Pepper's Porch restaurant returns to Bluffton; expansions planned

The restaurant Pepper's Porch is back in Bluffton.

The restaurant is open for business and will have a grand opening sometime in early 2015, manager and co-owner John Cherol said.

Cherol's plans for the five buildings on the restaurant's 1.3-acre lot include a gift and yogurt shop, a burger shack, a bar and an arcade, with a pavilion in the middle with seating and TVs for watching sports.

The main building in front -- a converted tobacco barn from the 1850s -- will continue to be used as the primary dining space. Collectively, the buildings will be called Pepper's Old Town.

Original owner Roberts Vaux is also back on board. Vaux started Pepper's Porch in 1996. At the time, it was one of Bluffton's first restaurants. Vaux operated Pepper's until the early 2000s, when he sold it because his practice at the Vaux Marscher Berglind law firm was taking up most of his time, he said. He still owns the land.

Pepper's continued under new ownership until it briefly became Jack's Old Town Bluffton in July. The restaurant closed in late October.

Cherol was a consultant for Jack's and a friend of Vaux's. He and Vaux agreed to reopen a revamped version of Pepper's, with Vaux as a co-owner.

"John had a lot of refreshing new ideas," Vaux, 69, said. "I'm glad he's in it now and in charge of it."

Although 32-year-old Cherol marks the "next generation" of Pepper's management, he said he still wants to retain the feel of the old establishment. The nightly specials and oyster roasts the restaurant used to do will continue.

To modernize the place, Cherol said waiters will use tablets to take orders and payments at tableside, and he will provide WiFi.

The modifications should help Pepper's Porch fit in with Bluffton's downtown, he said, even if the restaurant is a few blocks from the rest of Old Town.

"We're a little tucked back, but not too far. And we have great parking."

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This story was originally published December 16, 2014 at 1:18 PM with the headline "Pepper's Porch restaurant returns to Bluffton; expansions planned."