Legends 2019 Volume 32

For generations

We Build It As If It Were Our Own.

Photo: Newport653

Photo: Newport653

Photo: Newport653

Photo: Newport653

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jurisdiction where prohibited by law. This offer is made pursuant to the New York State Department of Law’s Simplifi ed Procedure for Homeowners Associations with a De Minimis Cooperative Interest (CPS-7). The CPS-7 application (File No. HO16-0007) and related documents may kiawahisland.com | 866.554.2924

The first in colorful cookware. The finest in quality and design. The favorite for generations.

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AFTER ALL, YOU HAVE ENOUGH ON YOUR PLATE.

With dolphins to watch. Sunsets to share. And every morning, a fresh batch of seashells to discover. Now open, the oceanfront homes of Timbers Kiawah—and your private staff— free your days to follow your heart.

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Kiawah’s only private residence club with fractional ownership is now open. Please stop by for a visit.

OWNER PROFILES

26

ISLAND VOGUE

Inspired summer looks set against Kiawah Island’s pristine, natural landscapes.

40

THE B-LINER

In anticipation of the new Beach Club installment, take a tour around the Lowcountry to meet some of Chef Mike Lata’s most trusted purveyors.

40

52 RITES OF SUMMER

For nearly twenty-five years, this group of five families have gathered on Kiawah. For the younger generations it has been a lifetime of summer rituals, a defining tradition that marks the passage of time.

64

BRINKS

AND BOUNDARIES

PENNY & STEVE REEVES HOLLY & JON CENTURINO

74

MEET YOUR NEIGHBOR

Hint—he’s the strong, silent type. Discover the turns and temperaments of Alligator mississippiensis.

84

STATE OF SHAG

Before it became the official dance of South Carolina, shagging culture was cultivated by a rich and dynamic history.

96

HAMMOCK CAMP

A night on the Kiawah River: The small hammocks that dot the back barrier of Kiawah Island are rich and curious worlds unto themselves.

106

A PLAYER’S GUIDE TO CASSIQUE

A hole-by-hole guide to one of Kiawah Island’s most beloved golf courses. Course notes by Charlie Arrington and Dylan Thew.

120

KIAWAH BY DISTRICT

Navigate the Neighborhoods: A guide to the Island’s five major districts and the characteristics that define them.

Simons Finnerty

EXECUTIVE EDITOR & DESIGN

Hailey Wist

COPY EDITOR

Sunny Gray

PHOTO EDITOR

Nathan Durfee

ADVERTISING

Emily Mosh and Jana Robinson

SPECIAL THANKS

Charlie Arrington

Michael Ashe

Claire Austen

Melanie Birch

Peter Birch

Deborah Cardenas

Jack Case

Blair Centurino

Darcy Centurino

Holly Centurino

Jon Centurino

Townsend Clarkson

Henry Cleveland

Lucinda Detrich

Bucky Dudley

Bryan Dunn

Tricia Flanagan

Suman Govindan

Elliot Hillock

Bryan Hunter

Kathy Keane

Celeste Marceca

M. Ellen Mitchell

Rachel Moore

Brittany Nelson

Josh Nissenboim

Amy Pastre

CONTRIBUTORS

Christine Mitchell Adams

Christina Rae Butler

Joel Caldwell

Simons Finnerty

Stephanie Hunt

Bryan Hunter

Olivia Rae James

Jack Kotz

Sandy Lang

Patrick O’Brien

Anne Darby Parker

Sully Sullivan

Melissa Toms

Katherine Barry Verano

Gately Williams

Charlotte Zacharkiw

Jordan Phillips

Dan Prickett

Nancy Prickett

Chris Randolph

Greyson Reeves

Penny Reeves

Steve Reeves

Jenni Ridall

Helen Rice

Courtney Rowson

Chuck Schaffer

Tina Schell

Chris Shope

Bonnie Singletary

Blake Suarez

Meghan Taylor

Dylan Thew

Leigh Webber

kiawahlegends.com

Contributors

SULLY SULLIVAN | PHOTOGRAPHER

Sully Sullivan was born in Hawaii and has lived all over, but now calls Charleston home. He spends his days making photos, surfing, skating, and trying to be creative and see the world in a new light. He loves to work on projects that promote equality and eco consciousness. He lives with his Alaskan malamute and loves his mom.

CHRISTINA RAE BUTLER | WRITER

Christina Butler is a professor at the American College of the Building Arts, where she teaches courses in historic preservation, architectural history, and senior capstone. She also teaches for the preservation program at the College of Charleston, and she is the owner of Butler Preservation L.C. Christina holds an M.A. from the College of Charleston/Citadel joint program in history. She is looking forward to the publication of her first book, Dry At High Water: Reclamation, Drainage, and Growth in Charleston, SC

BEN GATELY WILLIAMS | PHOTOGRAPHER

Gately Williams is an editorial and landscape photographer. His work has appeared in Southern Living, Coastal Living, Garden & Gun, and National Geographic. Gately has crossed the United States seventeen times making pictures, most recently on a bicycle. When he is not in the field, Gately can be found at home in Charleston, working with his clients to create beautiful framed photographs for their homes and offices.

SIMONS PINCKNEY FINNERTY | PHOTOGRAPHER

Simons Pinckney Finnerty is a portrait and fashion photographer living in Brooklyn, NY. Having grown up in Atlanta, Finnerty spent holidays and summer vacations in Charleston where his mother grew up. The South Carolina landscape is one of his biggest inspirations. Previous and current projects include photographing for the British fashion label JW Anderson, for magazines such as HERO, Hercules, and ODDA, and for Bruce Weber’s 2018 edition of the arts journal All-American

SANDY LANG | WRITER

Most of all, writer Sandy Lang wants to tell some good stories. She’s a contributing editor to Charleston and Maine magazines and a producer with Peter Frank Edwards Photographs. Sandy still can’t believe her luck that her family moved to a South Carolina beach town when she was in middle school. Musing on those sunny days, she writes a story about beach music for this issue, “State of Shag,” page 84.

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Contributors

MELISSA TOMS | PHOTOGRAPHER

Melissa Toms is a lifestyle and wedding photographer in Charleston, SC. She has studied both film and digital photography. After a brief stint in Denver, CO, Melissa moved back to the South. She couldn’t stay away from the warm afternoon walks and marsh sunsets. Melissa strives to capture natural light and candid moments in her photography and finds inspiration by traveling often.

STEPHANIE HUNT | WRITER

A North Carolina native, Stephanie Hunt moved to Charleston twenty-five years ago, and she never tires of writing about her adopted home and its intriguing creatures—human and reptile. Her features, profiles, travel stories, and essays have appeared in The Washington Post, Veranda, Coastal Living, and Charleston Magazine, among other print and online media.

JOEL CALDWELL | PHOTOGRAPHER

Joel Caldwell is an expedition photographer and writer living in New York City. He tells localized conservation and environmental justice stories from around the world with the goal of connecting people to the natural world. He has been published in Modern Huntsman, National Geographic Voices, The Cleanest Line, Far Ride Magazine, and many others.

JACK KOTZ | PHOTOGRAPHER

John (Jack) Kotz is a chemist, textbook author, and retired college professor. When he retired Jack took up photography and has enjoyed photographing flora and fauna of the Lowcountry and Kiawah Island. He has published work in Nature Photographer Magazine and recently received an award from the National Wildlife Federation. He became interested in alligators working with the late Dr. Louis Guillette of MUSC along with Lou’s son Matthew and Matthew’s wife Dr. Theresa Guillette.

KATHERINE BARRY VERANO | WRITER

Katherine Verano has been holidaying at Kiawah with her family for twentyfive years. A Lowcountry native, she relishes any chance to be together with her people, especially when it’s at the beach or on the water. For her, the opportunity to share the story of five families who’ve maintained the family beach week tradition for a quarter century was as inspiring as it was enjoyable. When not chilling on the beach at Kiawah, Katherine loves to relax in her backyard in Mount Pleasant with her husband, good friends, and family.

I have spent the better part of the last decade considering the essence and character of this sea island—its people, land, and animals. However, Kiawah takes time—it reveals more of itself to the persistent and curious. In the making of this issue, I experienced an entirely new quality of its wilder places. I spent a night under the stars on a little hammock in the Kiawah River. I sat cross-legged on a millennia-old sand ridge on the back side of the Island to watch the moonrise. I saw a bobcat slink through the saw palmettos at dusk.

To be sure, Kiawah Island is about family. It is parties and pools and falling asleep with warm, sunburned shoulders. But it is also about the deep and absolute mystery of nature. Over and over again, I am reminded that Kiawah is still a bit wild. And if you choose to spend time on this Island—to bring your families and to create traditions here—it is because you too are still a bit wild.

This place is magic. The integrity of its people, the purity of its natural beauty, and the stability of its wildlife is unmatched. I am so grateful to tell these stories. Thank you.

HAILEY WIST

STUDY NATURE, LOVE NATURE, STAY CLOSE TO NATURE. IT WILL NEVER FAIL YOU. — FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT

Photo by Patrick Brickman

Photo by Holger Obenaus

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From WASHINGTON, D.C. PENNY & STEVE REEVES Property Owners

Q Where are you from?

A Steve: I grew up in Philadelphia and went to Penn State. I moved to Baltimore after school and then relocated to Washington D.C. about seven years ago.

Penny: I grew up in Erie, PA. I also went to Penn State, but Steve and I met in Washington D.C.

Q What drew you to Kiawah?

A Penny: We are both huge golfers. Golf has always been a big part of my family, and I have been playing since I was five. Our son, Greyson, has been swinging a club since he was one and a half. He even plays nine holes now—at five years old!

Steve: We just love it down here. The weather is amazing, and it’s so easy to get here from the mid-Atlantic. The Charleston food and music scene is an added bonus!

Penny: We actually got married at the Sanctuary on Christmas Eve. We were married in the courtyard, and then we had dinner at The Ocean Room. So we go back every year. That’s our tradition. It’s a special place for us.

Q Tell me about your decision to move here full-time.

A Steve: Well, I decided to retire.

Penny: For the second time! (laughs)

Steve: The plan has always been to move here fulltime. Greyson loves it here. It is a very family-oriented community, and he’s a very athletic kid. So being outside—golfing, swimming, and playing tennis—are all activities we can encourage here. And, really, this just feels like home.

Penny: We are just waiting for Greyson to finish kindergarten, and then we will make the move.

Q Why did you choose Cassique?

A Steve: The proximity to Charleston and Freshfields was the main reason. We knew it was going to wind up being a new build. The realtor brought me out here and this was perfect.

Penny: We love our view! We have the ocean over there, the marsh, and the golf course.

Q What hole are we looking at?

Steve: The fifteenth hole! The most picturesque hole on the course.

Penny: We love living on the fifteenth hole. Greyson loves to go up on the balcony when Steve comes by on a round and wave and yell hi to the caddies he knows.

Q You must spend a lot of time at the Club!

A Penny: The Club is so fantastic. Their programming for events, especially on the holidays, is great. Greyson loves the summer camps, and I really love the Beach Club. Greyson also takes lessons with one of the golf professionals here.

Q Oh! We have a little pro golfer coming up.

A Penny: Fingers crossed!

Q Tell me about your community.

A Penny: We are meeting a lot more people in Cassique. Many residents live here full-time, so it’s more of a community. It feels like wherever I go I run into people I know! It’s great to take walks or ride bikes. The wildlife is amazing—between the dolphins feeding in the marsh or the eagles circling above, it seems like there is always something fascinating to see.

Q What is your favorite course?

A Penny: Well I’m biased! I love Cassique. I’ll play Cassique over any of the other courses, any day of the week.

Steve: We’ve belonged to clubs around the country, and the level of service here is exemplary. It’s very well organized and everyone is extraordinarily friendly.

Penny: And they just keep improving! They just built a new training facility at Cassique. It just gets better and better every year.

Pictured here with Greyson

Q Where are you from?

A Holly: I grew up in Buffalo, New York.

Jon: And I grew up in Duxbury, Massachusetts—just south of Boston.

Q And how did you meet?

A Jon: I went to college at Clemson, and then we met in Charlotte [North Carolina].

Holly: I went to Syracuse University, and my parents moved to Charlotte my senior year. So when I graduated, I moved down. I met Jon eight months later.

Q How did you find Kiawah?

A Jon: Well my dad is an avid golfer. When I was in college he came down, and we went to Kiawah. That was probably 1991. I wasn’t much of a golfer then. I play now but I’m not very good.

Q So say all golfers.

A Jon: No, really! (laughs) Anyway I still loved it. When I graduated from Clemson, I got a job in Charlotte and went down to Charleston and Kiawah often. Holly and I bought our first condo in 2002. We had that for about eight years.

Holly: It was in Turtle Cove, right by the Clubhouse. But when we put Darcy, our youngest, in a Pack ’n Play in the bathroom one vacation, we realized we needed a bigger place! (laughs) We bought our house in 2011.

Q Where is your house?

Jon: We got lucky. We look out over the lagoon and onto the 13th green of Turtle Point. It’s perfect for us. Holly: They’re little craftsman-style bungalows with white picket fences.

Jon: We have a lot out on Cassique too. We’ll build eventually and retire there. So we’re all in on Kiawah! Holly: We have it all planned out!

Q Why do you think you’re drawn to Kiawah?

A Jon: It’s a sanctuary. I’m a pretty high-energy person, but, at the same time, I can also grab a book and sit on the beach for five hours and be happy. It satisfies all of that. And the fact that it’s close to Charleston—anytime we really want to scratch that itch and go do something,

Charleston isn’t that far away. That’s what makes it so special, I think.

