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Crab House restaurant gets ‘flipped’ into new look
By Dennis Quick
Senior Staff Writer
Richard Davis and John Keener are longtime friends, and what Davis said to Keener is probably something only one close friend could say to another.
“I told him his restaurant was looking old and tired,” said Davis, founder of James Island-based real estate company Trademark Properties and creator of the A&E network cable television show “Flip This House.”
Keener owns The Charleston Crab House on Wappoo Creek. The seafood restaurant had not changed its look in its 15-year history.
The Crab House opened at about the same time Davis launched Trademark Properties, and Davis conducted a number of real estate deals from a booth in the restaurant. That booth now has a bronze plaque bearing Davis’ name.
In January, the realization that the restaurant looked exactly the same as it did 15 years ago finally got to Davis. So he suggested to Keener that the restaurant get “flipped” in an episode of “Flip This House.”
“We’re not changing the restaurant’s concept, just its look and environment,” Keener said while workers were scrambling to complete the makeover.
Get in, get out, go home
“Flip This House” premiered July 24 and was the highest-rated, most-watched series premiere among all A&E lifestyle programs. The show airs at 6 p.m. Sunday and 8 p.m. Monday.
The series follows Trademark Properties’ investment division as it buys rundown homes, quickly renovates them and sells them for a profit. The team invests anywhere from $50,000 to $1.5 million in a home.
The object is to get in the house, re-do it as quickly as possible, get out and go home.
Davis leads the team. Ginger Alexander is his associate, and Davis’ childhood friend Kevin Maloney heads construction. Dawn Nosal is the project coordinator, and Vance Sudano helps line up buyers.
In the first episode, the team remodeled a James Island home in two weeks and sold it for a $190,000 profit.
Trademark teamwork
Davis started Trademark Properties about 14 years ago and has grown it into a 40-employee company. “Teamwork is our trademark” is the company’s slogan, and Davis applied this concept to “Flip This House.” Employees work together to research properties, determining which ones to purchase, renovate and sell.
The idea for “Flip This House” came to Davis about two years ago. He and his brother, a Hollywood art director in the movie industry, created a pilot episode and presented it to A&E, Discovery and HGTV.
Davis considers Trademark’s house-flipping teamwork a winning approach to real estate that could spread across the nation. He hopes to spread his success through his television show.
Restaurant re-do
When Davis suggested the “Flip This House” concept be applied to the 8,000-square-foot Crab House, Keener trusted his friend’s instincts.
On Sunday, Jan. 22, Keener closed the restaurant for renovations. An army of about 60 workers invaded the place, eager to give it a thorough face-lift.
“We gutted the restaurant,” Keener said.
Renovators repainted the place with a new color, installed new booths and new carpeting, put up new decorations, set up new tables and chairs, and implemented a new overall design. No professional architects or designers were used. Davis and his friends conceived the restaurant’s
recreation.
The painting, hammering, measuring and installing went on 24 hours a day, transforming the Crab House from its previous nautical look to a beach house theme. A camera crew recorded the entire process.
The restaurant re-opened Wednesday, Jan. 25. Workers were still renovating an hour before the doors opened to the public.
Davis thinks this is the first time a restaurant has been “flipped.” Restaurant renovations usually take several weeks or longer.
Davis would not divulge the makeover’s cost, which will not be revealed until the show airs in late February. However, he did say he put the bill on his American Express card and hopes to leverage this restaurant-flipping experience into an American Express TV commercial.
Re-doing his friend’s restaurant is a way of giving back to the community, Davis said.
“I made a lot of money from this booth,” he said, pointing out the seat that served as a second office in Trademark Properties’ beginnings. (His primary office was a small, cramped space in an office building next to the Crab House.) “When you make money, you’ve got to give back.”
Dennis Quick covers hospitality and tourism for the Business Journal. E-mail him at dquick@charlestonbusiness.com.
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