Pool Repair in Charleston, SC

NORTH CHARLESTON — Since opening in 2019, Charleston cocktail bar Dalila's has become a neighborhood hangout despite its location in the heart of downtown's entertainment district. The bar serves a mostly local crowd, including many food-and-beverage industry workers.

Owner Michael Whiteley wants his new establishment, Sissy Bar, to have that same feel.

"I like being the kind of place that's the very local spot. Dalila's became that," Whiteley said. "That's kind of what I'm going for here as well."

Sissy Bar opened at 1067 E. Montague Ave. in March, serving agave-based house cocktails curated by bar manager Fabiana Pinillos. The new bar took over the space after Three Sirens permanently closed in September 2023.

Whiteley, who hails from Southern California, knew he wanted Sissy Bar to have a more expansive food menu than Dalila's, which relies on small snacks and pop-ups while operating without a full kitchen.

Sissy Bar has one, and it's led by Logan Pettinato, who previously worked at Chubby Fish, Xiao Bao Biscuit and Jackrabbit Filly. Patrons can expect a West Coast-inspired offering, with ceviche, queso fundido, pork fried rice and large-format grilled fish tacos on the menu. Brunch is served on Sundays.

Sissy Bar is open 5-11 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 5 p.m.-midnight Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday. For more information, follow Sissy Bar on Instagram @sissy_bar_parkcircle.

The owners of a cult-favorite Washington, D.C., burger restaurant that started as a pop-up will be spending Memorial Day weekend in Charleston. Along with their luggage, Ghostburger founders Josh and Kelly Phillips and chef Vincent Badiee will be bringing a pair of new burger recipes.

Ghostburger, whose burgers have been served to President Joe Biden in The White House, will host a four-day pop-up at Meeting at Market at The Charleston Place May 23-26.

In addition to its standard slate of burgers, cheesesteaks and milkshakes from restaurants in Washington, D.C., Arlington, Va., and Dubai, Ghostburger's Charleston pop-up menu will feature a few Lowcountry-specific items.

Exclusive to the pop-up will be the Charlie Burger, with house-made pimento cheese, fried pickles, red onions, micro broccoli greens and jalapeno mayonnaise. A nod to the upcoming Spoleto Festival USA, the Yellow Submarine, will feature chilled shrimp, an heirloom yellow tomato, toum, zhoug and fennel pickle slaw on a long roll.

"I'm taking inspiration from different places that we visit," said Ghostburger chef Badiee, a former Eleven Madison Park chef who takes pride in how he sources ingredients. "It's about the relationships and staying local."

While the word burger is in the restaurant's name, Ghostburger's cheesesteak is also noteworthy — "This statement will win me no friends in Philly, but I'll take Ghostburger's cheesesteak eight times out of 10 over one at Pat's or Geno's or Jim's," proclaimed a Washington Post restaurant critic in 2022.

One of the keys, Josh Phillips said, is the Sarcone's Bakery rolls the cheesesteaks are served on. Ghostburger is the only restaurant outside of Philadelphia to source bread from the fifth-generation Italian bakery in South Philadelphia, Phillips said.

If you're like us, you're probably wondering if those cheesesteaks could eventually make their way down South at a permanent Ghostburger restaurant location in Charleston.

"I wouldn't say never," Phillips said.

The Ghostburger pop-up is open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis noon-11 p.m. May 23-24 and 11 a.m.-11 p.m. May 25-26. For more information, visit charlestonplace.com/experiences.

The restaurant seamlessly blends Chinese and American cuisine in a casual and lively setting, with dishes like karaage, dumplings, fish tartare and drunken egg noodles among the local favorites.

Starting this fall, the chefs and bartenders at one of the Charleston area's top restaurants will do all of those things in a new and improved location.

The Wangs are preparing to move from 4628 Spruill Ave. to 1083 E. Montague Ave., where Southern Roots Smokehouse operated from 2017 to the beginning of 2024. The barbecue dining spot is moving to 1037 E. Montague Ave. in the former site of Ship's Wheel Hard Cider, which moved its production operation to 7325 Cross County Road last year.

For now, the plan is to operate Jackrabbit Filly at its current Spruill Avenue home until right before the opening, Corrie Wang said. For her and husband Shuai, the move is about space and location, she said.

