is going to be busy traffic-wise in the future if you want to consider North Charleston or Summerville or West Ashley. I disagree with the idea of putting anything on James Island. I live there and at this time there are too many conflicts between the city of Charleston wanting to claim James Island and James Island wanting to be their own city. When people don't get what they want, there is a tendancy towards boycotting for spite. Quite a few restaurants have opened and closed within a two year time frame on the island and the restrictions may have something to do with that. You did realize that all restaurants/nightclubs downtown have to be smokeless now, don't you?

Good luck and when will you let us know your unique idea? One of my friends had a restaurant downtown before he retired to France.

[Gayella]

Originally Posted by JCFAU19

Thanks for your insight and Southern Hospitality! I will turn my attention to Summerville and keep you posted.

No no no. Summerville is just not where you want to be. Honestly. I mean...what are you trying to accomplish? Are you wanting to establish a unique restaurant or are you just wanting to have an income? If you truly are unique, your uniqueness will not be so once you are established if you are marketing to the same people all the time. Charleston is where your tourists are located and so your clientele will be fresh and new every day. Your uniqueness will remain for years. In Summerville you have your middle income working class group (nothing wrong with that) and they remain loyal but the upscale business will have to drop a scale or two to continue business. Summerville gets tourists but they are geared towards the festival of "Flowertown" and that means all the restaurant businesses downtown open up a booth to serve their uniqueness to tourists. You can do that too if you are downtown. Don't forget that Charleston has the harbor which occassionally has the cruise liners come in. There's thousands of people in one fell swoop. They don't go further afield then Charleston.

[Luvsdabeach]

Originally Posted by meks

they have them... Alex's, Lil' Pappy's and Citgo hot dogs

juzzzzz kiddin', they do need to widen their horizon

Well you just clogged my arteries with that post.

[Jim3310]

I know Alex's; and they are no Lil' Pappy's...

[scjj]

Folks, being that it is over a year later, I don't think he's coming back.

Since this posting over a year ago Summerville has gotten some new unique restaurants. Maybe this guy is one of them, who knows. I have heard that Summerville is a hard market to crack. The regular places over by the main shopping areas seem to always do pretty well, your chains like Applebee's, Ruby Tuesday's, Logan's, O'Charleys and McAllisters are always crowded. The locally owned ones that have popped up on Trolley Road seem to be the ones that are struggling. I think it comes down to location and the $$$ of the menu. Right now I don't think the clientèle to support these types of restaurants has fully arrived in Summerville, they are a little ahead of themselves. There is old money here, but I think the old money crowd has their set places that they regularly visit and are loyal to closer to their homes which is near the historic area. The new money has yet to fully arrive but with new developments such at The Ponds, Limehouse Plantation and the new developments coming out on 61, in time I think things will change. One place that I know is a gold mine is that Little Caesar's on Bacon's Bridge and their $5 pizzas. Wow, that place is always packed.

[Luvsdabeach]

I know but it's still fun to talk about. Maybe someone wanting to move to this area and curious about where to put a restaurant will get some ideas.....Hopefully...Went to Tomatoes tonight, yummy!!

[imperieux]

My family and I love Tomatoes! We also like the new Central Grille a lot.

A few more of our favorites are in Charleston like SNOB, Peninsula Grill and Magnolia's. Woodland's Inn here in Summerville is exceptional but their Sunday Brunch really impressed me the most.

So you can see, my family and I dine out often and so do many of our friends and neighbors here in Summerville. In fact, most of the families I know dine out in Charleston fairly often.

And the success of Central Grille and Oscar's should prove that a upscale restaurant can work here, in spite of those who think Summerville residents only dine at McDonald's or Applebee's.

[Luvsdabeach]

We haven't made it to Central Grille yet. I just heard about it the other day on the show "Lowcountry Live". I love Woodlands!

Have you tried Cypress in Chas.? My husband and a few of his coworker's go there when they have visitor's in town.

Oscar's has been in S'Ville forever! I don't eat at McDonald's or Applebee's. We did eat at Logan's a few weeks ago for the first time in a long time but I don't care for going in there because I don't like the smell of smoke when I'm eating. That's why we go to Tomatoes frequently....No smoking there.

[debw6051]

hAVING BEEN IN THE RESTURANT BUSINESS FOR MANY, MANY YEARS, i CAN ONLY TELL YOU THAT IT IS NOT AN EASY THING TO DO TODAY. Most don't make it to 3 years, and 98% fail the first year. Rule of thumb used to be that one charged 3X's whatever the item costs (say an egg cost you 30 cents, would charge 90), but that is extremely difficult today. Also, the cost of liability ins. on resturants has gone thru the roof. Good luck and let me know if you decide to venture out into this area.

[TransplantSC]

Summerville is achin' for a nice restaurant! I hear that they have proposed a new Summerville Town Center off of Berlin G Meyers so you might want to think about that area!!!