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Maybank Highway serves up a sizzling restaurant scene
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Athens Greek Restaurant is opening there in early September. So is the Pour House, a West Ashley live-music bar. Locklear’s Lowcountry Grill moved there earlier this year. Cynthia’s Restaurant and The Mustard Seed are thriving there.
“There” is northern Maybank Highway on James Island. The restaurants are located within a stone’s throw of one another and either in, across from, or next to Riverland Plaza, home of the Terrace Theatre and an eclectic collection of upscale shops and services ranging from Charleston Flower Market to Upscale Refindments, a holistic books and gift shop, to the Trim Team hairstyling salon.
During the past few years, the northern stretch of Maybank Highway has become a kind of restaurant row. Having different restaurants close to one another is good for restaurateurs, experts say.
“Restaurants, like retail shops and auto dealerships, benefit from clustering,” notes Johhny Bevon, a broker with West Ashley-based commercial real estate firm Barkleyfraser.com.
The restaurants attract customers from James and Johns islands, Kiawah and Seabrook islands, West Ashley and downtown Charleston, says Bevon, whose real estate activities focus on restaurants.
“It’s a good mix of restaurants that hit different price points,” Bevon says.
Lease rates are more favorable for restaurateurs on Maybank Highway than in downtown Charleston, Bevon says. Rates on Maybank are about $18 per square foot compared with $25 to $40 per square foot downtown.
Brothers Vasilios and George Koutsogiannakis, owners of Athens Greek Restaurant, are moving the longtime popular eatery from Cross Creek Shopping Center on Folly Road, the restaurant’s home for the past 24 years, to Athenian Village, a 10,000-square-foot complex they built on Maybank Highway adjacent to Riverland Park Plaza.
“There is lots of traffic and visibility on Maybank Highway,” Vasilios Koutsogiannakis says.
Athenian Village, about 4,000 square feet larger than the old one in the practically barren Cross Creek Shopping Center, has an understated classical Greek look that drivers along Maybank Highway are bound to notice, the brothers Koutsogiannakis say.
Free parking is another factor drawing diners to the Maybank Highway area, says Kendall Martin, vice president of Cynthia’s Restaurant, a Riverland Plaza eatery specializing in “Pacific Rim” cuisine.
“It’s a leisurely atmosphere out here,” Martin observes. “Customers can park for free, eat, go to the Terrace—the only art house movie theater in South Carolina—or shop. Upper Maybank is becoming a cultural center.”
Shopping, going to movies and dining go hand in hand, Martin adds.
“Vendors and shop owners have time to talk with one another and get to know their customers,” says Cynthia Yacapraro, president of Cynthia’s, which opened at Riverland Plaza four years ago. “People will come here, park and walk through the area. We like that.”
So does the Terrace Theatre, which appreciates the rise of Maybank Highway’s culinary status.
“The restaurants are definitely bringing more business to the movie theater,” says the Terrace’s Scott Baumil.
Real estate broker Bevon says he thinks the population density in James Island, West Ashley and surrounding areas will keep Maybank Highway a restaurant hot spot.
“There is enough critical mass out there so that Maybank Highway will remain a dining destination,” he says.
Dennis Quick covers hospitality and tourism for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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