Restaurants & Dining
Food Dude Reflects on Historic Myrtle Beach Restaurants
It was a sad day in Grand Strand restaurant history when Cagney's recently announced its doors would be closing for good next month after 36 years in business.
While three and half decades might not seem like much to our historic, neighboring cities Charleston and Wilmington, it's huge in Myrtle Beach, which was little more than a wide spot in Highway 17 until the 1950s.
Very few restaurants have been able to stand the test of time in this fickle tourism market, but here are five establishments that have been mainstays on the Myrtle Beach menu. To last this long, you've got to be great:
Lee's Inlet Kitchen: Founded by the Lee family in 1948, this classic restaurant started the seafood boom in Murrells Inlet and continues to be a favorite among the Lowcountry favorites today.
This converted country store has been expanded six times throughout its history, a testament to the popular demand for its Southern seafood cooking. The same family still owns and operates this historic cafe today and many of the employees are lifers.
From the famous starters like the She Crab Soup to the main entrees such as the seafood platters and to a dessert of homemade peach cobbler topped with ice cream, Lee's is still serving up delicious meals today just as it did 64 years ago.
Mammy's Kitchen: This country cooking institution is celebrating its 60th season of business at the same location in downtown Myrtle Beach's Five Points district. It's still true that all roads lead to Mammy's.
Locals and visitors have been flocking to Mammy's for six decades, with kids who came with their parents in the 1950s now bringing their grandchildren in the 2000s. It's the same great breakfast, lunch and dinner that brings them back every summer.
The breakfast buffet is famous for its fresh fruit and Southern-style pancakes and sausage and the dinner seafood and country cooking buffet packs them in every night for the shrimp and crab legs, but the menu still features some of the same classics from 1953.
Parson's Table: One of the Grand Strand's best-kept dining secrets is tucked away in Little River in a former church built in 1885. The restaurant didn't open until nearly a century later but the old cypress logs and stained-glass windows still remain.
Opened and relocated a couple of blocks in 1978, Parson's Table serves as a museum of local history as much as an award-winning restaurant. Take a stroll through the establishment and marvel at the antiques that reflect the area's unique past.
But it's the food that makes this place a mainstay among locals and repeat visitors. Owner/executive chef Ed Murray Jr. still oversees a menu rich with local seafood dishes, prime cuts of meat and Southern classics like Shrimp and Grits and Cornbread Encrusted Grouper.
Peaches Corner: This Ocean Boulevard institution truly is the granddaddy of all local restaurants. Opened in 1937, this oceanfront grill is celebrating 75 years of serving hungry beachgoers and Boulevard-cruising tourists.
The recent addition of the Myrtle Beach Boardwalk has breathed new life into the downtown district to fill the void of the closed Pavalion, and a new facelift has ensured that Peaches will continue to keep them lined up at the lunch counter in the future.
But it's the same great burgers, hot dogs and fried everythings that keep them coming back for seconds, thirds and 75ths. It seems root beer floats and chili dogs never go out of style.
