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Restaurateur always looking for Uno Mas
By Kathleen Dayton
Staff Writer
Sal Parco first arrived in Mount Pleasant with a car full of shorts and T-shirts and rented a room at the Masters Inn. The heavy winter clothes, gloves and boots he had collected while living in Detroit had been given to the Salvation Army.
After working in restaurants in California, Florida, Washington, D.C., Michigan and his native Massachusetts, Parco and a friend had discovered South Carolina while on a vacation and chose the area for what would become a pivotal point in Parco’s life.
“I didn’t have a job lined up, I didn’t have a place to stay. I was just living on the edge,” Parco said. “I took a month off, just checking out the whole area. I’m walking around thinking, it was my dream to have my own restaurant.”
His dream started with seven tables in the Mount Pleasant Sea Island Shopping Center, where he and three employees opened a restaurant called The Mustard Seed.
Thirteen years and 200 employees later, Parco is the owner of eight successful Charleston area restaurants, including two additional Mustard Seeds, a diner, a bakery, an Italian restaurant, a grill and his newest venture, a Mexican restaurant.
“I don’t even want to think of how I got to this point,” Parco said. “I just kept working.”
After spending several decades with different restaurants around the country, Parco found himself in South Carolina.
“I thought, if I could just open my own place, if I could just pay my bills and have some extra and not have someone breathing down my back, that would be great,” Parco said.
A little place had become available in the Sea Island Shopping Center. Parco convinced the owner he could make a go of the place if he could open a restaurant that served healthy food. The business cost $55,000.
“I would go back and cook and run out and talk to people,” Parco said. “I did it all, from seating and talking to people to taking out the trash.”
As the restaurant got busier, Parco added staff and soon bought the space next door expanding the restaurant to 14 tables. A chat with a customer also taught Parco a valuable lesson.
“He said, ‘you need to buy all your property. Don’t pay rent.’ This guy was just giving me a free lesson and I took it and ran with it,” Parco said.
As fresh restaurant concepts came into his head, Parco scouted the Charleston area for property.
“I get these buildings that area a little older and that need a little love,” Parco said. “I think it’s just a little smarter and more business savvy. You have a little nest egg at the end of the road, too.”
Parco ventured first onto James Island, where he opened The Mustard Seed’ s second location. He next tried an Asian-Southwest concept, The Blue Mango, and a comfort-food concept called The Boulevard Diner, both in Mount Pleasant.
He sold The Blue Mango and opened The Mustard Seed’s third location in Summerville.
Next, Parco opened an Italian eatery, Sette, in the old Pizza Hut, followed by The Village Bakery and Long Point Grille.
He opened his eighth restaurant, Uno Mas, three months ago. The Spanish name means “one more.”
His restaurant group is growing steadily at about 7% each year, he said. He hasn’t ventured into downtown Charleston yet and isn’t sure if he ever will.
“I love it, I’m thankful every day,” Parco said. “I go and chat and bus tables. I’ll cut bread. I’ll refill drinks. I like to leave my stamp on my restaurants. I’ll always be that way.”
Kathleen Dayton is a staff writer for the Business Journal. E-mail her at kdayton@charlestonbusiness.com.
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