Pool Repair in Charleston, SC

Four area restaurants tested by researchers last month were found to be selling local, wild-caught shrimp when advertised.

A team from SeaD Consulting, a Texas-based research firm, spent several days in May sampling shrimp from 44 Charleston-area restaurants to sniff out "shrimp fraud," or identify restaurants that are advertising fresh, local product but in reality are serving customers imported, farm-raised shrimp.

The results, published on June 10, show that 90 percent of the restaurants sampled were considered to be misleading customers in menu descriptions or by using shrimp boats in branding.

"This is not only deceptive but also insulting to the hardworking shrimpers whose livelihoods are being undermined,” said Erin Williams, founder and chief operating officer of SeaD Consulting.

The four restaurants tested in May that were found to sell domestic, wild-caught shrimp are Rappahannock Oyster Bar on East Bay Street, Acme Lowcountry Kitchen on the Isle of Palms, Grace & Grit in Mount Pleasant and Coosaw Crab Shack on Dorchester Road in North Charleston.

Bobby Simmons, owner of Acme Lowcountry Kitchen, said the results were staggering, noting that he didn't expect the number of restaurants selling imported product to be that high.

"It's really just sad. I didn't even expect the number to be that low," Simmons said. "It's pretty shocking and eye-opening. I hope everybody sees it and uses that as a guide for where to go out and eat. Especially if they want to eat shrimp."

Twenty-five spots were found to be "outright fraudulent," according to a release from SeaD Consulting. These restaurants listed local shrimp on their menus but sold imported shellfish in its place.

The 44 restaurants were identified using data available through local health department licensing to create a list of seafood restaurants.

Researchers focused on establishments advertising fresh seafood or using fishing-related imagery in their marketing materials. Researchers assigned numbers to the restaurants that fit this description, then used a random number selector to blindly choose the testing locations.

"We acknowledge that there's more than four restaurants in Charleston that serve local, wild-caught shrimp, and we do our best to promote them," said Bryan Jones, vice president of the South Carolina Shrimper's Association. "It doesn't mean everybody's bad, but it does really amplify the pervasiveness of the shrimp fraud in our market."

SeaD Consulting did not release the names of the other 40 restaurants that were tested. The research firm will send letters to the locations serving imported shrimp, encouraging them to serve domestic shrimp or update their menus to make it clear they aren't selling local shrimp.

Charleston was the last stop on an eight-state study conducted by SeaD Consulting and funded by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, an organization of shrimpers and processors across the Southeast.

Shrimp was tested from restaurants in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas — states with strong domestic shrimping industries.

Charleston's results ranked slightly above the Tampa and St. Petersburg region in Florida, where just two out of 44 restaurants were found to be selling domestic shrimp.

Testing results throughout Louisiana were promising, largely due to the state's seafood labeling laws, Erin Williams told The Post and Courier in May. Around 30 percent of the restaurants tested in Louisiana sold imported shrimp.

There, restaurants must display the product's country of origin in a manner that's clearly visible to the consumer or risk receiving fines and health code violations.

Texas and Alabama recently adopted seafood labeling laws in the past year, and Mississippi legislators advanced a similar bill in March. In South Carolina, there are no requirements for labeling seafood's country of origin.

"Our state legislators need to take action like other coastal states to ensure transparent restaurant labeling to help consumers, honest restaurants and local shrimpers," Craig Reaves, S.C. director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, said in a written statement.

It is time for the annual Strawberry Moon in the lunar cycle of 2025 — which means the June full moon, the last of spring, will rise this evening.

It won't be completely full until 3:43 a.m. June 11 over South Carolina, but it will appear full when it rises. To see it, look to the southeastern horizon at sunset, which varies across the state, from just before 8:30 p.m. June 10 in the Lowcountry to just after 8:40 p.m. in the Upstate.

A key factor will be the weather. Rain and thunderstorms are forecast along the coast, from Hilton Head through the Charleston area up to Myrtle Beach. Around Greenville, it should be partly cloudy and pleasant. The Columbia region stands a chance of seeing the full moon before rain possibly moves in later.

While the June full moon is typically the lowest of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, this one will be the lowest in the sky in nearly 20 years. That is because the moon is at the extreme of its orbit around the Earth, rising and setting at its most northern and southern points on the horizon. This happens every 18.7 years, which will make the full moon appear larger than normal. The last one occurred in 2006 and the next is expected in 2043.

