The best seafood restaurant in Charleston, SC, is opening in Columbus
We’re finally getting a peek behind the high green construction wall at Gay and High streets, where signage for an unnamed oyster bar has been promising “friendly service” and “cool inside.”
Hank’s Lowcountry Seafood & Raw Bar will open at a not-yet-specified date this spring. It’s an offshoot of Hank’s Seafood Restaurant, a 25-year-old institution in Charleston, South Carolina, that was named last year as the city’s best seafood restaurant by two local publications.
Here’s the connection that made Columbus the first place Hank’s picked for expansion: The restaurant has been owned since 2017 by Rockbridge Capital, a hospitality investment firm based here. Hank’s will be operated by Makeready, a Rockbridge division that already runs restaurants at The Junto hotel in Franklinton.
Hank’s food has been called “raveworthy” by Charleston magazine, and the restaurant regularly collects similar superlatives from online reviewers. Its
menu includes fried, roasted, seared, sauteed and grilled seafood. There are
raw-bar mainstays such as peel-andeat shrimp, oysters on the half-shell, and tuna tartare.
Bouillabasse has been served since Hank’s opened in 1999, and a signature dish called Seafood a la Wando is made with shrimp, scallops and fish sauteed with sherry and served with a fried grit cake and a shellfish saffron cream sauce.
“Hank’s Seafood is a Charleston tradition, and we couldn’t be prouder to open the second location in Columbus,” Frank Mcmahon, the restaurant’s longtime executive chef who now serves as culinary operations manager,” said in a news release from the company.
“We are confident that the extension of Hank’s Seafood will become a welcomed addition to the (Columbus) dining scene,” he added.
The Columbus version of Hank’s will feature 17-foot ceilings, an expansive bar, wood paneling and brass fixtures, and a hand-drawn lowcountry mural. Hank’s will have patio seating; the “friendly service” and “cool inside” signs, by the way, come from art on the original restaurant in Charleston. rvitale@dispatch.com Instagram: @dispatchdining