Update on new restaurants opening in Beaufort County

Robert Plantadis can remember the day he signed the lease to his combined bakery and bistro: May 17.

"I looked out the window and saw my landlord and his wife walking down the street, documents in hand," he recalled, smiling. "It was a good day."

Rewind to two months before, when I first spoke to Plantadis about his plans to expand his business -- The Midnight Bakers, at 14 Promenade St., Suite 301, in Old Town Bluffton -- into a bistro next door. His goal had been to open on April Fool's Day.

But, as it turned out, the joke was on him.

"I couldn't get the permits (I needed)" for the bistro, he explained. "I was stuck."

Plantadis said there was no evidence that his name was attached to the lease for his business, separate from his apartment lease upstairs.

"The lease was not written; it was verbal," he said. "It was a gentleman's agreement."

This halted Plantadis' plans, which include adding soups, salads, pate and cheese platters to his menu, as well as crepes and omelets prepared tableside on portable cooktop stoves.

Now that he has put pen to paper, though, he's moving ahead with the expanded space and hopes to begin offering "75 percent" of his new menu by mid-July. Renovations to the combined spaces will include expanded outdoor seating with an awning that has fans and misters to cool down customers dining al fresco.

Plantadis is particularly excited about a dark, windowless corner in the back of his new space.

"Breads and croissants, they don't want to be bothered," he said.

So he'll leave the antisocial carbohydrates in the corner until they are ready to be molded into small sandwiches (which include French favorites croque monsieur and croque madame) or accompaniments to cheeses such as Roquefort and gorgonzola.

He's devoting an entire wall to a vegetable station, where he'll prepare dark green, beet and tomato salads with lemon juice, olive oil, walnut oil or wheat germ oil -- that is, if he can find the authentic stuff, he said.

The entire kitchen will be open, he said, so customers are able to watch their meals being prepared from start to finish. The open-concept feel will carry into the dining area, with an archway connecting the bakery to the bistro.

Small round tables will be placed throughout the space, but Plantadis is not putting the usual seasonings on them.

"There will be no salt shakers," he said. "(The point is to) eat the food as it is."

Keeping it simple is Plantadis' entire cooking philosphy.

"I'm going to do a few things right," he said. "I'm working as I worked when I was 28. What I do now is my favorite thing to do."

Details: 843-815-5355

I also wanted to update you on some of the restaurants I wrote about earlier this year. They were in the works then, but are open now:

1635 ON THE AVENUE

The Port Royal restaurant that chef and owner Lorett Hayes promised would offer "sweet and heat" is now open.

1635 on the Avenue, at 1635 Paris Ave., is open for lunch 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday to Friday and at 5 p.m. Thursday to Saturday for dinner. The last seating is taken at 8 p.m.

The Southern restaurant is much in the style of Hayes' former Pendleton restaurants, featuring crab cakes, sandwiches and salads for lunch and seafood, steak, pasta, and shrimp and grits for dinner, which she claimed are "like nothing else."

Details: 843-379-0607

AGAVE SIDEBAR

Old Town Bluffton just got a lot brighter.

Agave Sidebar, which owner James Soules described as a "new-age taco" bar, opened last week at 13 State of Mind St., in the Promenade.

The menu includes skirt steak tacos, ahi tuna tacos, pulled pork tacos and cheese quesadillas, in addition to sides such as grilled corn on the cob, black beans and everyone's favorite -- chips and salsa. Margaritas and other tequila-based drinks are Agave's drink specialities.

Details: 843-757-9190

BURNIN' DOWN SOUTH

When Chef David Young closed Roastfish & Cornbread on Hilton Head Island, some were afraid they would no longer be able to enjoy his Gullah cooking.

But his new restaurant Burnin' Down South, at 198 Okatie Village Drive, No. 105, in Bluffton, is now open.

Most of the same Roastfish & Cornbread dishes are found at the new restaurant, but there are more grilled options on the menu at Burnin' Down South, including sirloin steak and roasted portabella mushrooms.

Burnin' Down South is open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday to Saturday and 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday. A vegetarian and vegan menu is also available.

Details: 843-705-2453

CHOW DADDY'S (BLUFFTON)

Chow Daddy's, at 15 Towne Drive in Bluffton, opened Wednesday, according to co-owner Price Beall. The restaurant serves entrees such as Southern pulled pork buns, steak tacos, fried chicken bowls, and kale and quinoa salad bowls.

The original Chow Daddy's is on Hilton Head Island, at 14-B Executive Park Road. Beall is also the co-owner of Truffles Cafe, which has two locations in Bluffton and on Hilton Head.

Follow reporter Ashley Fahey at twitter.com/IPBG_Ashley.

Related content:

• Music, theater school in Port Royal opening this summer , June 11, 2015
• Dessert bar by Baby Cakes owner opening soon on Hilton Head Island , June 4, 2015
• Father-son team to open combined restaurant, cooking school in Habersham , May 21, 2015

This story was originally published June 18, 2015 at 7:28 PM with the headline "Update on new restaurants opening in Beaufort County."