How to get waterfront, outdoor seating and ‘the most high-end steaks’ on Hilton Head

As life continues to return to normal on Hilton Head Island after Hurricane Matthew, a piece of the original island has returned: The old Simmons Fishing Camp, now Fishcamp on Broad Creek, is officially open.

Fishcamp, a casual seafood and grill restaurant with outdoor, waterfront seating, opened Oct. 24 at 11 Simmons Road, according to Lindsy Bentz, director of marketing for Coastal Restaurants & Bars.

The Reilley family, which owns the Crazy Crab, Aunt Chilada’s Easy Street Cafe and Carolina Crab Company and who partnered with the Simmons family for this venture, tried to maintain as much of the original Simmons Fishing Camp as possible to keep history alive, she said.

“A lot of people were thrilled with how we kept the building,” Bentz said.

Before the construction of the island bridge in 1956, the fishing camp was where a boat would ferry produce and passengers between Hilton Head and Savannah. It was later the location of a nightclub.

Fishcamp was originally set to open in the spring, but had permitting delays, Bentz said. And even though the restaurant was not damaged in the hurricane, the storm further delayed their opening by two weeks.

“We didn’t want to push an opening on people when there’s a lot of other important stuff going on,” she said. “It’s been such a rough few weeks.”

Entrees are between $18 and $39 and include whole fried flounder, Prince Edward island mussels, seafood towers, a raw bar, shrimp and polenta and a Louisiana crawfish boil, according to the restaurant’s website. A “bar bites menu” is available at 3 p.m. and features smaller plates like peel and eat shrimp, grilled filet skewers, a calamari sandwich and fried fish tacos. There is also a full kids menu.

“They have some of the most high-end steaks you can find on the island,” Bentz said of the restaurant.

The bar will have live music and plans to host oyster roasts down the road.

“For the future, we plan on obviously keeping it going through the winter,” she said. “Come spring, we hope to expand that service into lunch ... we’ll kind of just go from there.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 12:12 PM with the headline "How to get waterfront, outdoor seating and ‘the most high-end steaks’ on Hilton Head."