DAUFUSKIE ISLAND, S.C. — The leafy gnarled limbs of a three-centuries-old oak tree give cover to the dining room of the Island Shack Cafe, where the neighborhood dog makes the rounds in search of scraps and musicians serenade diners from a Bluetooth speaker lashed to a pole.
A shack itself is the cafe’s kitchen, located a flung skipping stone away — just close enough for the smell of curried goat, blackened grouper and grilled Angus beef to tease the clientele. Heads turn at every screech of the canteen’s screen door opening, as the hungry wonder if the tray of food headed their way carries their order or someone else’s.
The delivery interrupts the between-table conversations that are the norm at the Island Shack and the handful of other eateries on Daufuskie Island. No bridge connects Daufuskie to its two closest neighbors, Hilton Head Island and Tybee Island, and there is no airport, so most of the customers are visitors who arrive by boat.
The questions are routine. Where are you from? How did you get here, by ferry or private boat? Are you staying the night or going back before sunset? But each query is tinged with the same hint that those eating under the oak or Daufuskie’s other al fresco dining spots have discovered a delicious secret.
Adam Van Brimmer
Adam Van Brimmer
The “Daufuskie dock and dine” is making a comeback, particularly with Savannah foodies. Long popular with the boating set, Daufuskie’s culinary scene nearly disappeared due to a combination of the Great Recession, which led to the bankruptcy of two of the island’s three major residential developments, and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
When the island’s most iconic eatery, Marshside Mama’s, closed on New Year’s Day in 2018, only two restaurants open to the general public remained.
Now there are seven, plus a coffee shop, to serve tourists and Daufuskie’s 500 or so year-round residents. They range from the Island Shack Cafe to the Old Daufuskie Crab Co., famous for deviled crab and a cocktail known as a Scrap Iron, and from Up in Smoke BBQ to Frye’s Corner, which serves fried chicken tenders and boiled peanuts.
Then there’s the recent return of Beth Shipman, the marshside mama herself, cooking out of a food truck at the Daufuskie Island Rum Co.
“This is just a time in history when everything is coming up for Daufuskie,” said James Mahaffey, co-owner of Up in Smoke BBQ. “Especially if you’re hungry.”
Accidental restaurateurs
None of Daufuskie’s current eatery proprietors moved to the island to start a restaurant.
The island is too sparsely populated, the weather too fickle and the logistics of product procurement too complicated to make Daufuskie restaurateur a wise career choice. A lunch or dinner rush is a few dozen customers. The Old Daufuskie Crab Co., part of the only public marina on the island, is the lone eatery that can accommodate anything resembling a crowd.
Several of Daufuskie’s entrepreneurs came to own restaurants by accident. Ron Angle of the Island Shack Cafe also runs a golf cart rental business and purchased the shuttered eatery after being asked by cart clients where to eat one too many times. Up In Smoke BBQ pitmasters James Mahaffey and Josh Knose opened their restaurant as a tribute to a chef friend, George Davis, who died while working to start his own business on the island.
Katelyn Myrick
Katelyn Myrick
D’Fuskie’s, a pizzeria and deli located adjacent to the island’s public dock, is Casey Long’s retirement project. He worked as a senior manager for Verizon for nearly two decades and fell in love with the island during a visit in February 2023. He and his family moved from Nashville four months later and Long bought into D’Fuskie’s earlier this year.
For Tony Chase, owner of the Daufuskie Island Rum Co., adding an eatery onto his distillery opens up another revenue stream. In 2021, South Carolina revised its state law regarding onsite alcohol consumption for distillers, allowing those that also cook and sell hot meals on the premises to sell liquor by the drink. Distilleries without an on-site eatery can only offer customers a tasting, limited to 3 ounces.
“We’re not like a distillery on the mainland where most are wholesalers,” Chase said. “For us, 85% of our business walks in the front door. From our standpoint, it only made sense to do it.”
Daufuskie’s restaurateurs are using common sense in their menu approaches. With a limited pool of customers to pull from, each has claimed a culinary niche.
At Old Daufuskie Crab Co., the deviled crab is the house specialty prepared by lifelong islander Ernestine Smith. At the Island Shack, the recent addition of Danielle Nish to the kitchen has made food from her native Jamaica, such as curried goat and jerk chicken, a staple. The marshside mama is serving shrimpburgers and gumbo at the On-Deck Diner.
Frye’s Corner is fried chicken, D’Fuskie’s is pizza and deli sandwiches, and Up in Smoke BBQ is slow-smoked meats.
“There’s a reason I don’t have hot coffee; there’s a coffee shop on the island for that. Same with barbecue. Same with fried chicken,” D’Fuskie’s Long said. “There’s just not enough business for all of us to operate as competitors. Everybody has their niche, and that’s good, because you can really focus on what you do well.”
Katelyn Myrick
Katelyn Myrick
Every day a challenge
The Island Shack’s Angle remembers what a friend in the business told him when he called seeking advice on whether to buy the eatery: To run a restaurant, you have to be either a genius or an idiot.
“I know which end of that I’m on,” he said. “And on Daufuskie, you have to be a little bit crazy, too.”
Katelyn Myrick
Katelyn Myrick
The island presents a unique set of challenges, the restaurateurs agree. All product must come by barge, save for crab, shrimp or fish caught in the waters around the island. Only the Old Daufuskie Crab Co. and D’Fuskies are located next to docking locations, forcing those who want to eat elsewhere to walk, bike or rent golf carts, using roads that are just as likely to be made from sand and rock as asphalt.
Dinner business is limited by both the ferry schedule — the last departure is at 5:30 p.m. every day except Friday, when there is a 10:15 p.m. boat — and the time the sun sets, as those who come by private boat without sleeping quarters must allow at least 45 minutes to get back to Savannah, Tybee, Hilton Head or Bluffton, South Carolina before dark.
Daufuskie’s labor pool is small, and many eateries cut back on hours once teenagers and college students return to school. Some are only open on certain days even in the summer.
Winter is an obstacle, too. By Thanksgiving, cooler temperatures dampen the enthusiasm for boat trips and outdoor eating. Restaurants limit hours and some, such as the Island Shack, close for two months after New Year’s for owners to perform maintenance and enjoy downtime.
“Every day is a challenge, but when you live on an island with no bridge, you know what you’re in for as far as life in general,” Angle said. “I’m giving it a try and having fun doing it.
Katelyn Myrick
Katelyn Myrick
Where to eat on Daufuskie Island
D’Fuskie’s. 15 Haig Point Road, Daufuskie Island. 843-686-3200. Must-try menu item: Pizza
Frye’s Corner. 124 School Road, Daufuskie Island. Must-try menu item: Fried chicken tenders
Melrose Oyster House. 175 Avenue of Oaks, Daufuskie Island. 678-630-0410, melroseoysterhouse.com. Must-try menu item: Catch of the day
Old Daufuskie Crab Co. 256 Cooper River Landing Road, Daufuskie Island. 843-785-6652, daufuskiedifference.com/restaurant. Must-try menu item: Daufuskie deviled crab
The Island Shack Cafe. 11 Benjies Point Road, Daufuskie Island. 843-505-5111, islandshackcafe.com. Must-try menu item: Jamaican goat curry
On-Deck Diner at Daufuskie Island Rum Co. 270 Haig Point Road, Daufuskie Island, 843-342-4786, on-deck-diner-100758.square.site. Must-try item: Shrimpburger
Up In Smoke BBQ. 101 Buckthorn Lane, Daufuskie Island, 843-341-9255, upinsmokebbq101.com. Must-try item: Brisket sandwich
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