Holly: We can completely unplug here. I had been to Charleston when I was a teenager and to other resorts in the area but…it’s not the same. I don’t know how else to describe it. It’s obviously very beautiful, but there’s something else about it. There’s this tranquility. It’s almost like when you drive in and go over that first bridge and all you see is marsh and water—you just feel your body relax. You come around that corner and think, I made it. I can let go of everything else and just be present here.

Q How often do you come?

A Jon: We spend the whole summer here. Originally I went back and forth from New York while Holly and the kids stayed. But now I work out of the house, so I can be anywhere.

Holly: We also come for Thanksgiving and the week after Christmas. Also Easter.

Jon: The girls have met a bunch of friends, and fortunately we get along with all the parents. We have a home away from home now. And with social media, they still stay in touch all year long.

Holly: A lot of our friends from Charlotte are down here too. Which is really nice.

Jon: We have a really good niche.

Q What do you get up to when you’re here?

A Holly: The kids are super involved with GoKiawah. They love it. They’ve experienced so many different things. And we are daily residents of the Beach Club in the summer! The girls do the fishing camp with Captain Elliot. And Jon and I actually went out with the kids and Captain Elliot this summer for the first time. It was amazing to see what the kids have learned from him!

Q Your kids must really love it.

A Jon: They do. And look, your kids are going to grow up and have their own lives, which is great. But you hope there’s a destination that they will want to come back to. That’s really what it’s all about. If you build it, then they will come.

Pictured here with Darcy and Blair

ISLAND VOGUE

PHOTOGRAPHY by SULLY SULLIVAN STYLING by WHITLEY FLOYD

previous page:

SUNGLASSES | FRIEDRICH’S OPTIK

TOP | BEAUFILLE

BATHING SUIT | HAIGHT

opposite:

DRESS | STAUD

COURTESY OF HAMPDEN CLOTHING

following spread:

DRESS | CHLOÉ

COURTESY OF RTW

palm stand spread:

SUIT | GABRIELA HEARST

COURTESY OF HAMDEN CLOTHING

sweetgrass spread:

SWEATER | SOUTHERN TIDE

SKIRT | NILI LOTAN

previous spread:

BLOUSE | NOMIA

PANTS | IVAN GRUNDAHL

GLASSES | FRIEDRICH’S OPTIK

opposite:

BLOUSE | CHLOÉ

COURTESY OF RTW

PANTS | MANSUR GAVRIEL

COURTESY OF HAMPDEN CLOTHING

hair and makeup: kelli hoff

assistant: gordon keiter

THE B-LINER

STORY by HAILEY WIST

by OLIVIA RAE JAMES

PHOTOGRAPHY

THIS SPRING, CHEF MIKE LATA’S B-LINER WILL OPEN ITS DOORS AT THE BEACH CLUB. THIS SOPHISTICATED AND COLORFUL REIMAGINING WILL BE MORE THAN JUST A CULINARY EXPERIENCE; IT WILL BE A LESSON ON COMMUNITY, SUSTAINABILITY, AND QUALITY.

As we pick our way through the sawdusted studs of the new restaurant, Lata freestyles about the menu concept. “I want it to be very light and healthy,” he muses. “It’s going to be seafood-centric. A wood burning oven will yield some kind of flatbread, and hopefully we’ll do something with interesting grains.” But more than anything, his approach to the menu will be grounded in the quality of the ingredients and where they come from. “I don’t necessarily think about the techniques or dishes first. I curate a list of producers. I think that’s my thumbprint, right?”

It’s safe to say that Chef Mike Lata has star power. He is owner/chef of two of the most celebrated restaurants in Charleston—one of the greatest food cities on the eastern seaboard. He’s been a guest on Top Chef and Iron Chef, and his restaurants have been featured everywhere from Bon Appétit to The New York Times. He is a James Beard Award winner and has been nominated several times over. But perhaps what makes Lata so special, really, is his impact on the local community. He pioneered the relationships that created the robust local food movement in the Lowcountry. He has helped found, or advised on, the Sustainable Seafood Initiative, Slow Food Charleston, Lowcountry Local First, and GrowFood Carolina. He has helped farmers and purveyors establish best practices and grow viable businesses. He has forged and encouraged partnerships that have made Charleston’s kitchens and restaurants what they are today. Lata’s ethos is grounded in a deep and uncompromising commitment to place, his food a tapestry of rich and personal narratives. The B-liner will be a reflection of this. We stand in what will soon be the kitchen of the restaurant. The roof has

been torn off and light streams in. Lata makes wide sweeps with his arms to indicate where the windows will go and how the line will run. “The menu will be peppered with things that are familiar, but we’ll still challenge people,” he says with a smile. “So long as the food has integrity and the ingredients are well curated.”

ABUNDANT SEAFOOD

A cold December wind blows hard off the Atlantic. Mike Lata and Mark Marhefka stand in the orange, early morning sun, stamping their feet and chatting. Shem Creek is alive with seagulls and wind, and Marhefka’s men are busy at the dock, their breath clouding in the cold air.

Lata and Marhefka have an easy way with one another, and you get the sense that they have stood around like this, low-talking about food and fish, many times over. “We do break bread and talk about what’s going on in the industry,” Marhefka tells me. “We talk about what’s up-andcoming—what species are opening and closing.” This direct relationship, this open line of communication, is fundamental to the functioning of the system that Lata has created. It is the reason that his crudo tastes like nothing else in the city. “How can you beat the quality of seafood coming off this boat a mile from my restaurant,” he says. “I am talking directly to the fisherman. I mean, what’s better?”

When Marhefka came on the scene in 2007, Lata was an eager, if cautious, buyer. Working with Marhefka not only meant the freshest fish but also input on the process. Logistically, the partnership was complicated at the start. Before, Mike could get fish delivered whenever he wanted.

But if Marhefka’s boat didn’t come in with fish until Friday, it meant starving the restaurant inventory until then—a lot of pressure on the kitchen.

Over time, Marhefka and Lata worked together to develop best practices. “We experimented with post-harvest handling for what seemed like years,” says Lata. “We went through the growing pains together.” But to Lata, the stress and risk was worth it. “We realized that we had a special relationship. I know that I have input on the fish that I am receiving,” he says. “We inform each others businesses.”

But perhaps more important here is Marhefka’s fervent commitment to sustainability. Since the early 2000s, he has worked to create and preserve marine-protected areas— no catch zones where fish populations can rebound. This dedication, not to mention increasingly strict quotas from the Department of Natural Resources, means that Marhefka doesn’t just fish for the favorites. “People say to us, ‘All I want is grouper!’” he says. “But it’s up to us to educate the consumer.” Marhefka brings in everything from king mackerel to amberjack. He educates his chefs and, by extension, the consumer. Hopefully the consumer walks out of a dining experience with an appreciation for a new kind of fish—but also an appreciation for its narrative and habitat.

TARVIN SHRIMP

Cindy Tarvin’s shrimping boat, the Miss Paula, is moored a few docks down on Shem Creek. When we arrive, she is standing at the doorway of a large packing shed, sorting orders for the day to come. The Tarvins run a small retail business out of the shed, but 70 percent of their inventory goes to local restaurants. Their fresh, preservative-free, wildcaught shrimp are a hot commodity. Lata’s entire philosophy, the essence of his brilliantly uncomplicated food, is the quality and integrity of his ingredients. So purveyors like Tarvin Seafood are the lifeblood of his business.

In today’s market, the shrimp Tarvin sells are nearly impossible to find. Most people, she tells me, don’t even know what shrimp actually taste like. “It’s like when you taste a garden tomato for the first time and realize what a tomato is supposed to taste like,” she says. “It’s the same with shrimp.” There are two types of preservatives on the market. The first, a citrus-based option called EverFresh, does not require labeling. The second is called sodium bisulfite, which the FDA requires to be labeled, and that, Tarvin says, is what most people know as shrimp. As she describes the texture of a bisulfite-treated shrimp, Lata emphatically shakes his head. “That shrimp tastes like it could be from Mars,” he says. “It’s not even the same thing.”

But this commitment to preservative-free, wild-caught shrimp makes the business infinitely more complicated. Wild shrimp populations fluctuate without warning, and the Tarvins have to simply ride the wave. Starting in July of last year, for instance, the shrimp just disappeared. “You can’t make the shrimp appear,” she says matter-of-factly. “It is what it is.” That uncertainty, however, is mitigated by committed buyers. Between his two downtown restaurants, Lata is committed to buying around one hundred and fifty pounds of shrimp per week. Tarvin shrimp is on the menu year-round, unless there’s a shortage. For both Tarvin and Lata, the integrity of the product and the small local team is worth the perils of wildcaught shrimping. Naturally this means that Tarvin shrimp come at a premium. “We don’t try and be the cheapest, we just try and have a nice product. Whether it’s to a big buyer like Mike or the small guy down the street.”

As we say goodbye and walk to our cars, Lata comments, “The Tarvins represent so many good things, you know? People are still working on our waterfront. It’s a net plus for the ecosystem.”

BARRIER ISLAND OYSTER CO.

We stand on the old East Coast Seafood Dock in the midday sun, slurping oysters as fast as Josh Eboch and Jared Hulteen can shuck them. “There’s just a different taste to the South Carolina oyster,” muses Hulteen. And although my palate may not be sophisticated enough to recall comparisons, the flavor of each Sea Cloud oyster is like an explosion of taste— cold, fresh, and briny. “This is the great study,” agrees Lata. “The merroir—how nature influences the species.” Indeed, there is nothing quite like a South Carolina oyster. In the wild, they grow intertidally—on the shoreline—as opposed

to subtidally. And if you cruise the tidal creeks and rivers of the Lowcountry at low tide, you can hear them clicking and burbling in the plough mud. “Oysters are actually considered a keystone species,” says Hulteen. “Over one hundred other species depend on oyster reefs in South Carolina. If you take oysters out of the ecosystem, you eliminate life in the estuary.” For that reason, Hulteen and Eboch raise oysters in floating cages and leave wild populations to do their work.

They started the permitting process in 2015, but it wasn’t until 2017 that Barrier Island Oyster Co. sold its first oyster to a restaurant partner. Building the business from scratch took time, and Hulteen and Eboch placed a high importance on doing things right, on the integrity of their product. “We have been very selective about who we sell to,” Hulteen says. “Putting our oysters in the right hands is so important. If you sell our oysters, you sell our message and what we’re doing with sustainable farming.”

Lata’s partnership with Barrier Island Oyster Co. fell easily into place over this shared ethic and vision. After just one year, Sea Cloud oysters are a constant at Lata’s restaurant The Ordinary. That relationship is everything to Lata. “Once we get comfortable and go through the growing pains together...for me that’s like becoming blood brothers,” he says. “It’s all about trust.”

And as more oyster farms show up in the area, Hulteen and Eboch are committed to leading by example. They are very involved in the South Carolina Shellfish Growers Association (Hulteen is the current president!) and hope to create a culture of sustainability in the industry. “We want to represent the industry well, because there’s a future for all of us,” says Hulteen. “We want to be here for a long time.”

GROWFOOD CAROLINA

As we step into the yawning entrance of the GrowFood Carolina warehouse, Sarah Clow meets us with a smile and a hug. She and Lata instantly dive into a conversation about a farmer whose satsumas are particularly beautiful this season. As they talk, Clow leads us into a massive cooler and pulls various boxes down from the high shelves— chestnut mushrooms, crispy lettuce, meyer lemons, and bright, multicolored carrots. It’s fascinating to see Lata in this setting—he is instantly focused, touching everything, inspecting, smelling.

GrowFood launched officially in October 2011 to support local farmers with sales, marketing, warehousing, and distribution as a farmland preservation initiative. Currently they connect over one hundred growers with more than three hundred restaurant, grocery, and institutional partners in Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, and Savannah, and they have led the formation of a statewide food hub network in order to expand the impact. Lata has been on the GrowFood committee from the beginning and was instrumental in its development over the last eight years.

Before GrowFood, there was no middleman to manage relationships between farmers and restaurants. If a local farmer wanted to sell to downtown chefs, it meant driving into town and making individual deliveries. Farming is a labor intensive and demanding endeavor even without all the logistics of scheduling, invoicing, deliveries, and generating new business. “That barrier to entry is so high for farmers,” explains Lata. “Growers are still rotating in and out all the time.” Buying from local farmers is still wildly time-consuming from the restaurant side as well. In the days before GrowFood, it was very difficult for chefs who wanted to introduce local foods onto menus to coordinate deliveries from multiple farmers a day. This ad hoc model was wellintentioned but grossly inefficient.

Enter GrowFood Carolina. The organization acts as a hub for farmers and chefs alike. Farmers deliver to a single location. Chefs buy from a single location. A chef can deliver feedback to the farmer through consistent, organized channels. Administrative tasks like invoicing and payments are systematized and streamlined. In addition, the GrowFood team works directly with farmers to improve their

practices and plan crop production. “We do an intense yearly assessment,” explains Clow. “What is their cost per box? Can they push their season by two weeks? Is it time to get a high tunnel? These are important questions that make a big difference in shaping their business.”

And for a chef, GrowFood is an incredible resource, a onestop shop for local produce and a middleman for all manners of logistics. GrowFood not only helps bolster the viability of local farmers, but they also hold them accountable to a system, a calendar for growing and a structure for selling. This consistency is crucial to restaurants. It means that chefs can count on quality local ingredients for their menus and develop more synergistic partnerships. “The name of the grower and where they are growing is on every box in the cooler,” says Clow. “Even if a chef never meets the Watsons, we’ve talked about them, the chef understands their story, and knows they are getting Watson eggs.”