The restaurant will now be located in the heart of Park Circle on the same stretch of road as some of North Charleston's most popular establishments, such as Stems & Skins and EVO Pizzeria. Its larger footprint will offer more room in the kitchen for chefs to cook and in the bar area for patrons to gather.

The owners also plan to bring back Jackrabbit Filly's lunch service and extend its dim sum brunch with the help of rolling carts shipped in from China.

"For a while Jackrabbit has just felt too small," Corrie Wang said. "(The move) just lets us finally do some of the stuff that we've wanted to do all along."

The school recently received the Center of Excellence for Domestic Maritime Workforce Training and Education designation from the U.S. Department of Transportation‘s Maritime Administration. The title is given to post-secondary training programs that excel in preparing students for careers on the warefront.

It’s something Robert Elliott knows firsthand. He went through similar training as a young man — at Trident Tech and later at Southern Illinois University and The Citadel — and in 1993 took a job as a merchant mariner, traveling the world and earning a sizable salary.

He still holds his marine engineer’s license. And he’s now dean of manufacturing and maintenance at Trident Tech.

“It’s one of those lifestyles where there’s a lot of freedom,” said Elliott, who learned the love of travel as a child when his father was stationed at various spots in Europe with the Air Force.

“I was a contractor, so I was able to pick and choose my jobs on my own time,” Elliott said of his time as a merchant mariner. “It was a very rewarding career.”

These days, a merchant mariner with a few years of experience can pull down $190,000 a year. It’s one of several maritime positions that are in high demand and offer good pay, often with on-the-job training and without the expense of a four-year college degree.

Trident Tech offers certificate programs in industrial mechanics, machine tool technology, commercial truck driving and gas metal arc welding fundamentals and three maritime-related associate’s degrees in supply chain management, marine stewardship and marine engineering technology.

The school also offers apprenticeships with the Port of Charleston and area shipbuilding companies.

Elliott said the programs attract a mix of students — some who already know about the maritime business and others who are surprised by the opportunities that are available. “Some students, when we sit down and advise them about the different opportunities, and we start talking about these different programs, their ears perk up,” Elliott said. “Next thing you know they’re wanting to get registered in class. Other students have family members who were merchant marines or who worked at the port.”

Ann Phillips, the DOT’s maritime administrator, said the high standards of maritime education and training provided by Trident Tech and others is critical in “providing domestic mariners with the expertise needed to best serve the maritime industry.”

Trident Tech is the only South Carolina school to receive the designation, which is good for five years. Elliott said he hopes it will attract even more students from throughout the state as they learn more about the types of port-related jobs that are available.

“Your graduates have made outstanding contributions to the industry over the years, which is an excellent testimonial to the superior academic and professional education and training they received while attending Trident,” Phillips said in a letter to Trident Tech.

The designation can also be a tool to recruit new businesses to the Palmetto State.

“Think about any company that may want to relocate — this designation lets them know we’re training students to enter the maritime workforce,” Elliott said. “A lot of people don’t understand how much of an important role the transportation, logistics and supply-chain industries play in our national security and our economy,” he said. “Every aspect of America relies on transportation, logistics, goods and services. It was a very rewarding career for me, and I want students in the Charleston area to know about it and have that exposure.”

Maritime maneuver

Yonges Island-based Stevens Towing Co. is citing a little-known maritime law in an effort to limit its potential financial exposure in a Jan. 4 accident that damaged a mobile rubber-tired gantry crane at the Port of Charleston‘s North Charleston Terminal.

The Limitation of Liability Act of 1851 lets shipowners cap damage claims to the value of the vessel involved in an accident plus any freight that was aboard at the time. The law was passed 173 years ago to encourage investment in America’s burgeoning shipping industry by protecting shipowners from financial disasters.

In this case, Stevens said in a federal court filing that the tugboat and barge had a combined value of a little more than $2.3 million.

The company has filed a bond for that amount with the court and Judge David Norton signed an injunction prohibiting anyone from filing individual accident-related lawsuits against the company. Instead, those with claims stemming from the Jan. 4 incident must file them by May 15 as part of a special proceeding under maritime law.

