Fahey: Thee Oyster Bar to open next year in former Mulberry Street Pizzeria location

Filling a niche is the goal of James Soules' latest restaurant venture.

"The vision is simple," he said. "We don't want to do everything. We want to specialize."

Soules is a partner at Thee Oyster Bar, which he expects will open within the next three to four months in Old Town Bluffton's Promenade. The restaurant will be in the former Mulberry Street Pizzeria spot at 15 State of Mind St.

Thee Oyster Bar will be Soules' third restaurant in the Promenade. He opened Agave Side Bar, next door to the oyster restaurant, this summer. The Bluffton Room was his original venture, opening last year at 15 Promenade St.

Instead of offering a wide range of entrees, he plans to keep the menu strictly to one genre.

"We'll have oysters from all over the country and from Canada," he said. The signature item will be, of course, May River oysters, but Soules hopes to procure a wide selection of oysters from places ranging from the Lowcountry to Washington state to Prince Edward Island. He said he will be working with an oyster company out of Savannah.

The selection will also be continuously rotating.

"Whatever is the freshest that day will be available," he said. Soules plans to add a chalkboard in the dining room displaying the day's selection.

At Thee Oyster Bar, there will be a bit of an interactive element, too: customers can watch as oysters are shucked in front of them. Soules said diners will also be able to select oysters from a display case.

Beyond oysters, the menu will include New England clam chowder, gumbo, cast-iron skillet cornbread, red beans and rice, and key lime pie. The second floor will be converted into a Lowcountry boil room.

"We're trying to be a niche market," Soules said. "We're ... adding to the decision-making process for customers."

Soules has tried different approaches at both of his existing restaurants. While The Bluffton Room has a large assortment of entrees, he wanted to keep the menu simple, straightfoward and specific at Agave.

It's a business model he says has been a success at the taco-and-margarita bar, which is why it's his strategy at Thee Oyster Bar.

"I just want to add to the already great restaurants here," Soules said.

This story was originally published December 3, 2015 at 6:12 PM with the headline "Fahey: Thee Oyster Bar to open next year in former Mulberry Street Pizzeria location."