All in all, the hub allows both restaurants and farms more time to focus on what’s important—the quality and integrity of the food. Formal feedback allows both parties an opportunity for a better perspective on their process and the role they play in the larger market. As a board member and stakeholder, Lata is still very much invested in GrowFood’s success. A few months ago he spent two days in the warehouse working with the GrowFood team on quality control. For him, the GrowFood model bridges the gap between chefs and farmers in the most sustainable and mutually beneficial way.

With the opening only a few months away, Lata is working closely with the Kiawah Island Club team to fine-tune every last detail of the new B-Liner. “I think we’re going to deliver a beautiful restaurant,” says Lata. “I am grateful to the Club ownership for recognizing the importance of local foods and supporting my creative vision. For the last twenty years, I have curated an amazing family of purveyors that represent the best of our local resources.” As his flagship restaurant FIG suggests, Lata has built his brand around the concept that “food is good.” And now, this simple ethos will be at the center of the exciting new dining culture at The Beach Club.

— H.W.

RITES OF SUMMER

STORY by KATHERINE BARRY VERANO

PHOTOGRAPHY by SIMONS FINNERTY and ANNE DARBY PARKER

PHOTO BY ANNE DARBY PARKER |

In this ever-evolving world, it’s comforting to know some things never change, that some things do remain constant— people you can count on, places you hold dear. Traditions that define our past and shape our future.

Kiawah Island has long been home to tradition. The Island is a natural gathering place, an organic shadowbox of memories. Its magical setting compels you to put down roots and make lifelong connections.

For one group of families, this couldn’t ring truer. Five girlfriends started off best of friends at Charleston’s Ashley Hall and knew they wanted to remain close, watch their children grow up together, and continue to make memories— and so, the annual August beach week was born.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been twenty-four years,” says Anne Darby Parker, longtime Island resident and one of the five matriarchs. “Our annual gathering at Kiawah started as five high school girlfriends who simply wanted to see each other and have their children grow up with Lowcountry roots. But it’s turned into something so much more. People do what it takes to get there every year. It’s a sacred time for us and our children.”

The first gathering was in 1995 and has happened every year since. Through the years, the families have doubled in size, the children have grown in height, married, and moved away—but for the first week of every August, they all return to Kiawah.

“We tried other destinations, but nothing really clicked,” Anne recalls. “We wanted a place where we could all be together. Kiawah ticked all the boxes for us.”

Anne and her siblings had just completed the restoration of the historic Vanderhorst Mansion at Kiawah. The Vanderhorst home was built in 1802 by Arnoldus Vanderhorst, former South Carolina Governor and twice mayor of Charleston. Unlike many of the Lowcountry’s grand plantation homes, Vanderhorst was a working plantation—first indigo, then Sea Island cotton. As much a testament to the Island’s past as its future, the home’s careful restoration underscored the importance of family and tradition.

Because Anne and her family lovingly restored the home to be a family gathering place, it had an instant “family feel” about the place that drew the fun-loving group in for good. “It was like camping in those early years,” Anne remembers.

FOR ME, THE BEGINNING OF A NEW YEAR IS MARKED BY AUGUST ON KIAWAH, NOT BY JANUARY 1.

“We had people everywhere—on chairs, on floors, on pull-out sofas. It was both hilarious and perfect. But we were all under one roof, and that was all that mattered.”

The Vanderhorst home is nestled creekside on a little dune ridge right in the heart of the Island—yet it feels worlds away. There is plenty of room to roam and play and lounge. From crabbing in the creek to games of Marco Polo, there is never a shortage of things to do.

“Vanderhorst was our oasis, a secluded space we had all to ourselves where we could just roam and be kids,” says Simons Finnerty, one of the group’s youngest members. “It’s a place that really caters to childhood.”

Simons missed his first gathering of the families (it was the same week he was born), but he hasn’t missed one since. “For me, the beginning of a new year is marked by August on Kiawah, not by January 1,” he says.

Each year brings something different. Spontaneity reigns, and the appreciation for this week together grows stronger as the years pass. The kids usually produce an elaborate musical or comedy show. There are dress-up theme nights, and wild games of Ping-Pong and touch football. Someone is always

out biking, running, swimming, or golfing. “And we dance. A lot,” says Anne. “From the minute everyone arrives, there’s music on and we’re dancing.”

The kids are like brothers and sisters, and their time on Kiawah has shaped their past and inspired their futures. So much so that the group dynamics play an important role as the children grow up and choose life partners. “It’s the ‘final judgement’ to introduce a partner or spouse to this group,” says Simons.

As time marches on, these cherished moments—from pluff mud play to theatrical productions—are preserved for posterity in Anne and Simons’s photographs. Together they have chronicled the joys of childhood, the gathering of family, and a lifetime love through the generations.

Through their lenses, we catch rare insider glimpses of what really matters. Friendship. Family. Tradition. It’s a powerful expression of the continuum of time and tradition. And the power of place. “The role that Kiawah plays is very special,” said Simons. “This couldn’t have happened just anywhere.” — K.V.

WE HAD PEOPLE EVERYWHERE—ON CHAIRS, ON FLOORS, ON PULL-OUT SOFAS. IT WAS BOTH HILARIOUS AND PERFECT.

PHOTO BY SIMONS FINNERTY |

PHOTO OF ANNE DARBY PARKER BY SIMONS FINNERTY |

PHOTO OF SIMONS FINNERTY BY ANNE DARBY PARKER |

BEHIND THE LENS

Simons Finnerty knew early on that he wanted to be a photographer. He first picked up the camera in middle school and this past spring graduated from the School of the Visual Arts in New York. “Anne was the first photographer I knew,” says Simons. “She was my first example of what life as an artist might look like.”

Now on his post-graduate journey, Simons is working for renowned fashion photographer Bruce Weber. “I’ve been working with Bruce since my first year of college,” says Simons. “I’m constantly in awe of his ability to capture an honest and fleeting emotion.”

During his tenure, Simons has assisted on several of Weber’s annual All-American book series. “When [Bruce] asked me if I had any ideas for the upcoming issue, I knew I wanted to pitch Kiawah Island,” he says.

That pitch successfully became a twelve-page feature in the 2018 edition of All American XVIII: Facing the World that showcases Anne’s and Simons’s photographs.. “I always knew how rich the story was,” says Simons. “Having the opportunity to photograph this tradition with a purpose was exciting. These people are my family.”

THIS SPREAD: PHOTOS BY SIMONS FINNERTY |

Through human craft and ingenuity, our engineers, surveyors, landscape architects, and analysts collaborate with you to design visions, places, communities, foundations, life.

BRINKS AND BOUNDARIES

The Framing of Early Charleston

WRITTEN by CHRISTINA RAE BUTLER

AS YOU STROLL SOUTH OF BROAD, IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE THE SOFT EDGES OF MARSHLAND THAT ONCE ENCIRCLED THE PENINSULA, THE MUDDY TIDAL CREEKS WHERE WATER STREET NOW LIES, OR THE GRAZING LAND THAT SURROUNDED THE SMALL POND THAT IS NOW COLONIAL LAKE.

WE HAVE EARLY ENGINEERS AND LAND SPECULATORS TO THANK FOR MAKING CHARLESTON WHAT IT IS TODAY—A LANDMASS NEARLY TWICE ITS ORIGINAL SIZE. OVER THE PAST THREE CENTURIES, THE SHAPE OF THE CHARLESTON PENINSULA HAS EVOLVED DRAMATICALLY. RESIDENTS AND CITY PLANNERS USED A VARIETY OF MEANS AND MATERIALS TO CREATE MORE BUILDABLE LAND AND A HARDER BORDER BETWEEN THE CITY AND THE EVER-PRESENT TIDAL RIVERS THAT BROUGHT COOLING BREEZES, EROSION, AND FLOODING POTENTIAL IN EQUAL MEASURE.

A VIEW NEAR CHARLESTON | CHARLES FRASER | COURTESY OF THE GIBBES MUSEUM AND THE CAROLINA ART ASSOCIATION

Early settlers and visitors to Charlestown built on the highest part of the peninsula first, on the banks of the Cooper River, wedged between two large tidal creeks: Daniel’s Creek (what became Market Street to the north) and Vanderhorst Creek (now Water Street to the south). And as tensions between the English colonists in Carolina and the Spanish in Florida ran high, the colonial government fortified the town and built a wall around the most settled area. Alexander Hewatt described the town in 1779:

“It is situated on a neck of land at the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, which are large and navigable, and wash at least two third parts of the town. The streets from east to west extend from river to river, and, running in a straight line, not only open a beautiful prospect, but also afford excellent opportunities, by means of subterranean drains, for removing all nuisances, and keeping the town clean and healthy.”

The walls and creeks that defined this early community are depicted on a map by Edward Crisp drawn in 1711. The map shows the marshland where White Point Garden and Harleston Village now lie.

Charlestown became a prominent port city, and the population grew, prompting residents to fill creeks,

marshes, and rivers to create more land. They used street sweepings, mud, sand, ship ballast stones, rice chaff, sawdust, and even trash—whatever was readily available and cheap to acquire. Residents reclaimed and filled to create seawalls and embankments to protect the town from erosion. John Lambert, who visited in 1807, remarked, “The site of Charleston nearly resembles that of New York, being on a point of land . . . The town is built on a level sandy soil, which is elevated but a few feet above the height of spring tides. From its open exposure to the ocean it is subject to storms and inundations, which affect the security of its harbor.”

By the American Revolution, the town had grown northwardly up the peninsula, and slowly west and south into the Ashley River marshes. The town limits were moved to Boundary Street (Calhoun Street) to meet development. A beautiful hand tinted plat from 1798 shows new lots laid out along the marshes at the west end of Calhoun Street, bounded on the east by a Negro Burial Ground (part of College of Charleston’s campus today), Daniel Cannon’s land nearer the Ashley River to the west, and Thomas Radcliffe’s land to the north.

AN EXACT PROSPECT OF CHARLESTOWN, THE METROPOLIS OF THE PROVINCE OF SOUTH CAROLINA | 1762 | LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

INCONVENIENCES OF A LOW SITUATION

Some of the best descriptions and illustrations of early Charleston come from portrait painter and artist Charles Fraser, who was born in the city in 1782. His watercolors beautifully depict marsh-front houses landlocked by later reclamation, and riverbanks that are now under street beds. He also published his youthful memories of Charleston in his Reminiscences of 1854. He wrote of Harleston, a late eighteenth-century neighborhood on the Ashley River, west of the original town settlement, “That extensive portion of the city, so handsomely improved, was then unoccupied, and penetrated by creeks and marshes; and there was nothing to interrupt the view of the College [of Charleston] buildings from Cannon’s Bridge, where the boys used to bathe.” Cannon’s Bridge was a causeway near Calhoun Street, over the Ashley River creeks.

West of Magazine Street was nothing but marsh, and at the west end of Broad Street, the land beyond Savage’s Green (near Savage Street today), “was entirely vacant. That green was separated from the lots on Tradd Street, by a marsh which ran through the present site of Logan Street, nearly up to the corner of Friend [Legare] and Broad Streets.”

At the Market, Fraser remembered “the Governor’s bridge, a wide brick arch thrown across a creek, into which the tide flowed, from where the fish market now stands nearly up to Meeting Street, and covering the whole extent of our present market.” Water Street “was another creek, through which the tide ran some distance. I have often, when a boy, swum through a brick flood gate next to where Mr. D. Ravenel’s house now stands. The low ground, which yet remains in that neighborhood to be filled up, indicates its locality. This floodgate had, no doubt, been placed there to prevent the encroachments of the sea, and give safety to the fishing boats, which I remember seeing there in great numbers.”

The flood gate and neighboring Fort Mechanic (a large fortification in place during the War of 1812, located where 17 and 19 East Battery are today) was gone by the antebellum era. The City constructed the high stone East Battery seawall, with its promenade and view of the harbor and Fort Sumter, out of the former Cooper River mudflats. The wall kept the waves and tides at bay and provided a popular scenic walk. A British visitor remarked, “The Battery is their Hyde Park, their Prater, and their Champs-Élysées and they are justly proud of it,” although he warned, “When you go out to enjoy a stroll, if the air is still, a beefsteak could frizzle on the crown of your hat.”

At the southern end of the peninsula, White Point Garden was reclaimed from the Ashley River. Where pirates were hanged on a bleached oyster shell beach in 1718 and gun batteries were mounted during the Revolution, a fine park with benches, oak trees, and strolling paths now stood. Not all waterfront properties were desirable, however. The marshes and mudflats were untraversable, low lying areas often flooded the streets, and swamps emanated noxious smells. People in the nineteenth-century believed that bad air vapors could make them ill and tried to avoid lowlands when possible. Tidal drains carrying runoff water laced with manure from the streets might also empty into waterfront areas that were industrial and shipping hubs. British author and sociologist Harriet Martineau wrote of her experience in Charleston in 1835 that “the soil is a fine sand, which, after rain, turns into a most deceptive mud; and there is very little pavement yet. They told me that a horse was drowned last winter in a mudhole in a principal street.”

Alongside the older part of the city to the south, ponds were created from marshes along the Ashley River to service rice mills like West Point, owned by the Bennett and Lucas families and accessed by long causeways. Lumber mills and windmills, like those painted by Fraser, lined the west side of Harleston Village. Colonial Lake fronted the Ashley River and other log ponds in 1900, and is itself a

vestigial millpond-turned-reflecting lake, now hundreds of feet from the banks of the Ashley River after decades of filling and development.