A report by the National Transportation Safety Board states the towing vessel Royal Engineer was pushing the barge Stevens 1471 past the terminal on the Cooper River at about 4:20 p.m. Jan. 4 when a crane on the vessel made contact with and derailed a port gantry crane.

The accident did not disrupt operations, and it is still being investigated by the NTSB and the Coast Guard.

Stevens said in a filing that it wasn’t at fault for the accident, which did not cause any injuries. But if the court rules otherwise, financial damages would be limited to the bond amount.

In honor of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, keep reading for a look at Asian-owned restaurants to support throughout May and beyond.

This list is far-reaching, but not exhaustive — please contact Free Times Food Reporter Jane Godiner at jgodiner@postandcourier.com with more AAPI-owned restaurants to feature in future roundups.

Kultura — Charleston

Located in Cannonborough-Elliotborough, Filipino restaurant Kultura offers both traditional and fusion cuisines against the backdrop of artful plating, craft cocktails and weekend karaoke brunch. Menu highlights include the arroz caldo with smoked trout roe, xo sauce, chili crisp, fried garlic and a soft-boiled egg, sisig carbonara with roasted pork belly and trout roe and scallop adobo — a twist on the national dish of the Philippines — featuring coconut grits. Kalamansi and ube meringues make it difficult to skip dessert.

Freshe Poke — Columbia

With three locations across Columbia, Freshe Poke specializes in poke bowls. The word "poke," or the verb "to cut" in Hawaiian, encapsulates the nature of this dish — cubes of protein, usually marinated fish, over rice. Freshe Poke allows guests to customize their poke bowl with as many toppings as they want, from classic rice bases and seafood to chicken sous-vide and salad bases.

Poke beginners can try one of Freshe's pre-set combinations, including "The Buddhist" with tofu and seaweed salad, the "Spicy Ahi" with tuna and sriracha aioli and the "Volcano Eruption," with salmon, ahi tuna and shrimp. Wash down your poke bowl with one of Freshe's 29 fruit or milk tea flavors — boba, jelly or swirl optional.

Arts & Entertainment

Saffron Indian Cuisine — Greenville

Greenville's Saffron Indian Cuisine keeps things classic with North Indian lunch and dinner offerings, including customizable curry entrées, vegetarian specialties and fried appetizers.

Guests can enjoy their choice of protein in tomato-based tikka masala, spinach-based saag, traditional curry, creamy korma, ginger-forward kadai or sweet mango sauce. Specialty plates, including their coconut curry shrimp and gobhi Manchurian, featuring fried cauliflower, encourage diners to explore Southern Indian and Indo-Chinese cuisines.

Finish off your meal with homemade desserts, including their gajar halwa, a glazed carrot pudding and rasmalai, cheese patties in sweet, floral milk with pistachios.

Inakaya Watanabe — Columbia

Located just off of Saint Andrews Road is Inakaya Watanabe, which offers hot and cold Japanese fare. "Inakaya" translates to "cottage house," but this Columbia mainstay offers as many homey options as it does adventurous. Guests can opt for warm bowls of miso soup and choose between countless comforting, fried appetizers and mains — including their "Inakaya Fried Chicken," pork katsu cutlets and takoyaki, or octopus balls. Those in the mood for fish can peruse Inakaya Watanabe's pages of seafood dishes.

Raw options include fish-over-rice sushi known, called nigiri, sushi rolls, called maki and sliced, raw seafood without rice, called sashimi. Cooked options include salmon teriyaki, steamed clam and una don, or barbecued eel over rice. No meal at Inakaya Watanabe is complete without one — or many — of their selection of six ice cream flavors wrapped in mochi rice dough.

Sum Bar — Greenville

While there are over 2,000 types of dim sum dishes, which come in the form of small, shareable plates and originate cross different regions of China, Sum Bar pays homage to some of the most ubiquitous — and some of the more hidden gems — in its Greenville kitchen.

Menu items are rotational, but there are some cult favorites on the Sum Bar menu, including the green beans, shrimp toast and sesame balls. Those looking for entry-level dim sum dishes should order the siu mai, a type of dumpling with shrimp and pork, char siu BBQ pork and gai lan, or Chinese broccoli with oyster and garlic sauce. For dessert, order egg tarts for the table, which feature a vanilla-flavored egg custard cradled in a shortbread crust.

