Popular Lemon Island Seafood Market finds a new home in Bluffton. ‘We’re happy here’
Lemon Island Seafood, which sold fresh fish, shrimp and other seafood at a popular roadside market along the Chechessee River and S.C. 170 for several years, has a new home in Bluffton.
The well-known seafood business is now located in Plantation Plaza at 22 Plantation Park Drive, Suite 101.
The shopping center is alongside U.S. 278 and also is home to Dairy Queen, Enterprise Rent-A-Car and other businesses.
“They are trickling in,” owner Brandy Diehl said of long-time customers who are beginning to track down the new location of their favorite fresh seafood market.
Diehl is noticing new customers as well, she said.
With its big sign featuring red letters and reputation for fresh seafood, Lemon Island Seafood became a landmark along S.C. 170 in Port Royal. The market was started by David Diehl, Brandy Diehl’s father, in 2016. David Diehl also owns Highway 21 Seafood in Beaufort. Brandy Diehl took over Lemon Island Seafood Market in 2019.
“It’s been heartbreaking,” Brandy Diehl said of the move from the original location.
Port Royal Sound Foundation, which opened the Maritime Center at the site in 2014, needed additional space for parking related to construction of a new pavilion and did not renew the seafood market’s lease.
But Diehl said she’s settling in at the new Lemon Island Seafood in Bluffton, which opened April 25. On Wednesday, shrimp and fish fillets were stocked in big white coolers filed with ice. And even though Lemon Island Seafood has moved, its seafood variety, freshness and competitive prices have not changed, Brandy Diehl said.
“We’re happy here,” Diehl said.
Triggerfish and grouper are big sellers, along with peeled and deveined shrimp. Five to seven different-sized shrimp are available, as well as scallops and oysters. Even beef steaks — rib eye and filet mignon — are available. The seafood comes from waters along the southeast coast, from North Carolina to Florida.
“I wouldn’t buy seafood from anybody but them,” customer Eileen Miles of Sun City said. “They are the freshest seafood around.”
Miles and her husband, Bill, were shopping at the new Bluffton store for the first time.
“Shrimp and taters,” Bill Miles said of that day’s purchase.
Another customer was checking out the availability of shrimp for a surprise 40th birthday party for their son.
Signs from the old location — “Open, Lemon Island Seafood” – adorn the walls of the new location.
“It seems to be working out pretty good,” Brandy Diehl said.
The store hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sundays.
This story was originally published May 4, 2023 at 12:50 PM.