In the late nineteenth century, residential development crept ever-northward. An 1864 map of the peninsula shows the marshfront neighborhoods north of Calhoun Street, White Point Garden (half the size it is today), and mill ponds along the west side of the city. New neighborhoods like Cool Blow, Hampton Park Terrace, and Wagener Terrace provided residential enclaves accessed by the new electric trolley system begun in 1897. Hampton Park and Terrace began at the turn of the nineteenth century as Washington Race Course, where gentlemen could catch breezes from the Ashley River and watch horses race. It served as a prisoner of war camp during the Civil War, then an exposition ground in 1901-1902, before becoming a park and residential area.

THE PARKS AND MURRAY BOULEVARD

Constructing Murray Boulevard, one of the more ambitious waterfront changes of the twentieth century, occurred in two phases in the 1910s. The timing couldn’t have been worse because World War One led to material rationing and labor shortages throughout the state, but after almost a decade, workers had created forty-seven new acres of lots and promenades alongside the Ashley River, linking the White Point Garden area with the earlier reclamations near Colonial Lake on the west side of the peninsula.

Charlestown’s original topography lies beneath the Charleston of today. The waterways that once cut across the peninsula remember their path, occasionally reasserting their presence in the summer’s tropical downpours. Current residents, however, are fortunate for their industrious forerunners’ efforts to create a thriving port city from the lowlands. Today you can stand on this land and take in the marsh and rivers from the pathways of White Point Garden and Waterfront Park. — C.B.

CHARLESTON TAKEN FROM SAVAGE’S GREEN |

1796 | CHARLES FRASER | COURTESY OF THE GIBBES MUSEUM AND THE CAROLINA ART ASSOCIATION

meet your neighbor

AN ODE TO KIAWAH ISLAND’S ANCIENT AND MOST RESILIENT RESIDENT

STORY

by STEPHANIE HUNT

PHOTOGRAPHY by JACK KOTZ, KATHY KEANE and TINA SCHELL

Its tail is a slashing turbine of fierce power.

It’s eyes, wizened slits encased in emerald, mesmerizingly lazy yet alert and perched high on the skull—ah yes, the better to see you with. And those mighty jaws, those jigsawed incisors. Perpetually showcased in an eerie grin, an alligator’s teeth are like the creature itself, enduring and efficient. When one tooth wears down, it is replaced—up to three thousand in an animal’s lifetime—a regenerative mastication machine.

Beast of bony armor and elongated grace, the alligator is a majestic, if oft-misunderstood, creature. Long before the Kiawah Indians roamed this island, long before the British colonized and Patriots defended and Confederates camped out, eons before tourists traveled here, before beachwalkers walked and golfers carted about, Alligator mississippiensis lurked amidst marshes and slithered through ponds—the Lowcountry’s primordial resident.

As subliminal reptiles, alligators exist in the surface tension, the in-between above water and below, and their very presence is a lesson in low-key contentedness. Weighing up to one thousand pounds, they only call attention to themselves when feeling amorous. Their love song is a combination roar and bellow that will rattle your bones and deliver enough

sonic juju to make water skitter and dance. Otherwise they are silent, patient hunters, their mud-gray osteoderms ideal camouflage for a duck-and-cover lifestyle. Yet alligators are still very much present on the Island; some seven hundred of them make Kiawah home. “If there’s a pond, there’s a gator or two,” says Elizabeth King, the Resort’s director of outdoor programs.

Kiawah’s alligators, like all those north of Florida, are one of two crocodilian species found in the United States. They are ubiquitous to this island landscape, part and parcel of its endless freshwater ponds and lagoons, brackish creeks and marshes. In terms of taxonomy, they are archosaurs, “more closely related to birds and dinosaurs than lizards and snakes,” says Jeffrey Camper in The Reptiles of South Carolina. You’ll find them silently basking on banks, occasionally meandering across a bike path, or more likely—idling mid-pond, practicing the lost art of doing as little as possible.

Indeed alligators are laid-back icons of a prehistoric work ethic, one we might do well to emulate: conserve energy; move slowly and almost imperceptibly but with balletic ease; be inconspicuous; eat only when hungry and only what you

P hoto by Kathy Keane

need; rest a lot, preferably in a warm, sunny spot; ignore gawkers; eschew hashtags and selfies.

“Big Al,” however, might be an exception. A fixture on the River Course, Big Al doesn’t seem to mind the limelight, or certainly didn’t in March 2017, when he paraded his behemoth bod in full stride right up to golfers playing in the Barrier Islands Free Medical Clinic’s Tenth Annual Celebrity Golf Invitational. Though not officially invited, Big Al quickly became the biggest celebrity in the tournament, and a video of his impressive girth and reptilian strut made national news, from CNN and USA Today to CBS Sports. “He was huge, literally a dinosaur,” said Carrie Moores of the Barrier Islands Free Medical Clinic, who somewhat breathlessly shot the soon-to-go-viral video.

Who wouldn’t be a bit unnerved by a massive dragon swaggering toward you? But Big Al had no malintent; he was merely lumbering his fourteen-foot-long body toward a nearby lagoon, past the golfers in his path. “Yep, he’s a regular, particularly around hole number five,” acknowledges River Course golf pro Mike Perkins. Although Big Al hasn’t pulled any media stunts lately. He did, however, catch the eye, and

lens, of National Geographic photographer Ralph Lee Hopkins, who has photographed wild, exotic, and endangered animals all over the globe and marveled at Big Al’s subdued majesty. “Wow, he’s something else,” said Hopkins, crouching low to zoom in at gator eye-level, and inching just a tad bit closer, but not too close.

Hopkins is a pro and knows that keeping a respectable distance from any wild animal, especially one as powerful and quick as an alligator (despite their lazy vibe, gators can lunge fast and run up to nine miles an hour), is wise both for the onlooker’s safety as well as for the alligator’s well-being. “They are unpredictable animals, and mothers can be fiercely protective, so all alligators are best observed from afar, ideally at least sixty feet away,” says King. “And never ever feed an alligator! We don’t want alligators to associate humans with food.”

Respecting and protecting alligators as an integral part of the Kiawah environment is imperative, explains Town of Kiawah Island wildlife biologist Jim Jordan. Jordan and his team monitor the resident alligator population, including capturing any “nuisance” gators. “But they only become a

ottom Left and Top Left by Jack Kotz | Bottom Right and Top Right by Tina Schell

P hoto by Jack Kotz

nuisance when people feed them,” he explains. A healthy, wild alligator is not interested in humans. Since 2016 Jordan’s team has been tagging alligators to better understand their movement and activity, and they added GPS tracking in 2017 as part of a broader Clemson-led study and survey of alligator behavior.

“The fact that they are here means that we are doing something right,” says Jordan. As apex predators, alligators are critical in helping maintain a balanced ecosystem, including keeping animal populations in check. Being at the top of the food chain also makes alligators a sentinel species, meaning that their health is an indication of the health of the general environment. The adage “you are what you eat” holds true. An adult alligator sometimes eats only one meal a month, but if toxins and contaminants show up in its system, red flags should go up.

The late endocrinologist and MUSC professor Dr. Louis Guillette knew this well. A global expert in alligator biology,

Dr. Guillette served as director of Marine Biomedicine and Environmental Sciences at MUSC, holding an endowed chair in marine genomics. He pioneered studies that explored how toxic pollutants affect the sex habits of alligators and crocodiles, and he translated this research into promoting the decrease in birth defects in pregnant women. He lectured on alligators for the Kiawah Conservancy and spent time in the field with the Kiawah’s alligator population.

Experts like Guillette and Jordan respect the staying power and resilience of these ancient creatures that have successfully survived and adapted over the last ten million years. As do other human Island residents and visitors who pause in awe when spotting an alligator sunning on the banks of a creek or pond. This happy human/wildlife cohabitation and respect for Kiawah’s crocodilians bodes well for both twolegged residents and the squat four-legged, long-tailed ones. As Dr. Guillette was known to say, “If the environment is safe for alligators, it is safe for us.” — S.H.

Beast of bony armor and elongated grace, the alligator is a majestic, if oft-misunderstood, creature.

Gator Safety

• STAY AT LEAST SIXTY FEET (FOUR CAR LENGTHS) AWAY FROM ALLIGATORS.

• DO NOT FEED ALLIGATORS.

• DO NOT CRAB OR FISH NEAR ALLIGATORS.

• DO NOT THROW USED BAIT OR FISH PARTS BACK INTO THE WATER AFTER FISHING OR CRABBING.

• DO NOT THROW OBJECTS AT ALLIGATORS OR HARASS THEM IN ANY WAY.

• KEEP CHILDREN AND PETS AWAY FROM THE EDGES OF LAKES AND PONDS.

• KEEP OUT OF SECLUDED POND AREAS WHERE ALLIGATORS MAY NEST. FEMALES ARE VERY PROTECTIVE OF THEIR NEST AND YOUNG.

P hoto by Jack Kotz

the state of shag

IT’S THE BEAT. IT’S THE SAND IN YOUR SHOES. MIX R&B AND SMOOTH DANCE STEPS WITH CAROLINA BEACH TOWNS, AND YOU’VE GOT THE SHAG.

STORY by SANDY LANG ILLUSTRATIONS by CHRISTINE MITCHELL ADAMS

The Original Folly Beach Pier Restaurant | Ronald Allen Reilly | Image Courtesy of the South Carolina Historical Society Archives

Recently my dad has been cajoling out-of-town guests into watching Shag. I didn’t know about my parents’ new ritual, but I do remember the movie pretty well. It’s the one with a young Bridget Fonda and Phoebe Cates riding in convertibles and going to parties and beauty pageants, and it was filmed on Ocean Boulevard and in beach music clubs of Myrtle Beach in the late 1980s, just a couple of years after the legislature deemed the shag as the state dance of South Carolina. Our family lived in a little coastal town south of Myrtle Beach back then, so the rhythms and scenery are like a personal blast from the past.

I was a teenager when the film crew was looking for extras for the movie’s production, and my brother and I went for the free shag lessons they offered to locals to brush up on our steps. But because I didn’t want to miss a shift at the waterslide where I “worked,” sitting by a pool all day and twirling a whistle while everyone splashed past—a dream job that summer—I never showed up for an extras call.

Long gone is the Water World waterslide, but the shag is still being danced, even getting a bump in popularity lately with clips of the best dancers snaring thousands and sometimes millions of views on YouTube. (Check out the super-smooth footwork of teenagers Trinity Adams and Mack West of North Carolina dancing on a plywood floor to “Rockin’ at Midnight.”) I’ve been listening to borrowed albums of beach music, and I keep thinking of that retro movie. If only I’d practiced more of those triple-steps and pivots during the steamy days of 1987, maybe I would have made it to the movie set and slipped into a scene.

Islanders Around Charleston

At about the same time as the moviemaking up in Myrtle Beach, the shag was also having a heyday in Charleston. You can almost hear sunshine in her voice when Joan “Jo” Simokat of James Island recalls 1980s and 1990s afternoons at the

Islanders Shag Club on Folly Beach, or at the now-closed J.B. Pivots Beach Club on Savannah Highway. When the deejay turned up the volume for “I Love Beach Music” by the Embers, or “Carolina Girls” by General Johnson and The Chairmen of the Board, she says, all you had to do was grab a partner’s hand and start dancing.

“You could walk into Pivots and there would be maybe three hundred people there. It had a huge dance floor with mirrors all around,” Simokat says. “Everybody danced with everybody, and it always felt like a reunion—like you knew everyone there.”

Go back another couple of decades and Dianne Dyches, whose family lived in downtown Charleston in the 1960s, says her favorite shag spots were beach bars and sandy pavilions on the Isle of Palms, like the one named Old Side. And when Fats Domino came to Folly Beach to play a concert in the mid-'60s, she was on the pier for the show. So was Peter Edwards, who also grew up in Charleston and remembers going to the pier’s over-water dance pavilion often in the 1960s. “Sometimes the girls didn’t want to go to the movies again; they wanted to dance,” he remembers. So with his brother or with College of Charleston friends, they’d go to shag to the music of touring bands, or to play the jukebox at places like Tobin’s on Coleman Boulevard in Mount Pleasant, and at The Sands, a restaurant with a dance floor on Highway 17 in West Ashley where liquor wasn’t sold, but customers could bring a bottle of whiskey with them, and the club would provide the soda, cups, and ice.

Swing Dance, with Sand

Originating in black music clubs and beach town pavilions in the Carolinas, the dance and the “shag” name dates back to the blues scene of the 1930s and 1940s. Specific details shift according to the source, but the general story is that the music and dancing in African-American neighborhoods and venues in Myrtle Beach, Atlantic Beach, Mosquito Beach (on James

The rhythms and scenery are like a personal blast from the past.

Island), and elsewhere in the Carolinas drew the attention of white teenagers. The white kids wanted to hear more of the rhythm and blues songs that weren’t being aired on the radio in the segregated South. Lifeguards, locals, and beachgoers visited the clubs and learned some of the dance moves. The music would eventually draw everyone to the dance floor, and the shag was born—even as white conservative groups tried to stop the white and black kids from dancing together. Stories from this history are now being better recognized, and one of the early black-owned clubs in Myrtle Beach is featured in a new documentary called Charlie’s Place that first aired last year on SCETV.

What makes the shag different from other swing dances of the same era, like the Lindy Hop or jitterbug, is the smoother moves and fancy footwork. The dancers’ feet are worth watching closely because the shag’s steps are typically close to the floor, slippery and gliding—and live within a dance-school count of one-and-two (in), three-and-four (out), five-six (rockstep). Dancers often step in intricate, mirror-image steps, and they wear “Weejuns” loafers and other shoes with leather or suede soles that won’t grab the floor.

