A new waterfront restaurant is coming to Hilton Head’s north end. What we know
There’s big news in Hilton Head Island’s food scene.
Coastal Restaurants and Bars, or CRAB, is planning to build a new two-story waterfront restaurant on the island’s north end, according to architect Joseph DePauw and an application submitted to the town’s Design Review Board.
The restaurant, which is unnamed for now, will be located on a 4.2-acre parcel next to Skull Creek, records show.
The property, 175 Squire Pope Road, is home to the Benny Hudson Seafood market, which has been at its current location for decades.
Brendan Reilley, a partner at CRAB, in a Monday phone call confirmed that the seafood market will remain on the land, which is owned by Barbara Hudson, records show.
CRAB’s new restaurant will be built near the market, Reilley said, and will be a tenant of Hudson’s.
The Hudson family has been a fixture in the Lowcountry’s seafood industry since the 1800s.
The property, Reilley said, “is iconic. It is one of the premiere spots on all of Hilton Head.”
Reilley said Monday that it’s too early to release a full menu for the restaurant, which will include an open-air dining area on its second floor.
But in a “best-case scenario,” he hopes that CRAB will break ground on the project in January 2022, and then spend 12 to 13 months building the restaurant.
The restaurant could open sometime in 2023, Reilley said.
The project still has to go through the town’s permitting process and is currently before the DRB. Town staff members will recommend during a Tuesday meeting that the DRB issue a conceptual approval for the restaurant’s design.
The restaurant will take up almost 9,700 square feet of space and will be less than a mile south of Hudson’s Seafood House on the Docks and Skull Creek Boathouse.
“Our new waterfront restaurant is planned for the center of the Hudson family property,” the project’s DRB application says. “It takes full advantage of the views the property offers of the Skull Creek.”
CRAB most recently bought the mid-island Old Oyster Factory in 2019 and opened Fishcamp on 11st Street in Port Royal in 2018, Reilley said.
With the newly planned restaurant off Squire Pope Road, CRAB will run 10 restaurants, including Reilley’s Grill & Bar and Carolina Crab Company, among others.
What about the seafood market?
The popular Benny Hudson Seafood market, which will remain at 175 Squire Pope Road, is in line for a makeover, according to Reilley and documents submitted to the DRB.
The DRB in June approved a separate plan to redevelop the market. The new market will be built across the parking lot from the current market, which will eventually be demolished.
The Hudsons came to Hilton Head in the late 1890s to open oyster-shucking houses, according to previous reporting from The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette.
This story was originally published September 28, 2021 at 4:25 AM.