The name of the moon has nothing to do with its color, but for the time of year for picking strawberries in the northeastern U.S., as noted by Native Americans and later shared broadly by The Old Farmer's Almanac. Other names include Blooming Moon, Green Corn Moon, Birthing Moon, Egg Laying Moon and Hatching Moon.

Here are the names and dates for full moons remaining in 2025:

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A national pharmacy company has opened a new company headquarters in Charleston as it merged its two pharmacy members in a rebranding effort.

Guardian Pharmacy Services Inc., a long-term care pharmacy service company, has relocated its South Carolina headquarters to Charleston, merging its two local pharmacy members to rebrand and operate under Guardian Pharmacy of South Carolina, according to a news release.

Formerly Winyah Pharmacy and Preferred Care, both companies will transfer all employees and resources to the new building, according to the release. The company will also hire new employees to expand its services.

The new location will be at 2265 Clements Ferry Road. The pharmacy is a closed-door facility and not open to the public.

The new building – nearly double the size of the pharmacies’ previous Georgetown and Hollywood locations combined – brings all employees and resources under one roof to better serve the growing customer base, the release stated. This move strengthens Guardian Pharmacy of South Carolina’s presence statewide, enhancing its ability to provide high-quality pharmacy services to residents in assisted living, skilled nursing and behavioral health communities, as well as individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout South Carolina.

“Our previous locations served us well, but with the pace of our growth, we needed a larger space to house all of our employees – with a layout, technology and amenities designed to strengthen our operations and help us continue delivering the long-term care pharmacy services our customers count on,” David Whitlock, president of Guardian Pharmacy of South Carolina, said in the release. “Rebranding under one name reflects our statewide footprint and unified commitment to long-term care communities across South Carolina, and this new facility puts us in a strong position for continued growth.”

The new pharmacy location features “state-of-the-art” technology, including robotic dispensing machines as well as an IV infusion therapy suite, according to the release.

Guardian Pharmacy Services was founded in 2004 and has expanded from one to 50 pharmacy locations across the United States, the release said.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Testing on shrimp served at dozens of Charleston-area restaurants revealed that most falsely promoted serving locally-caught shrimp, a new report states.

“Just because you see a shrimp boat or just because you see a boat hanging on the wall, doesn’t mean that they have fresh seafood in their businesses,” President of the S.C. Shrimper’s Association and fourth-generation shrimper Rocky Magwood said.

The Southern Shrimp Alliance commissioned SeaD Consulting to collect samples of shrimp dishes from 44 Charleston-area restaurants between May 19 and May 22. Genetic testing revealed that 40 of the restaurants sampled were “misleading customers in their branding, menu descriptions or proximity to local docks, with 25 found to be outright fraudulent,” a release from SeaD Consulting states.

Bryan Jones is the vice president of the S.C. Shrimpers Association. Jones said he expected some to be serving foreign shrimp, but was surprised by the numbers.

“The sheer amount of pervasiveness, like 90%! We knew it existed, right? We feel it. We know it. There’s a lot of restaurants that do buy from us, but we know there’s a ton that don’t. But to have 90% that are saying they serve local wild caught shrimp that aren’t, in fact, doing that, that, that kind of took our breath away, and it was surprising,” Jones said.

Foreign imported shrimp is not monitored in the same manner as U.S. producers and not held to the same accountability standards, the release states.

“We can supply the demand, and even if we weren’t able to, if we were to take that argument, I don’t believe that buying and serving imported shrimp to our consumers is a fair substitute when American shrimp is available from Texas all the way to North Carolina, there’s always an abundant resource,” Jones said.

The report found that even some restaurants perched on the water that overlooked shrimp boats were found to be serving imported shrimp.

“This is not only deceptive but also insulting to the hardworking shrimpers whose livelihoods are being undermined,” SeaD Consulting Founder and COO Erin Williams said. “It’s decimating the entire regional economy and culture they’ve worked for generations to build and promote.”

The release did not name the 40 restaurants results suggested were misleading customers or the 25 the consulting firm suggested were “outright fraudulent.”