Simokat says the standard tempo of a good shag music song is about 120-130 beats per minute, so when she’s danced in shag competitions to something faster like the rock classic “Midnight Special,” she’s asked the deejay to slow it down. She frequently teaches the shag to teenagers, and says she classifies a good shag song into three types of music: the classic beach music songs like “Sixty-Minute Man” by Billy Ward and The Dominoes, and “Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy” by the

Tams. Then there’s soul and R&B favorites, including the 1950s “Shake, Rattle and Roll” by Big Joe Turner, and a 1970s version of “Behind Closed Doors” by Florida-born singer Jackie Moore. Instrumentals are also popular for shag dancing, Simokat says, including alto sax-led pieces like “Flamingo” by Earl Bostic, along with newer guitar jazz by Peter White, including his 2009 song “Bright.”

“But really, the music can be anything with a steady beat,” explains Simokat, who says there’s always variety because each new generation brings their own music.

Club Culture

Shagging lives on. In 1985 Dyches became a founding member of the Islanders Shag Club and helped keep membership rolls and photo scrapbooks, especially during the years when the clubhouse was open on Folly Beach and attracted hundreds of local and seasonal members. “If you grew up in Charleston, you know how to shag,” Dyches says. “We’ve all had that as part of our lives—anyone who grew up along the coast in South Carolina and North Carolina.”

In recent years, more than one thousand of the under-21 crowd have been regularly joining in on junior-level shag competitions in North Myrtle Beach each summer, and longtime shaggers like Simokat and Dyches keep dancing, too. Around Charleston, what does change is the venues. Costly island rents caused the Club to exit its clubhouse lease by the mid-2000s, and Club members from James Island, Johns Island, Kiawah, Seabrook, and Wadmalaw now dance in rental halls and beach bars around Charleston. The Islanders Shag

Decades of beach memories and friendships keep people coming back to the dance floor again and again.

Shagging at Highland High School | 1964 | Image Courtesy of John Hook

Club and three other local clubs jointly host a monthly dance at the Elks Lodge on Sam Rittenberg Boulevard. Dancers drive out to the Summerville Country Club for Monday night lessons, or take the 120-mile road trip up to Fat Harold’s Beach Club and the other classic shag haunts in North Myrtle Beach. Ocean Drive in North Myrtle Beach remains a legendary shag mecca—drawing crowds of ten thousand or more every spring and fall for the annual migrations of the Society of Stranders.

Decades of beach memories and friendships keep people coming back to the dance floor again and again. And according to Simokat and Dyches, the shag is a dance that’s always evolving because everyone dances it in their own style. The women recall their good-natured teasing of a fellow shag club member, Larry Haley of Charleston, who passed away recently. “‘They stole your move, Larry,’ we’d tell him. And he’d say, ‘That’s okay, I’ll just make up another one.’” — S.L.

Dick Bennett and the Monarchs | Image Courtesy of John Hook

PHOTOGRAPHY by JOEL CALDWELL

STORY by HAILEY WIST

When I pull up to the dock at Rhett’s Bluff, Elliot Hillock and his girlfriend, Lauren, are waiting. Their dogs, Sasha and Tide, race in and out of the sweetgrass. We unload packs, sleeping bags, tents, and sundry groceries from the car and ferry them down the dock to Elliot’s bay boat. When everything is loaded, the boat is comically heaped with bags, firewood, a small gas stove, two ice chests, a large soup pot, four duffels, and a partially inflated air mattress—not to mention the two dogs and a quiver of fishing rods.

Elliot and I have been scheming about this trip for years. But it’s been tricky to plan. As the Kiawah Island Club’s boat captain, there is rarely a sunny afternoon when Elliot isn’t booked with fishing charters or cruises, which doesn’t leave much time to coordinate tides and weather for perfect camping conditions. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, sleep out under the stars in my favorite place, get to know the marsh and the creeks a bit better in the hush of the moonlight.

We set out east on the Kiawah River. I lay flat on the prow, with Tide panting by my side. He whines when he sees a dolphin fin breach the surface to our left. “I swear he can communicate with them,” Elliot yells from behind the helm. “They gather around the boat when I bring him.” Tide scrambles port to starboard and back again, whimpering with excitement. Sure enough, we hear the poooosh of three more

dolphins breaching just a few feet ahead. “Is this the Kiawah River pod?” I shout into the wind. Elliot nods and grins. The Kiawah River is magnificent in the clear afternoon sun, the marsh golden. In just a few short weeks it will turn a gray-red and shed large mats of cordgrass out to sea.

The back barrier is a unique and curious thing. The small hammocks that protrude from the expanse of marsh are former shoreline, sand ridges from a bygone era. The oldest beach ridges on Kiawah Island are around four thousand years old, so the hammocks are likely much older. Through the millennia, Kiawah has remained a healthy barrier island with an excess of sand. Because of this extra sand, the island has been growing seaward for the past five thousand years. The water is displaced to the back side of the island, the back barrier, creating the Lowcountry marsh. The displaced water that flows in through the tidal creeks has enough velocity to carry sand and sediment in, but as it settles at high tide, it drops this muddy mixture into the back barrier. This accumulation of sediment is what created the network of marsh flats and tidal creeks that we see today. The resulting pluff mud is so fine that it acts like clay—binding the flats together. In fact, looking at the mud wall of a marsh flat, it often holds together as a vertical face, crumbling in chunks rather than spilling as a slope to the water.

It is a warm afternoon in late October.

Elliot knows every creek and cranny of this back barrier. He grew up on Kiawah and has been exploring the small hammocks since boyhood. He’d hunt for deer sheds and old glass bottles with his dad, occasionally finding treasures from another time—old bricks washed up from nearby plantations, cooked oyster shells grown into the roots of twisted old trees. The Kiawah of Elliot’s youth was a bit more quiet. Back then, you could drive on the beach, the roads to the east end of the island were all dirt, and Ocean Park was a tangle of maritime forest, a haven for white-tailed deer and bobcats. Few kids lived on Kiawah, and so Elliot immersed himself in the natural world—hunting and fishing and learning the rhythms of the barrier islands.

We pull up to the small hammock on the leeward side. The dogs bolt onshore in a flash, disappearing into the dense bush. We unload the gear and Elliot produces a small chainsaw from the back of the boat. He promptly finds a downed palmetto trunk and saws it into six three-foot stumps for seating around the fire. It is still quite light and we explore for a bit, watching the tide suck away from the island and out to sea, climbing into the lower branches of a gnarled cedar, and picking the best spots to pitch our tents. A little later on, we hear calling from the creek and another boat pulls up next to ours. J.D. Hunter and his girlfriend Katie B. are old friends of Elliot’s, and they are joining us for dinner.

We make a small fire and Elliot goes to work, slicing wild boar sausage that he harvested from Johns Island a few months before and dropping it into a big pot with corn, shrimp, and new potatoes—a Lowcountry boil at its best. J.D. has brought a box of oysters, which we shuck while waiting for dinner, dressing them liberally in Elliot’s homemade cocktail sauce. When the interior of the little island grows dark, we walk in pairs to watch the sun setting from the front side of the island. The marsh is alive with the burbles and clicks of mussels, oysters, and fiddler crabs, and in the fading light the grass almost seems to glow.

There are two species of spartina in the Lowcountry marsh; alterniflora is the most common and has a higher salt tolerance, meaning it can be submerged the deepest and the longest in the tidal cycle. It is what you see in the vast expanse of sea-level marsh. Spartina patens has a slightly lower salt tolerance, meaning it can’t be submerged for as long and grows at an incrementally higher elevation. A third species, called juncus, has the lowest salt tolerance and grows at the highest points of the flats. Alterniflora dies off earlier than the other two species so the colors are patterned by where the marsh is a bit shallower. From the air you can actually see these subtle elevation differences in the color of the grasses.

Back at the campsite, the Lowcountry boil is ready and we fumble around in the near-dark, handing out silverware,

The marsh is alive with the burbles and clicks of mussels, oysters, and fiddler crabs.

spooning food onto plates, and refilling wine glasses. Like all meals eaten out in the elements, the boil is astoundingly good. J.D. and Elliot get to talking about the good old days on Kiawah. Elliot’s mom was pregnant with him at the same time J.D.’s mom was pregnant with his older brother Budge. The two families lived two doors down from each other in Inlet Cove. Elliot and the Hunter brothers were thick as thieves in the summer months when the Hunters came to the Island as teenagers. “We would go load the back of the truck with cast nets, bait, and rods,” Elliot remembers. “We’d surf fish at the end of the beach and fish the lagoons at night for big reds, trout, and flounder.”

Before J.D. and Katie B. depart, we clean and stack the pots and cooking utensils. The fire has died down and we decide to go for one more walk around the island in the moonlight. We pick our way to the northern tip and push out through the dense holly to the marsh. The moon is waning gibbous and we all stand there for a bit in silence, drinking in the night air. The tide is still out and the sounds of the marsh seem even louder in the dark. Even the dogs stand still for the moment, listening.

These small islands are home to white-tailed deer and raccoons, not to mention a myriad of different lizards and

insects, rodents, and bird species. At extremely low tide larger mammals might walk from the larger barrier islands, but more than likely they swim through the tidal creeks. And at the end of the summer, when the spartina is breaking off and accumulating in large mats, smaller species actually raft over, riding through the creeks on a makeshift grass boat.

We all fall asleep to the gentle sounds of the marsh, to the slow and steady flow back to high tide. Just when I’m settling into my sleeping bag, I hear Elliot from across the island, making an incredibly realistic marsh hen call. I want to communicate back, so I call out my best chicken cluck. And to all a goodnight.

In the morning as we break down camp, Elliot fries up another link of boar sausage and we eat it sandwiched between two slices of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. On the ride back, dolphins flank the boat on either side. Tide is again in a flurry, scrambling over mounds of duffel bags and ice chests to commune with the smiling mammals.

As we pack up and say our goodbyes at the dock, two glossy ibis glide in and land just a few feet away. They stand in the morning sun, looking at us for a while. It feels like a proper send-off. And that’s the thing about Kiawah—it always delivers. — H.W.

We all fall asleep to the gentle sounds of the marsh, to the slow and steady flow back to high tide.

A PLAYER'S GUIDE TO CASSIQUE

COURSE NOTES BY DYLAN THEW AND CHARLIE ARRINGTON

PHOTOGRAPHY BY GATELY WILLIAMS

HOLE #1

A slight dog leg to the right. Very unique pot bunkering takes place just to the right of the centerline of the fairway. You can stay safe down the left side, or you can play very aggressive over the bunkers on the right-hand side where the fairway pencil-tips in a little bit. Totally Risk/reward.

With a good drive you could be left with a short wedge. If you're playing safe, then you're probably going to be hitting a mid- to a long-iron.

The green slopes back to front with a severe runoff in the center right portion. There's a false front, which might leave you chipping up the green if you're slightly under club. Long left is the no-go zone and will put you in a bunker with a difficult up and down. The best strategy is to play to the center of the green.

hole #2

Gettable par five but definitely some interesting strategy involved. You're almost always better off laying up as opposed to going for the green in two.

If you actually stand on the left-hand side of the tee box, you can see the green at the end of the lake. If you want to take the green with your second shot, the best line to take off the tee is down the left side of the fairway- despite the big tree and the dunes covered in bakeri grasses! There's a lot of room to the right, but the further right you go, the longer your layup shot is going to be.

There's a ravine with a six-foot-wide burn that runs in front of the green, which is protected by an enormous false front. Any ball that doesn't hit the top of the putting surface will actually roll back into the ravine. Anything short on this green will spin back, so the front pin is probably the most challenging! Back right pin has a backstop if you hit a little bit long.

*THIS GREEN IS PATTERNED AFTER THE 16TH HOLE AT TURNBERRY IN SCOTLAND WHERE WATSON WON THE 1977 OPEN, "THE DUEL IN THE SUN," AGAINST JACK NICKLAUS.

(*CASSIQUE IS A KIAWAH ISLAND CLUB PRIVATE COURSE)

HOLE #3

Blind tee shot. The hole goes straight out and then veers to the right. A strategically placed bunker in the fairway leaves you with a blind shot if you're stuck behind it. Consider this before you hit the driver, as the bunker can also come into play off the tee! The aggressive play is down the left-hand side. That will give you a clear shot to the green.

Any shot down the left will give you a clear look at the two-tiered green. The front pin is probably going to be the easiest to attack. There's a mound in the middle of the green that is quite challenging if you're playing to the back pin. There's a hidden bunker guarding the front right corner of the green, which you CANNOT see no matter where you are on the hole!

Nip and Tuck | no. 4 Nip and Tuck plays the fairway down the left side. It's not really a driver hole unless it's into the wind. Most players are forced to hold back on this one. The fairway pinches in the closer you get to the green. The miss on the left side brings the hazard and severe mounding into play. A miss on the right side makes it impossible to get to the green. Ideally, carry over the right corner of the bunker on the left in order to leave yourself the best angle onto the green. DIG DEEP AND COMMIT TO THIS TEE SHOT.

You can really only see the left half of the green in your approach. The back right is blocked by sand dunes, cordgrass, and bunkering. With a good tee shot down the left side, you'll at least be able to see the green. You have a bit of back stop if you hit it long. It's a good-sized green for a short hole. Not too penal. Lower tier on the left, higher tier on the right.

**The mounds in front of this green were redesigned after a trip to Ireland. They are modeled after the 11th hole at Ballybunion.

(Par 3, 5th Nip and Tuck plays uphill to the #4 Pulpit green. If you're playing Pulpit, you play a downhill par 3 from Mount Watson. This hole is only used for the Pulpit routing.)

HoLe #4 [THERE ARE TWO ROUTINGS: NIP AND TUCK AND PULPIT.]

