Breakfast restaurant in Port Royal reopens with new name. More changes are coming
A breakfast restaurant in Port Royal has a new owner, a new menu and a new name suited to its historic location.
The Olde Schoolhouse Restaurant at 1638 Paris Ave. is open in a building that once served as a one-room schoolhouse on St. Helena Island. Most recently, it was The Cracked Egg restaurant.
The location was purchased by local businessman Jake Higgins, a father of three daughters who said he saw an opportunity to create “a good family restaurant” in the town.
“Port Royal is just a great area,” he said.
Higgins is a trooper with the South Carolina Highway Patrol in Beaufort and Jasper counties, but he’s also experienced in the business world. He also owns Which Wich, Kilwin’s, Dairy Queen and Bluffton Pizza Company in Bluffton; Coastal Sunset car washes in Bluffton and Beaufort; Coastal Sunset Property Services, a cleaning company, on Hilton Head; and Security Now USA, which offers security services in all 50 states.
The restaurant’s family atmosphere is a big draw for relatives and friends visiting Port Royal for Marine Corps boot camp graduations on Parris Island.
The menu is based on what is available right now,” Higgins said. “All menu items, you can have all day long.”
In the next three to four weeks, The Olde Schoolhouse Restaurant will add dinner hours, and that’s not the only change in the air.
The outside seating area is being spruced up and live music is planned on the weekends. Higgins said he wants to add memorabilia inside to reflect the building’s history.
“My goal is to bring in things that remind people ... that it is a schoolhouse and kids learned there, years and years and years ago,” he said.
The menu
The Olde Schoolhouse Restaurant’s menu features classic Southern breakfast and lunch items, such as sausage gravy and biscuits, shrimp and grits, and country-fried steak. Diners can order pigs in a blanket or a fried bologna sandwich.
Modern nods include avocado toast for breakfast or an assortment of wraps, sandwiches and salads on the lunch menu.
There are a few items that stand out as unique, however. Among them are Mikey’s Way, described as “a massive pancake sandwich” with scrambled eggs, sausage, bacon and cheese.
The Train Wreck is a plate of waffle fries covered with eggs, bacon, sausage gravy and cheese.
The BELT is a bacon, egg, lettuce and tomato sandwich so big that you’ll have to “adjust your belt on the way out.”
Entrees range in price from around $8 to around $12. Kids menu items are $5.50.
If you go
What: The Olde Schoolhouse Restaurant
Where: 1638 Paris Ave, Port Royal, S.C. 29935
Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, with expanded evening hours expected in the coming weeks
Phone: 843-379-7379
Facebook: www.facebook.com/CrackedeggPR
This story was originally published April 25, 2022 at 2:40 PM.
