After 36 years, Hilton Head’s popular Aunt Chilada’s is closing soon. Will it reopen?
Just before 5 p.m. Wednesday, the outdoor bar at 69 Pope Avenue was packed, despite the afternoon heat. One of the patrons from the far side of the bar raised a glass and reminded everyone to enjoy one of the iconic location’s last happy hours.
Inside, a couple picked out t-shirts from a merchandise wall with only a few items left on the shelves.
After a 36-year-run on Hilton Head Island, Aunt Chilada’s Easy Street Cafe is closing its doors this Sunday. An uncle and his nephew, David and Brendan Reilley, have been the owners since the early 2000s. The Pope Avenue location is one of the longest standing establishments on the island.
The roots of Aunt Chilada’s go back to the Reagan presidency. The restaurant first opened its doors on New Year’s Eve in 1988, when the island’s population was half of the current total. Earlier that year, the Hilton Head Mall, now Shelter Cove, first opened. The Kiwanis Club on the island was founded and tennis great, Martina Navratilova, won the Family Circle Cup at Sea Pines.
Brendan returned to Hilton Head after working as a chef at a restaurant in Hawaii and received a phone call from his uncle, David, with an offer to join the family-owned business. Soon after, he was working behind the line prepping meals and writing menus.
“Butterflies and roses”
Even though working with family is not always “butterflies and roses,” Brendan said, he and his uncle have maintained a wonderful relationship over the years. While David is the “marketing machine,” Brendan is responsible for the business and kitchen side of the operation. Brendan is the only Reilley with formal culinary training (he graduated from the Culinary Institute of Arts in New York), so while David gets patrons in the door, Brendan tries his best to keep them coming back.
The original slogan of the restaurant, Brendan said, was “something for everyone.” And it really was, he said.
The menu was “the most diverse on the island” and has been evolving since its early days, serving up pasta, steak, seafood and, you guessed it, enchiladas. At one point, the restaurant was selling 80,000 pounds of crab legs per year (or 219 pounds per day), Brendan said. They even had a cold storage unit in Savannah, where the owners would truck crab legs onto the island, Brendan said.
Where Michaela Mondays were born
Regulars will remember Brendan’s aunt, Michaela Simmons, whipping up homemade lasagna and meatballs on “Michaela Mondays.” She has been working at the restaurant since the very first day it opened. Even though she doesn’t need the work, Brendan said, she still comes in once a week, if only to talk to customers. They might also remember a corner of the bar, endearingly named “the love corner,” where the same group of locals rarely missed daily happy hour for years.
When the restaurant announced they were closing on Facebook, over 200 diners commented about the memories they made over the years there, from baby showers to St. Patrick’s Day traditions. Some posted old photos of their children wearing over-sized Aunt Chilada’s t-shirts or group photos under string lights at the bar.
What will replace it?
Brendan, who also owns the land the restaurant sits on, will not be filling the nearly 1.5 acres with another restaurant or a hotel, but instead, has chosen to sell it to the town with the hope it can be converted into much needed free beach parking.
The town purchased the former Wild Wing Cafe, just across Pope Avenue last October for the same purpose.
By next summer, the group will open another Tex-Mex inspired restaurant in Reilley’s Plaza. The establishment will open in the same building as the One Hot Mama’s Hilton Head location, behind Reilley’s Grill & Bar. Earlier this week, the SERG group announced that the BBQ joint would move from that location to replace Nectar.
This story was originally published August 30, 2024 at 3:33 PM.