Pulpit | no. 4

This routing takes you up the right side. Pulpit can be played multiple ways. The fairway does pinch in, but it is possible to hit a driver over the fairway bunker, leaving a shot pitch into the green. Consider hitting short because if you go in that fairway bunker, you're probably not going to be able to reach the green. The aggressive play is down the left side.

Huge defense slope on the front of the raised green. Any ball that's short will roll into a valley. Any ball that is left will also roll into a valley, both very difficult up-and-downs. It's a fairly tricky green. Difficult to read. Putts often appear to be downhill when they're uphill or appear to break left to right and end up going right to left.

HOle #5

Nip and Tuck | no. 5

Notice the huge undulation on the front of the green. It gives you a back stop. It plays five or six yards uphill. Typically downwind, so this is a good scoring hole if you hit a solid tee shot. Anything short leaves you in a severe valley, so picking the correct club is essential.

Pulpit | no. 5

Teeing off from Mount Watson, you nearly have a 360-degree view. It's a short par 3 down the hill, only 135 yards. Normally it plays into the wind, so the tee shot can be difficult to gauge from this elevation. The left side of the green is guarded by a huge dune. There is a pot bunker long right-virtually impossible to get the ball up and down because the green slopes violently away from you.

*The inspiration for this green was the "Dell Hole" at Lahinch.

hOle #6

Another gettable par 5 with a good tee shot. If you are going for the green, you have to carry over the spectacle bunkers-visually intimidating from the fairway. It's a split fairway from the tee. Although there is room on the left side, it's not actually worthwhile to take an aggressive line because of all the pot bunkers that are in play. The best line off the tee box is slightly right of those bunkers. That'll give you a good angle for your second shot. If you can't carry those bunkers, then laying up is definitely the play as they will almost always lead to a bogey.

Spectacle Bunkers: About 60 yards away from the green. It's an awkward bunker shot, awkward distance, and a lot of height is required to clear the big wall of the bunker.

*These bunkers are patterned after the 14th hole at Carnoustie in Scotland where Watson won his first British Open.

The green is guarded by a big bunker on the left and a small pot bunker on the right. Very interesting contouring here. The front of the green will let the ball run down to the center. The backstop makes this a fairly forgiving green for a long par 5.

**This backstop was added after the original shaping and inspired by the 17th hole at Yeamans Hall.

HOLe #7

You tee off right in front of a pond and overlook an expanse of marshland. This is a two-tiered green-very small tier at the back of the green. Playing to the center of this green is generally always the play no matter where the flag is. There's no point in being too aggressive. Three is a good score on this hole. The green is surrounded by bunkers, two bunkers on the left side and one on the right. So don't bite off more than you can chew! Anything on the green will give you 40 feet, 50 feet max -a relatively small target for a long hole.

HOLE #8

Probably the hardest par 4 on the course. It's short at just a little over 300 yards. Definitely a risk-reward hole! A longer hitter could potentially go for the green, but if it's a miss, you're going to have an extremely difficult chip shot. Most people hit a long iron or a fairway wood to the center of the fairway. You have to hit over the marsh no matter what tee box you choose to play, so get yourself ready. The further left you go, the further you have to hit the ball and the tighter the fairway gets. Intimidating tee shot. You see a lot of bailouts to the right.

The green is approximately 30 feet deep on the back right. So your distance control has to be incredibly accurate. A long shot in makes it virtually impossible to hold the ball on the smallest green on the course. If you walk away from this hole with par, you feel like you've made a birdie.

hole #9

A large oak tree blocks the right side of the fairway, so you feel like you're forced to hit down the left. But there's actually more room down the right than you think! Although the tee pushes you left, take an aggressive line and hit a fade back to right center of the fairway. The rolling fairway always makes for a challenging lie, so be prepared to adjust your setup.

Not much room for error with the approach shot. Good pot bunkering surrounds a green with one of the largest false fronts in America. The way Tom Watson designed the hole was to actually hit a punch shot into the bank and have the bank take all the speed off and pop the ball onto the hill. You could try your best to fly the ball to the top. Any ball that's short of the slope or that has any spin will eventually end up down at the bottom of the hill.

**This green was inspired by the 9th green at Ballybunion, although the false front is much more exaggerated here.

HOLE #10

Intriguing par 4 -there's a lot more room than it looks like. It's a semi-blind tee shot where you can only see the right side of the fairway. But the play is actually down the left! That will give you a view of the green, whereas playing the right will not. It's daunting but there is a lot more room than it looks like from the tee box. Aim down the right side and hit a nice draw to the left side of the fairway. The fairway pinches in, so if it's downwind, it's not necessarily a driver hole. Watch out for the pot bunkering in the mounding on the right of the fairway.

**The idea here was to deceive the golfer on the ideal tee shot direction- similar to the 11th hole at Oakland Hills in Detroit.

The green is surrounded by three sod-stacked pot bunkers and one larger regular bunker on the right-hand side. Anything short is going to end up with a tricky shot. The smartest play, no matter where the flag is on this green, is to just play to the center because the green isn't very deep.

**Watson patterned this green after the 6th hole at Ballybunion in Ireland.

hOle #11

Pretty demanding tee shot. This is the longest hole on the golf course at close to 600 yards from the tips. It kinks a bit to the left and then curves back to the right. Trees guard the left side of the fairway, but that's where you need to hit. The further right you go, the longer the second shot. If you want to get to the green in two, you have to take an aggressive line down the left and carry the ball 290-300 yards over a bunker. If not, play safe down the center of the fairway.

The layup shot is guarded by a bunker on the left side of the fairway, about 150 yards away from the green. Other than that it is fairly straightforward. This three-tiered green is one of the most challenging on the course. Watch the subtle false front on the right side and the bunker on the left. There's a redan in the middle of the green that often swallows balls and funnels them off the left-hand side. The back right tier is by far the smallest and most difficult to attack. Any shot slightly left could potentially end up in a hazard.

hoLe #12

Short par 4. You can be as aggressive as you want. The right side gives you the best look into the green. The more left you go, the more room there is, but hitting left brings trees into play with your approach shot. This is a strategy hole -it's more about positioning than hitting it as far as you can for a short club in. A bunker and trees guard the right side if you miss the fairway.

The green is two-tiered. There is a slope that runs from front left to the back right, so it's kind of diagonally portioned. Back left is the most challenging because anything long left runs down into a small valley and some nasty rough. When the flag is on the left-hand side just play for the center of the green. The easiest pin is front right because you have a backstop to spin it in to.

HOLE #13

A phenomenal par 3! Marsh and water to the left and beyond the green. Three-tiered green: front, back left, and back right. There are three bunkers on the left-hand side and then a waste area long and left. A high spine divides all the quadrants up, so hitting it to the center of the green is not always your best option. The right side of the green funnels balls off the putting surface. You must try to attack the pin no matter where it is, because finding yourself on the incorrect tier will make for a very challenging two putt.

**Missing this green in the short right hollow is a chipper's nightmare regardless of pin location!

hole #14

Relatively long par 4. The fairway is wide, about 220 off the tee box, and then it starts to get narrower the further you hit it. So again, risk/reward. You can't see the green from the tee, so use the pines in the background as your goalpost to hit through. There's mounding down the right side and a waste area to the left. This is the first time on the course where the tree line really pinches the visuals in, and you feel that you have to hit the ball very straight.

The green is long and thin and separated by a spine in the middle. The back left is really tough because the green funnels away from you, so fire at it unless your distance control is really good. You can be the most aggressive when the pin is on the front because anything slightly long will spin off the slope down to the hole.

(This green surface is reminiscent of a potato chip, with a severe roll off on the back left.)

hOLe #15

Par 5. Signature hole on the course! The fairway is split with bunkering, so you have to go left or right. If you're a long hitter, aim just right of the bunkers and hit it as hard as you can. This is a totally player-dependent hole. People who fade the ball usually play down the right, and people who draw the ball play down the left.

Your second shot is guarded by the hell bunker, which sits about 50 yards short of the green. It is huge. The layup shot must ensure that you carry the small pot bunker, which is about 145 yards away from the green.

The green is long and incredibly narrow. Two slopes separate three tiers: back, front, and middle right. The back right tier is like a tabletop -it's TINY. The length of the green runs slightly left to right, so you need to be coming in on the left in order to have a straight shot up the green.

**This hole was inspired by the 14th at St. Andrews. The famous "hell bunker" in Scotland has a ten-foot face. The Cassique version is only about five-feet high, but it's a bit more in play.

HOLE #16

Time to knuckle down and dig deep as three challenging holes bring your round to a close. From this tee box you can actually see Mount Watson across the Kiawah River -it's so beautiful that it's distracting. There are waste areas up the right side of the hole. On the left side there are two big valleys and one small pot bunker. So it's a challenging tee shot, but the green surface is actually pretty big. The smart play on this hole is to hit to the center of the green, which will leave you a relatively straightforward two putt for your par.

hole #17

This is a cape hole - the fairway curves severely to the right around the marsh. You have to play out to the left and then play your way around the marsh to the green. If you can hit 300 yards, then you have the option to take a direct route to the green. The risk/reward is there! But the obvious safe play is a fairway wood down the left side. The further you go left, the longer your approach shot is going to be. Be strategic with your tee shot because this will determine how close you can hit your second shot. This is a narrow green. There is a waste area down the righthand side and severe sloping on the left side.

hOLe

#18

Demanding tee shot here. There are two tiers in the fairway...lower left side and upper right side. The smart play is a draw off the right side of the fairway. This will leave you the best line in.

There is a large lake in front of, and to the left, of the green. The entire putting surface slopes towards the water. You have to be careful with the spin on the ball in your approach shot. You can use the contouring of the greens, but you run the risk of gathering too much speed and ending up in the hazard. The green has a small tier right of center, which makes for a pretty tricky pin on a shelf. The tournament pin is always back left, and everything funnels down towards the water, so the putting is challenging.

KIAWAH ISLAND

NEIGHBORHOODS

PHOTOGRAPHY by PATRICK O’BRIEN

ORIENTATION AND NEIGHBORHOODS

Cassique is the furthest community to the west. Technically this private neighborhood isn’t on the Island and has a separate entrance just before you cross over the river to the main gates. Neighborhoods like Cassique Clubhouse Village and the Cassique Garden Cottages are situated just a short golf cart ride from the Clubhouse, while Eagle Island lies at the more private, western tip of the neighborhood.

THE VIBE

Elegant and cozy. The design sensibilities of the Clubhouse echo the gracious and comfortable elements of a British country house. Many full-time residents live in Cassique, so the neighborhood has a cohesive identity—a lovely, tight-knit community feeling. Since this district is private, all property owners are Club members, which creates a sense of camaraderie and sociability. Cassique’s proximity to Freshfields Village and Charleston makes it an easy headquarters with quick access to the greater area.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Cassique is nestled against a wide curve in the Kiawah River. Incredibly unique, this end of the Island is both open and secluded. Homes are tucked into long pines on the edge of the marsh. One of the two private courses on the island, the course is modeled after the links of Scotland and Ireland with undulating greens and peaks of thick cordgrass. The marsh is alive with birds and you might even spot an alligator sunning on the banks of a lagoon.

AMENITIES

Cassique Clubhouse, Tom Colicchio’s Voysey’s Restaurant, the Cassique Golf Course, the Sports Pavilion, the Golf Learning Center, the Kayak Dock and Boathouse, Golf Cottages, and the nearby Sporting Club on Johns Island

Cassique is a very special place to live. As a full time-resident, it offers such a strong sense of community, a stunningly beautiful environment with incredible wildlife (including a couple of eagle’s nests!), and the proximity to Charleston.

— Karen Burger

ORIENTATION AND NEIGHBORHOODS

West Beach is situated around Gary Player’s Cougar Point Golf Course. It is just inside the main gates and a short forty-minute drive to downtown Charleston. It includes everything from oceanfront villas to riverfront homes and communities.

THE VIBE

This cozy network of villas, homes, and cottages has a casual and carefree ambiance. It is the historic heart of Kiawah, the site of the first community and inn on the Island. Currently the area is undergoing a significant revitalization, but it will retain the original village atmosphere—pedestrian friendly and cohesive. Certainly a vacation spot, West Beach is frequented by seasonal visitors—often young families— and thus has a bustling and festive vibe during the busier months.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

This western edge of the Island is the oldest, and the maritime forest is quite mature here. Meandering boardwalks float over intact dunes to Kiawah Island’s famously wide and pristine beach. Some West Beach neighborhoods are tucked into the shady canopy of live oaks while others are beachfront along the Atlantic, open to the elements.

AMENITIES

Sandcastle Community Center and Beach Club, Cougar Point Golf Course and Clubhouse

I love living in West Beach. I wake up each day grateful to live in Paradise. The soft sand of the beach is gentle to bare feet and a delight to bike on. Sometimes I spot dolphins romping among the waves. — Suman Govindan *

ORIENTATION AND NEIGHBORHOODS

This district is truly at the center of the Island. Anchored by The Sanctuary Hotel and Night Heron Park, East Beach encompasses a diverse collection of multi- and single-family residences and rentals.

THE VIBE

This section of the Island has a social feel. Regularly infused with new energy from The Sanctuary guests and seasonal vacationers, there is an easy, relaxed ambiance in the air. Endless bike paths wind through East Beach, and it is alive with young families. Night Heron Park provides open space for kids to run, with soccer fields, basketball courts, and playgrounds. The newly expanded Roy Barth Tennis Center hosts the internationally top-ranked tennis program for players of all ages and skill levels. Like West Beach, East Beach is a popular vacation and rental district. It’s neighborhoods have been designed around a central hub. The park, and various amenities are all within walking and biking distance.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Like West Beach, this district sits on the western half of the Island, a solid landmass with very few low points or lagoons. The maritime forest is healthy and mature, home to countless species of mammals, birds, and reptiles. The beach is the prominent natural feature here, and countless paths and boardwalks lead from the community out to the Atlantic.