Kao Thai Cuisine — Columbia

Situated on Columbia's Main Street, Kao Thai Cuisine offers guests a survey of Thai dishes across regions and contexts — from street food like spicy sausage called sai ua and duck confit wrapped in a flatbread called roti to large, theatrical main dishes like crab fried rice and lychee curry. The menu hits on all of the classics, including papaya salad, coconut-milk-based curries and Pad Thai, or thin rice noodles with egg, bean sprouts and "Gai's secret sauce."

However, Kao is not afraid to explore cuisine from other parts of South and Southeast Asia, including Malaysian chicken wings, Hawaiian seaweed salad and their "K.F.C.," or "Kao Fried Chicken" dish, which comes coated in a Korean sweet and spicy sauce.

Phuong Vietnamese Restaurant — Charleston

Whether you appreciate some variety or get overwhelmed by too many choices, Charleston's Phuong Vietnamese Restaurant has a menu with something for everyone.

Diners can snack on fresh appetizers like spring rolls called goi cuon or fried appetizers like fried wontons while they decide on what combination of starch and protein they want for an entrée. Those who want something warm and hearty can opt for pho, a soup made with beef and rice noodles, or egg noodle soup for some more protein variety. Diners can also skip the broth by ordering bun, or rice vermicelli noodles, topped with any combination of pork, egg rolls, beef, chicken or shrimp. Those who want to do away with noodles altogether can opt for any of the soup or noodle proteins over white rice. Think of it as an edible choose-your-own adventure.

Nibl Dessert and Cafe — Columbia

Another of Columbia's Main Street attractions is Nibl, a cafe selling Asian-inspired desserts and coffee tucked inside MOA Korean BBQ.

While desserts are rotating, some of its greatest hits feature brownies infused with Japanese green tea called matcha, Korean shaved ice called bingsu and crinkle cookies featuring a Southeast Asian purple yam called ube. Guests can eat their sweets alongside a selection of specialty coffees including butterscotch cream cold brews, ube lattes and Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk. Non-coffee drinkers can enjoy lavender lemonade, matcha lattes and strawberry milk.

Jane Godiner is the food reporter for the Free Times. You can reach her at jgodiner@postandcourier.com or find her at @JaneGodiner on X and @jane.craves on Instagram.

The restaurant group, Poogan's Hospitality Group, which operates its flagship location at an upstairs restaurant on Queen Street in Charleston, announced via social media on May 13 that the Forest Acres eatery would close for good on May 19.

"To the people of Forest Acres, your support has been incredible, and we're grateful for the warmth and community you've shown us," the Facebook post read.

The restaurant, which serves Southern comfort food like shrimp and grits, biscuits and fried chicken, opened in the Cardinal Crossing development of Forest Acres in August 2022. The 6,600-square-foot space was able to seat roughly 200 patrons and sat alongside other popular spots like Bad Daddy's Burger Bar and Molto Vino.

Poogan's Southern Kitchen's last day of service will be May 19.

The proposal is called a voluntary cleanup contract, and the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control regularly approves them for businesses that want to buy and redevelop so-called brownfield properties with decades-old contamination issues.

The deals allow the cleanup to take place without the new owner having to worry about liability for pollution created by a previous property owner. DHEC is accepting public comments on the SPA's proposed contract through June 5.

"We have entered in a VCC with DHEC to clean up the site and will go through that regulatory process as part of the future redevelopment to expand our terminal in North Charleston," a SPA spokeswoman said in a written statement. "We will start the VCC assessment and sampling soon and can put in place the remedial measures during the redevelopment."

The SPA purchased the WestRock site along the Cooper River — and additional land the paper and packaging giant owned in Berkeley County — for $105 million this month. The deal will expand the adjacent North Charleston Terminal to 481 acres and the capacity to handle 5 million shipping containers per year. That's more than twice the capacity of the Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant, currently the SPA's largest.

The sale won't affect operations of Ingevity Corp., which operates a chemical plant near the former mill.

An initial environmental assessment performed in March by HDR Engineering found numerous potential environmental issues on the paper mill site.

"Given the long history of mill operations, presence of more than 911 storage tanks onsite and multiple documented releases onsite, there is potential that petroleum products (diesel fuel and No. 6 fuel oil) may have entered the process sewer and could have impacted soils and groundwater beneath the property," the proposed contract states.