The report did, however, name the four restaurants it confirmed were serving authentic U.S. wild-caught shrimp:

“We’re not mad at you, just come on and see us and buy fresh shrimp, you know. Come join us. Get in with the rest of all the restaurants. You know, there’s plenty of shrimp around. We can take care of you. We’ll get you figured out. The American people that are working very hard in their families to survive in this industry. We got plenty of product, and we can catch plenty of product. We just need places to sell it to,” Magwood said.

Magwood and Jones said they believe in the quality of Lowcountry shrimp and want customers to have the chance to try that product. That’s why the S.C. Shrimpers Association is calling for state legislation to create country of origin menu labeling laws similar to laws on the books in Louisiana and recently passed in Texas.

“A country of origin labeling law would go a long way to providing that information and disclosure to consumers. You know, when you look at a menu and you see, oh, this, you know, came from the waters here in South Carolina, or, you know, it came from, you know, halfway around the world, at least, the consumer at that point has a choice to make,” Jones says.

The release acknowledges there may be other Charleston-area restaurants that are using local shrimp, but that the four they listed were the only ones in the test group found to be doing so.

The S.C. Shrimpers Association has a comprehensive list of verified buyer restaurants from local shrimpers. As of the May SeaD testing, the association’s site lists more than 60 local restaurant buyers from the beaches to downtown Charleston to Summerville. It includes two of the four restaurants confirmed by the testing.

“Charleston’s culinary identity is built on the legacy of local fishermen and the unmatched quality of wild-caught shrimp,” Southern Shrimp Alliance Executive Director John Williams said. “Consumers—especially tourists—believe they’re eating authentic Lowcountry seafood, when in reality they’re being sold a globalized substitute likely raised in ponds treated with antibiotics, often using slave labor, with none of the tradition or taste.”

SeaD Consulting plans to send letters to the 40 restaurants it says were using imported shrimp “under the guise of local fare” to urge them to switch to domestic sourcing or update their menus to reflect their shrimp’s “true origins.”

The group plans to conduct follow-up testing.

The firm found that laws can make a difference in holding restaurants accountable, the release states.

The firm says in states with restaurant labeling laws, only 34% of restaurants serve dishes with shrimp that doesn’t live up to the description of locally-sourced. But in states like South Carolina that lack such laws, 80% of restaurants do not serve authentically-local shrimp, it says.

Until such a law is passed, the firm urges Charleston customers to ask about the source of shrimp being served and demand proof.

“Demand to see the box from the kitchen. Look for the words ‘wild-caught U.S.’ or ask directly about South Carolina sourcing,” the release states. “Restaurants can honor their menus and their coastal heritage by choosing domestic shrimp — or, at the very least, telling the truth."

The Southern Shrimp Alliance is an organization of fishermen and others in the domestic shrimping industry in the eight warmwater shrimp-producing states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A James Island IHOP is now permanently closed following inspections that showed multiple health code violations.

Located at 771 Daniel Ellis Drive in Charleston, the restaurant has received continuous reports of problematic food safety practices.

Reports from the South Carolina Department of Agriculture show that since March, the IHOP has received 11 straight C-grades.

The restaurant violated the South Carolina Retail Food Establishment Regulations with the last recorded inspection on May 12, 2025.

Failures included temperature control for food safety, properly cleaned and sanitized surfaces, food in a good or safe condition, flies found in the dish area and utensils and other cleaning materials not properly handled.

Improper food date marking and disposal were noted in the reports, with steak, ham and pancake batter being held longer than seven days. The ham specifically was 14 days old when the inspection was conducted.

A family physician with Roper St. Francis, Dr. Valerie Scott, explained that a C-rating usually indicates there’s some fairly serious issues inside the business that could cause bodily harm.

“I think it is important for us to know when you see a rating, what does that mean to me, because you want to keep safe,” Scott said. “You do need to take a pause and be sure that where you’re eating takes good care to be sure you don’t get ill.”

As for the time and temperature control of food safety, reports state the IHOP was holding the following foods at a violated temperature:

“I think we all think about that in our own homes; when we have Thanksgiving, you’re always careful about not leaving the food out too long. Restaurants, too, have to follow these rules, and there are a lot of good reasons for that because you can get salmonella, E. coli., or even norovirus,” Scott said.

The business was not forced to close its doors by the state, but voluntarily shut down.

Now, the property remains empty and up for sale.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.