The Sanctuary Hotel, Night Heron Park, the Nature Center, Jack Nicklaus’s Turtle Point Golf Course, the Roy Barth Tennis Center

ORIENTATION AND NEIGHBORHOODS

A collection of small, distinct neighborhoods, the Vanderhorst district is situated behind the second gates at the center of the Island, bridging Ocean Park with East Beach.

THE VIBE

A network of smaller, detached communities, Vanderhorst is the largest and most diverse district on the Island. It encompasses all of the homes behind the second gate, which affords it another layer of privacy. This region truly is the residential heart and soul of the Island. There are more full-time residents and no multi-family offerings. In a way, Vanderhorst offers something for everyone: a wide variety of building styles, natural environments, and amenities, all linked by an extensive network of bike paths.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

All the distinct characteristics of a barrier island are at play here. This part of the Island is a bit younger than the western half, and you can see that the geologic ridges break into high, long fingers of land, separated by lagoons and marshland. As you drive through the second gate, this dynamic landscape unfolds into wide vistas, like lifting a veil. Infinity marsh views to the north, and the wide, pristine beach to the south—this part of the Island is only a mile and a half across at its widest. The interior of Vanderhorst is a rich ecosystem of maritime forest where deer and bobcats are regularly sighted moving through the trees.

AMENITIES

We have lived for twelve wonderful years on a picturesque cul-de-sac surrounded by neighbors from Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, and Atlanta. We party together, walk together, play golf and tennis together, and bike together. We volunteer at schools, fill backpacks for hungry kids, serve on the town council and the Conservancy board. Living here is great—as are our neighbors! — Dan and Nancy Prickett

The Beach Club, the River Course and Clubhouse, Sasanqua Spa, Rhett’s Bluff Landing, Eagle Point Launch, Cinder Creek Lodge, Osprey Point Golf Course

ORIENTATION AND NEIGHBORHOODS

Ocean Park sits at the very end of Kiawah’s rugged eastern tip. The only land further east is Little Bear Island, a 250-acre nature preserve, separated from Ocean Park by a system of tidal creeks and marshes. Beyond that, the Kiawah River meets the Atlantic. This district is at the very furthest point from the main gates and Freshfields Village—the end of the road, so to speak. It is situated just behind The Ocean Course and includes the Marsh Walk neighborhood.

THE VIBE

This neighborhood is enchanting. The residents here have come to Kiawah to truly get away—to commune with nature and disconnect. A meandering park runs through the centerline and acts as an anchor and gathering place for the community. The furthest neighborhood from the main gate, Ocean Park isn’t a thruway to get anywhere else. Perhaps that’s what cultivates such a lovely feeling of serenity and privacy.

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT

Ocean Park boasts seventy-five acres of parkland and lagoon. With some of the highest sand ridges on the Island, the endless layers and textures capture the imagination and give you the feeling that the land is still a bit wild. The neighborhood was designed to allow residents to live in concert with nature, and, indeed, the shady mystery of the deep maritime forest creates a deep sense of place. The live oaks here are some of the largest and oldest on the Island. Gazing south towards the Atlantic, the scene is reminiscent of the African savannah, with wind-scrubbed trees and a network of intricate and pristine marshland and tidal creeks.

AMENITIES

The Marsh House, The Ocean Course and Clubhouse, The Atlantic Room, The Ryder Cup Bar, the Treehouse and Playground, the Ocean Park Dock, and the park

Ocean Park is quintessential Kiawah. The sound of the ocean, the eagles soaring above, the lush paths to explor—it is neighborly, quiet, and out of the way. We are tickled to call it home and have to pinch ourselves to make sure it’s not a delicious dream. — Bryan Dunn and M. Ellen Mitchell *

THE FIRST TEE of

Greater Charleston

Photography by Melissa Toms

Bucky Dudley has always been passionate about golf. As a kid, his parents would drop him off at the local course day after day with a friend. They were terrible, he says, but it was challenging and something to do during the long afternoons of childhood. In college, Bucky went to the Citadel to play golf and then worked as a golf professional. To him, golf became a metaphor for life, a structure for the practical applications of life lessons and rites of passage. “I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to pay forward all the life skills that golf gave to me, but I’m sure trying!” he says.

In 2006 Bucky was a founding board member of the Charleston Junior Golf Foundation. From the beginning, the Foundation was gunning to be a chapter of The First Tee. “We had to tick a lot of boxes, lay out our plans for fundraising and programming,” says Bucky. “The First Tee Network needs to see that you’re going to continue to make an impact.” It took two years, and in 2008 the organization became a formal chapter of The First Tee. The chapter covers Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties—quite a reach for a team of less than five full-time employees.

The First Tee USA is a nationwide organization and boasts over one hundred and fifty chapters. It was founded in 1997 by an impressive collection of national golf associations (USGA, LPGA, PGA TOUR, PGA of America, and the Masters Tournament) and was designed to provide affordable youth golf programs to communities without access—especially in economically depressed areas. From its inception, The First Tee wasn’t just about getting kids on the golf course. It built a mission statement around fundamental life skills and a core set of values. Children who move through the program aren’t just learning the game, but they are also learning character lessons and how to take responsibility for the way they conduct

themselves in their schools, families, and communities.

If you look at a brochure for The First Tee Greater Charleston, you’ll see the words: Good Golfers. Better People. At the heart of The First Tee mission are nine core values: sportsmanship, judgment, confidence, honesty, courtesy, respect, perseverance, responsibility, and integrity. The idea is that golf is a metaphor, a structure on which to apply a value system and a set of life skills. Whenever a coach or volunteer teaches an element of the golf game, they also integrate a life skill and core value. At the end of each class, they help each participant understand how to transition that life skill and core value to their life off the course.

Take courtesy. When young players first step up to the tee, they are taught to take off their hat, shake hands with their playing partner, and to look them in the eye and introduce themselves. “We seamlessly introduce the life skill of introducing yourself,” Bucky explains. “And we apply the core value of courtesy to a golf skill.” After a while, these practical lessons create a culture of integrity. The First Tee kids are exposed to a higher standard of being, and they are provided with subtle incentives to hold themselves accountable to it.

The First Tee Greater Charleston provides a threepronged program. The first component is what Bucky calls core programming—after-school classes held at eight different golf courses in the greater Charleston area. Kids from age five to eighteen attend weekly classes and move through eight progressive levels based on age and ability. A lead coach and a large volunteer base run each location. The ratio in the core program is four to one—for every four kids there is a coach or volunteer. Over eight hundred and fifty kids and around one hundred and seventy volunteers were committed to this core site program last year.

Golf is a metaphor, a structure on which to apply a value system and a set of life skills.

[Core Programming Sites include Patriots Point Links, Charleston Municipal Golf Course, Shadowmoss Plantation Golf Club, The Golf Club at Wescott Plantation, The Club at Pine Forest, Berkeley Country Club, RiverTowne Country Club, and Wrenwoods Golf Course on Joint Base Charleston.]

GOOD WORKS

The second prong is an impressive network of school programs. Bucky’s team works with physical educators, providing a curriculum and full set of plastic and velcro equipment to teach the early fundamentals of golf. “Right now it’s purely organic. We make an inroad with a PE teacher, or the principal understands what we’re doing—that it’s not just about golf, it’s character education—everything that the game represents.” Currently, they partner with thirty-two schools in the greater Charleston area, twenty-one of which are Title 1, with at-risk youth from low-income families. These first two prongs work in tandem. The core sites are spread evenly across the three counties, each golf course is just a short drive from one or more public schools. “The idea is that if you can spark the interest of a young person in the school program, then they have a golf course close by to attend a core program class,” says Bucky.

The third prong of the organization is outreach. The YMCA, the Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry, the Girl Scouts, and the Lowcountry Autism Foundation are just a few of the nonprofits that benefit from equipment and programming from The First Tee. This holistic, full-court press approach is why the organization has been so wildly successful. Bucky aims to have a presence in every single school in the greater Charleston area.

Kharynton Beggs started in The First Tee program when she was six. She lived in Baltimore then, and her mother wanted her to get into golf. “It wasn’t my first choice,” she says with a laugh. “I really wanted to be a gymnast.” But golf stuck. By the time she moved to Charleston in 2015, she was already quite a golfer and playing competitively. But more than anything, the program shaped Kharynton into the person she is today. “It really doesn’t matter how good you are. That’s not

the point,” she says. “The goal of The First Tee is to make you a better person—which I think is pretty amazing.” Kharynton has traveled all over the country with The First Tee and even played in a PGA TOUR Champions Event at Pebble Beach Golf Links with professional Jay Haas. She has worked as a summer intern for the organization to coach and mentor young kids in the program. And she’s one heck of a good golfer.

Soon, Kharynton will graduate—from high school and also from The First Tee. She will be attending Oglethorpe University in Atlanta and plans to play on the ladies golf team. But she wants to stay connected to The First Tee. “I have always wanted to work at the home office,” she says. “I would really like to give back to the organization that shaped me into the person I am today.”

And the organization is growing rapidly. There is a 40 percent retention rate in the younger levels, and last season every introductory class reached full capacity. The programming has expanded in the last ten years to include a Golf Buddy Program, a Dollar Per Hole Program, a Junior Caddy Program, a Junior Interclub League, Summer Internships, a Young Ambassadors Council, and a fall Backpack Drive— to name a few. The organization stays nimble and tries to respond organically to the needs of the community rather than a prescribed procedure. Bucky is excited for the future. He hopes to build a small, stand-alone facility, a par 3 with a little driving range. “That would be my dream scenario!” he says with a big smile. With that much passion, it’s probably pretty darn likely.

Kiawah Partners Chris Randolph and Jordan Phillips just completed six-year terms on The First Tee of Greater Charleston board of directors. Jordan served two years as board president.

The First Tee kids are exposed to a higher standard of being, and they are provided with subtle incentives to hold themselves accountable to it.

DINE AROUND KIAWAH ISL AN D RESORT

How to encounter ten-thousand-miles worth of diverse cuisine on a ten-thousand-acre island.

STORY by BRYAN HUNTER

“A red wine from where?” I asked incredulously. I’ve always implicitly trusted Ocean Room sommelier Erika Selheim, but I could not ignore the creeping doubt the moment she recommended I pair a Chateau Musar from Lebanon with the twenty-one-day wet-aged USDA Prime rib eye I’d just ordered. I was entertaining a group from South Carolina Tourism and was anxious to back up my claims that we were sitting in the best steakhouse in South Carolina—good enough to give the best steakhouses in New York or Chicago a run for their money. I gathered my wits when I remembered who I was dealing with, especially since Selheim suggested the wine in almost conspiratorial tones, like she was spilling state secrets. Still, this much excitement over a red from Lebanon?

Minutes later, the wine certainly showed well as she deftly decanted it, and my interest rose along with my hopes when I noticed the dregs left in the bottle. “Regardless of its other merits, it certainly looks to have aged gracefully,” I commented. As she offered a first taste, the deep ruby liquid showed promise. But when I lifted the glass to my nose after a few swirls, the wine transported me to another dimension, like smelling time itself. The fleetingly pleasant muskiness, like a great old library, yielded to leather, rich spices, mature black and red fruits, and a mineral earthiness. On the tongue, it revealed a progression of ripe fruit flavors balanced with smooth, rich tannins and woodsy spice, culminating in a long, complex finish that demanded to be savored and pondered. “Yes, this will do nicely.”

It is a boon to have at one’s disposal an expertly curated and award-winning wine list boasting more than a thousand selections, many expertly aged in the restaurant’s cellar.

Throughout the meal, the Musar continued to evolve, like a powerful living thing rousing from a long slumber, and indeed it proved the perfect accompaniment to the seared steak, mushrooms grown by monks at nearby Mepkin

Abbey, and charred local asparagus. It proved one of those perfect marriages of smells and flavors that makes for a truly memorable meal, all perfectly attended by a waitstaff that instinctively strikes the all-too-elusive balance between formality befitting the venue and friendliness and competence that instantly puts a table at ease.

The next afternoon, the group tucked into pork that had cooked low and slow for hours over hardwood logs that had burned down to big chunks of glowing ember, all skillfully attended by Cherrywood BBQ & Ale House Chef Keith Richardson. For sides? Cherrywood’s award-winning Four Cheese Macaroni, Bacon-braised Collard Greens, and BBQ Pit Beans. “It all starts with quality meat,” Richardson explains, “followed by proper preparation. Barbecue can’t be rushed.”

The first time I heard the Resort was serving barbecue out of a golf clubhouse—let’s just say I was skeptical. Real barbecue, I’d always believed, came from hole-in-the-wall places found along Southern byways—the farther out in the sticks the better, generally speaking. But the fates sent the wind blowing the right direction and sent a drift of fatty hardwood smoke my way as soon as I stepped out of the car, which compelled my legs to keep walking towards, not away from, the front door. Then when I learned Richardson hails from North Carolina’s barbecue-proud Piedmont region, any shred of remaining doubt I had was nearly gone. The proof is in the eating. I don’t believe I came up for air until the last scrap of perfectly smoked pulled pork was gone.

Cherrywood is about as hyper-local as you can get. The chef make all sauces and rubs in-house—a lengthy process of a pinch added here, subtracted there, until Richardson’s welltuned palate gets each just right. Later, sitting in Cherrywood, Richardson interrupts our conversation to discuss delivery with a local company that provides the hardwoods used to slow-cook their meats. And don’t forget the “Alehouse” in

CHERRYWOOD BBQ & ALE HOUSE CHEF KEITH RICHARDSON

the name. Cherrywood serves around twenty beers, both on tap and bottled, from both Carolinas and Georgia, including a highlighted local seasonal brew. The restaurant rounds out its extensive beer list with an additional forty or so “from off” beers (e.g., either farther afield in the U.S. or from the beerproducing countries such as Germany, Austria, and Belgium).