It adds there is a potential for groundwater contamination due to "the heavy historical industrial use in the vicinity of the property."

Under the contract, the SPA would be required to make a detailed assessment of the environmental condition and formulate a plan and schedule for cleaning up the pollution. The analysis will include soil and groundwater quality testing and evaluating the presence of methane in a former landfill on the site.

The SPA said it plans to move forward with planning the expansion of its North Charleston Terminal as well as adding two new phases to the Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston.

"Port infrastructure projects require long-term planning and foresight, and SC Ports consistently plans for multiple projects at once while ensuring ample capacity for our customers," the agency said, adding timing for both projects will be driven by market demands.

The maritime agency said it also plans to coordinate the mill expansion with the S.C. Department of Transportation's plans to replace the Don Holt Bridge over Interstate 526. The proposal calls for construction of a taller span so the world's biggest and heaviest container ships can navigate underneath to the North Charleston Terminal. The Cooper River's navigation channel would also be deepened to 52 feet between the Leatherman and North Charleston terminals.

"We have to have sufficient capacity to handle ships calling North Charleston today before we take them out of use for modernization," the SPA said.

Atlanta-based WestRock, successor to the old Westvaco Corp., announced a year ago it would shut down the 500-worker papermaking plant by late summer after 86 years, citing a "combination of high operating costs and the need for significant capital investment." The redevelopment and reuse as a port terminal isn't projected to be needed or completed until the 2030s or possibly the 2040s, SPA chief executive officer Barbara Melvin told lawmakers earlier this month.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A long-awaited presentation of the 2024 to 2025 Charleston County School District’s budget was discussed among the Board of Trustees on Monday evening.

The first reading of the budget is officially not until May 20, but the board discussed and made recommendations for the first time on Monday night during three back-to-back meetings.

Two budget proposals would make the Charleston County School District the only district in the state to implement a new funding formula and lead teacher compensation in South Carolina.

Increasing teacher salaries by $7,500 would put the district in that number one spot for pay as well as funding step increases. Pay increases for all non-teachers and classified employees are also included in the budget, providing 100% of the market, which is an overall 6% increase.

The most notable expansion in the budget is the adoption of the Weighted Student Funding Model which would allocate funding from the district to individual student needs at each school. With a $32.8 million dollar price tag, the funding would fully offset the sunset of federal funds, otherwise known as ESSER.

“What we are trying to do is equally distribute resources based on student need, then principals can determine what key things they need to leverage improved outcomes,” Superintendent Anita Huggins said.

The model would allow resources to be allocated to help schools in the district with students in poverty, special education or multilingual. The need for a new funding model partially comes from the number of students in poverty attending non-Title 1 schools under the current funding model cannot address all students.

During Monday’s budget workshop, board members asked Huggins and Chief Financial Officer Daniel Prentice a number of questions surrounding the model. Their questions surrounded a graphic and numbers stating the total cost of the Weighted Student Funding Model would cost around $32 million.

But board members argue the numbers need to be updated since students can fall into more than one category that the current model does not reflect.

“This seems like almost intentionally misleading data being put out into the public which I very much object,” Board of Trustees Member Ed Kelley asked. “When this goes out to the public, I would like to see this slide with the actual numbers.”

“If you are able to put this in layman’s terms, that would be great,” Board of Trustees Member Leah Whatley asked. “That is an awfully high number compared to the number of students we have enrolled in CCSD.”

Huggins and Prentice assured the board that the correct numbers would be provided to clear any confusion.

“We are going to have to take a very close look over the next three to five years,” Huggins said. “Then, we will determine whether this allocation model works or do we need to go back to the drawing board.”

To balance the budget, one strategy used includes central office reductions with the district eliminating over 30 positions totaling to $8 million.

A 3.9 millage increase is included in the proposed budget with it noted that future millage increases are not contemplated in the long-range plan. A millage rate is a tax collected on real estate and large purchases, like cars.

However, families that own and live in their homes are exempt from the increased tax on their houses for education purposes. Non-owner-occupied houses and businesses bear the brunt of a millage rate increase.

The first reading after recommendations from Monday will be at the Board of Trustees meeting on May 20. Then, the second reading will include a public hearing and board meeting on June 24.

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