One of Hilton Head’s oldest restaurants closing after 50 years. What’s next for the location?
Hilton Head chef Signe Gardo will prepare Christmas feasts for 56 families this week. She’ll serve customers breakfast and lunch at her bakery and deli and package up take-home dinners each afternoon.
Then, at 4 p.m. Saturday, Signe’s Heaven Bound Bakery and Cafe at 93 Arrow Road on the island’s south end will close its doors for the last time.
Gardo, 81, is retiring.
Signe’s, believed to be the longest-running restaurant with a single owner on Hilton Head, recently marked its 50th year of business.
“Two years ago, after I broke my leg, I began wondering when the end would be. I have never had an exit plan, but I have just tried to listen to the Lord each day with full faith that he would tell me when it was time to stop. And, now he has,” she wrote in an email to her customers on Monday morning.
On Aug. 11, 1972, Gardo opened Signe’s World deli in a former lighthouse keeper’s cottage at Harbour Town. She’s been at her current location since 1984 and estimates that she’s worked with more than 2,000 employees over her career.
She’s served generations of customers, a few celebrities among them. Her bakery was a regular stop for golf greats Johnny Miller and Tom Watson, as well as tennis superstars Martina Navratilova, Evonne Goolagong and Chris Evert. In 2004, Rachael Ray featured Signe’s deep-dish blueberry French toast on her Food Network show.
Gardo isn’t leaving the food business altogether, but she will be taking things in a different direction after decades of early mornings in the kitchen six days a week.
“I have plans to finally relax and then write a cookbook with one of my daughters” she said.
What’s next for the location?
Signe’s closure on Christmas Eve is not the end for a bakery in the location.
Kim Tavino of Sprout Momma Breads will be refurbishing the space and expects to open in February, according to a news release.
Sprout Momma Breads’ products currently are sold at local farmer’s markets and are served in at least nine local restaurants, including The Bluffton Room, Lucky Rooster, Sage Room and Java Burrito.
The business recently started preparing breakfast and lunch sandwiches using its artisan breads and also offers prepared salads, vegan cheeses and soups, its website says. Catering options include cakes, sandwich trays and even wood-fired pizza from a rolling pizza oven.
This story was originally published December 19, 2022 at 1:12 PM.