At the far east end of the island, local celeb chef John Ondo recently assumed the culinary reins at The Ocean Course. At the vanguard of Charleston’s culinary renaissance for thirteen years as chef-owner of popular downtown Mediterranean eatery Lana, Ondo brings incredible talent and valuable relationships with local purveyors, matched with the creative restraint that comes with maturity. His unpretentious approach to perfectly executed cuisine is perhaps best summed up in his unofficial motto: “I enjoy drinking wine out of a Mason jar.”

Ondo continues to honor The Atlantic Room’s legacy of emphasizing local catch accompanied by seasonal sides largely sourced from local farms. For diners making a return visit to The Atlantic Room and Ryder Cup Bar, fear not: you have a higher likelihood of encountering a wind-free round on The Ocean Course than to see the Crispy Shrimp and Bagger Burger disappear from Clubhouse menus.

Whether you’re new to the Island or have lived here for decades, if you’ve never experienced the oyster roast and barbecue at Mingo Point, make plans to remedy that as soon as possible. The family-friendly twilight event provides attendees an authentic Lowcountry social experience usually only afforded to locals. Kiawah Island Golf Resort’s longesttenured employee, M.C. Heyward, has spent his entire life on neighboring Johns Island and learned how to roast oysters in the time-honored method passed down from his father. He unloads a bushelful of fresh oysters onto a sprawling steel plate elevated above a roaring hardwood fire, then tosses a water-soaked burlap croaker sack on top to steam the bivalves.

Once the oysters hit the ideal internal temperature (“You got to know how long to leave ’em on based on the size of the oysters—that’s what folks don’t understand,” Heyward confides), he promptly scoops them from the fire with his

square-point shovel and walks a few paces to expertly scatter them steaming onto a high, round-top table. Folks stand around the table elbow-to-elbow, towel in one hand, oyster knife in the other, and start shucking and eating. They throw empty shells into a purposeful hole right in the center of the table, under which rests a large plastic trash bin for collecting the shells. Later Heyward will take the shells to be recycled to help rebuild the region’s wild oyster beds. “I’ve got some folks who come up to me with their children and ask, ‘Remember when I was little and you taught me how to shuck an oyster? Would you please teach them now?’ pointing to their own kids,” Heyward says.

Other Mingo guests follow pork-laden smoke as it filters through the live oaks to a nearby pavilion, where chefs serve barbecue straight from the pit. Hot dogs stand at the ready for young ones whose palates haven’t quite acquired an appreciation for the briny minerality of oysters. Between bites, folks visit local artisans plying their wares, tap their toes to the tunes provided by a local band, and maybe indulge in a s’more or two around the large firepit just feet away from the marsh grass lining the Kiawah River. The really lucky ones stroll down the Mingo dock to load up on a skiff for a quick sunset cocktail cruise down the Kiawah River.

Continuing the Lowcountry theme back at the hotel, Jasmine Porch has been serving highly acclaimed renditions of regional standards, such as shrimp and grits and she-crab soup, for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and Sunday brunch since the day it opened. But Chef Jeremy Holst continues to strategically add to the repertoire here and there with new favorites such as fried chicken and waffles at brunch and crispy leg of duck with local Carolina Gold rice for dinner.

What good is even the best-developed recipes to celebrate local foodways if they’re not infused with fresh local ingredients? Like the Resort’s other restaurants, Jasmine Porch greatly benefits from the bounty of both sea and land so near at hand. It’s likely the haul from that shrimp boat you spot from the restaurant’s dining porch at lunch that will appear on Jasmine’s tables that evening. But with its focus on

Folks stand around the table elbow-to-elbow, towel in one hand, oyster knife in the other, and start shucking and eating.

M.C. HEYWARD AND HIS FAMOUS MINGO POINT OYSTERS

flavors of the Lowcountry, Holst goes a tad further in using local heirloom varieties whenever possible. In addition to the Carolina Gold rice produced on a limited (but ever-expanding) scale on historic Charleston plantations, he also enjoys integrating certified organic varieties of field peas, corn, and greens that graced Lowcountry tables generations ago. He’s enjoyed a long partnership with farmer-miller Greg Johnsman of Geechie Boy Mill on nearby Edisto Island, who has recently begun grinding heirloom Jimmy Red corn, a local variety once thought extinct, into mouthwatering grits and cornmeal that regularly find an honored place in Holst’s creations.

At Tomasso at Turtle Point, Chef Derick Wade takes an unexpected approach to local. “I tend to favor cuisine from the more southern coastal areas of Italy,” Wade says. “It’s heavily seafood driven, but it also features fresh seasonal produce and cured pork—in other words, it’s similar to what we’ve produced here for centuries; it’s just cooked differently.”

Rather than slavishly follow authentic Italian recipes with imported (and, honestly, less-than-fresh) ingredients, Wade uses commonly grown local ingredients to approximate those traditionally used in Italy and subjects them to authentic Italian cooking methods, with delightfully surprising results. Still, he does import the best of specialty ingredients that have a long shelf life—items such as flour, pecorino Romano cheese, and guanciale, a succulent, salt-cured pork cheek. Of course, he handcrafts all the pasta, and it should be a felony to skip the house-made limoncello.

Town Center Market remains long entrenched as a favorite spot for residents to grab a cup of coffee and a paper

in the morning. Or perhaps you might even opt to sit down to one of the fantastic, yet quick, breakfast menu items ranging from breakfast burritos to a full Southern-style morning feast with eggs, sausage, bacon, and grits (it is the most important meal of the day, after all). TCM tends to convey a charming melting-pot vibe. Any given day, you’re liable to find a group of golfers sitting down to lunch before an afternoon tee time, a multigenerational family of resort guests grabbing a snack during a break from a long bike ride, and a few resort employees picking up a grab-and-go lunch.

Speaking of breaks, whoever had the idea to place Beaches & Cream right inside the doorway opening to the main passage to the hotel pool and beach boardwalk—stroke of genius. Coming in on a hot day and immediately catching an irresistible scent of ice cream is like a moth drawn to flame (even if you’ve just indulged in the phenomenally fresh fish tacos and guacamole at Loggerhead Grill, overlooking the Atlantic Ocean and Sanctuary pool). With one spoonful, any shred of guilt will vanish when you sample the all-natural goodness of the premium ice cream from local creamery Wholly Cow.

Given the diverse variety of Resort dining options, from white tablecloth to poolside casual, it would be easy to forget that all this is available on a ten-mile-long island in the heart of the South Carolina Lowcountry. But perhaps the best thing is, even when you come back down to earth from your reverie when you have your Lebanese wine moment, whichever restaurant you may be at, you won’t be disappointed when you get your bearings and remember you’re on Kiawah. — B.H.

Italian cooking methods, with delightfully surprising results.

Insider’s Corner

Tricia Flanagan is a Kiawah resident and top sales executive for Kiawah Island Real Estate. For the avid sailor and angler, working on Kiawah is more an extension of a rich and active personal life.

KL When did you first come to the Lowcountry?

I grew up in New Jersey. And when a dear friend of mine, Linda Fantuzzo, moved to Charleston in the seventies, she invited me down for a week. I never left!

KL What were your first impressions?

TF I arrived here one evening in February. Charleston was lit up like a movie set. All the antebellum homes…the town just blew me away. And at that time, Charleston was just a sleepy little college town, really.

KL Tell me about selling real estate on the Island.

I just really love what I do. I love meeting the people and fulfilling their dreams. I love the challenge of finding what’s right for my clients. Meeting new people is always delightful. I feel like I’m a dreammaker, not a salesman. I also love to introduce my clients to the secret side of Kiawah—everyone knows about the beach, but very few of my clients have spent time on the rivers and creeks.

KL And you live on the Island?

I do! I’ve lived here full time since the mid-eighties. And through the years, my parents and my sisters have moved down to the Lowcountry. My three sisters all have homes on Kiawah. I’ve been here so many years that I’ve watched the whole progression. My friends all brought their children here as little kids. Now they’re all getting married on the Island! I’ve been to a lot of weddings lately.

KL Tell me about your life here.

TF I love walking the beach in the morning. To see the sunrise on our beach is the best. No matter how many exotic places I have traveled, there’s nothing like coming home to Kiawah—coming over that bridge and seeing the island.

KL And I understand you are an avid sailor?

TF I started sailing when I was eight years old and have been racing sailboats my whole life. Now I have a fiftyfive-foot sailboat. I’m an offshore fisherman too. I just love the water.

KL What has it been like to watch the Island change over time?

TF The Island has certainly changed and grown, but the natural beauty has remained in place. If anything, it’s been enhanced. The partners have a good plan. They aren’t rushing sales. They believe the values are going to continue to rise, and I do too. And looking in the future— my goodness! It is so exciting to watch the development of West Beach Village and Cougar Point.

KL What do you think is so special about the Island?

TF If you go to beautiful golf resorts in Florida, once you’re outside the gate, you’re in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you’re back in the world. But Kiawah is an enclave. You can actually disconnect here. I can’t tell you how many people have told me that they’ve never been so relaxed, so decompressed, as they are here. That brings tears to my eyes.

Insider’s Corner

Sales executive Henry Cleveland grew up playing tennis tournaments on Kiawah. Now, the Island represents so much more—a dream career, a gathering point for family and old friends, and a way of life.

KL I understand you grew up in Charleston! I did! This is home. I love this place.

KL Tell me about that.

HC Well, it was great. We ran around the city on bikes. The beaches were a bit sleepier. I went away to to Episcopal High School in Virginia, and then to Rhodes College in Memphis. After that, I moved to Aspen and worked as a tennis pro. But I always knew that I wanted to come back home.

KL When did you return home?

I moved back here in 2001 and got into real estate in 2002. I worked for about six and a half years in downtown Charleston, selling real estate all over the Charleston area. In 2008 I made the move here.

KL How did you decided on Kiawah?

It was an opportunity to specialize in one place. And at the end of the day, this is Kiawah, the finest resort community in South Carolina, if not the entire East Coast. And it’s only twenty-one miles from Charleston, where I live.

KL What is it like working here?

Kiawah is such a special place and such a unique market. We get to come to this beautiful barrier island every day and drive over that bridge to this place.

KL What kind of people do you think Kiawah attracts?

HC Family is always a common thread. My clients are often looking for a place that will draw their family in. It’s a gathering point, you know. This is a place where everyone can get away.

KL What do you think is so special about the Island?

HC It’s the place, of course. And it’s the people. And then I think the third element is Charleston. Those three things come together to make this place one of a kind. It’s really hard to find all three. Usually one has to give, but not at Kiawah. You can have it all.

KL Tell me about the Kiawah community.

HC I love that everybody is spread out and doing their own thing. The experience is different for everyone. For some people it’s all about the beach, or about golf or tennis. For others it’s about the nature and solitude. Other people come here to be social!

KL Tell me about your personal connection to the Island.

HC For me it started with tennis. I played junior tournaments on the Island. The tennis Hall of Famer Roy Barth [of the Roy Barth Tennis Center] is the father of two of my high school teammates. One of those guys, Jonathan, is now the director of tennis at the Kiawah Resort. Now I play tennis and golf with my clients!

KL What is your favorite course?

HC Cassique is my hands-down favorite. It’s unlike anything else I’ve ever played. You just don’t expect a course like that at the beach—all the undulations and drops. You really have to get creative and think about every shot. The Ocean Course is a “bucket list” course. If the wind is down and you are driving the ball, life is good! But there is nothing like a spring morning on the first tee of Cassique.

KIAWAH

Throughout the year, Kiawah hosts dozens of soirees, outings, and activities. It’s been a fantastic Fall and Winter!

PHOTOGRAPHY by CHARLOTTE ZACHARKIW

ADVERTISER INDEX

ANGLIN SMITH FINE ART...................................92

AQUA BLUE POOLS..............................................19

BUFFINGTON HOMES L.P.............................FIC, 1

CHARLESTON MEDICAL SPA.............................20

CROGHAN’S JEWELERS....................................158

FERGUSON...........................................................63

GDC HOMES..........................................................13

KIAWAH ISLAND GOLF RESORT................94, 143

KIAWAH ISLAND REAL ESTATE..............2, 3, BIC KINGSWOOD CUSTOM HOMES...........................9

LE CREUSET.......................................................4, 5

MARGARET DONALDSON INTERIORS..............95

Mc DONALD ARCHITECTS.................................159

M. DUMAS AND SONS.........................................17

MOORE & GILES..................................................BC

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STEVEN SHELL LIVING.......................................11

THE STEADMAN AGENCY...................................21

THOMAS & HUTTON...........................................62

TIMBERS KIAWAH.............................................6, 7

SUMMER CAMP

on Kiawah Island

There’s nothing like summer on Kiawah! The Kiawah Island Club’s GoKiawah curates a camp program for kids ages five to twelve from June to August. GoKiawah kids get to explore the island through a myriad of fun activities— fishing, paddle boarding, surfing, archery, and so much more. GoKiawah also offers a tennis, golf, and swimming program for toddlers.

In addition, the Kiawah Island Golf Resort offers three camp options for kids. Kamp Kiawah is a day camp for three to seven year olds. Camp Xtreme involves sports, scavenger hunts, and teambuilding for kids eight to fifteen. Last, Adventure Camp introduces kids eight to fifteen to kayaking, cast netting, boating, paddle boarding, surfing, and archery. Happy summering!

P hoto by Leigh Webber