We Buy Estate Jewelry in Knightsville, SC

Jason Tucker reports that business is booming at the boîte known as La Cuisine du Chevalier, or La Chev, by the locals. The 40-seat restaurant, which translates to “the knight’s kitchen,” garnered rave reviews by online contributors when it opened in November at the former soup restaurant called Ladles in the Shoppes of Summerville.

It only recently held a grand opening celebration.

Tucker, who has lived in Summerville for the past 16 years, is no stranger to the restaurant business.

“My background is extremely diverse and it started back when I was 15-years’ old scooping ice cream in Central Pennsylvania,” he said.

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Over the years, Tucker has worked in numerous restaurants, from chains like Buffalo Wild Wings, Cracker Barrel and the Hilton, to groups like Charleston Hospitality and more. After bartending his way through college in Virginia, the hard-working transplant accepted a management position from his employer, which took him to Summerville, where he has been ever since.

The father of two boys is also the operating partner at Wine & Tapas in Summerville and was buoyed by the popularity of the business. This inspired him to open a new restaurant, this time with a French flair.

“They call the area the French Quarter, but it lacked a French-themed restaurant, which never made sense to me, especially with the growth we are seeing in this area,” he said.

Tucker said that La Chev was designed to evoke the feeling of walking down the Champs-Élysées.

“It’s a cute café that’s quaint and all about the food and wine,” he said.

It doesn’t hurt that Tucker worked in the wine distribution business and is well-versed on what’s exceptional. He said that his goal is to bring people in by rivaling the quality that a customer would get in downtown Charleston.

“It’s all about the ingredients and there’s a lot of precision and thought that goes into each of our dishes,” he said, adding that chef de cuisine Jonathan DuPriest, who grew up in Knightsville, is Johnson and Wales-trained.

When it comes to dishes, Tucker said that the most popular lunch items that they serve are the French Dip and the shrimp and grits.

“A lot of people judge the quality of the restaurant by their shrimp and grits,” he said.

As for dinner, Tucker offers quite a few specials, ranging from steak dishes, to surf and turf, scallops, crabcakes, and salmon.

“Everyone says that it’s the best salmon served in the Atlantic Coastal area,” Tucker said.

For now, La Chev is taking reservations, except for the bar and outside area, so last-minute plans to dine can be accommodated if guests don’t mind sitting in either area.

Tucker also recently announced that they will be open on Sundays for brunch.

“We’re currently working on the menu which we will implement sometime around the end of July,” he said.

Kurry Seymour was a Ladles customer who was wowed by his first visit.

“This place brings a refreshing vibe to the Knightsville area and I am impressed by the décor, which was converted into a very fine, but very cozy dining experience,” he said.

Reviews like this are music to Tucker’s ears.

“I never thought I’d be in a situation where I’d be running two separate restaurants, but I love the feeling one gets when someone is happy with an experience. Making moments special is the best feeling in the world and having the opportunity to have someone really love what you’re doing, well, it doesn’t get any better than that,” he said, with a smile.

Stefanie Kalina-Metzger is a contributing writer for SC Biz News.

By Casey L. Taylor, JD

Tucked away near Summerville, SC – the place known as “Flowertown, USA” – is a sanctuary dedicated to gibbons (small apes). It’s a jungle-like wonderland that has lifesaving at the core of its mission.

The International Primate Protection League (IPPL) sanctuary is a secret to many locals. It is situated on over 40 acres of land surrounded by lush woods. Neighbors are lucky enough to hear the songs and great calls of these interesting primates throughout the day and night.

The sanctuary is home to 36 gibbons, the smallest of the apes, who have been rescued or retired from laboratories, deplorable “roadside” attractions, or the pet trade. IPPL provides lifetime care to these incredible endangered species and works to educate the community on the plight of gibbons in the wild.

The gibbon residents at the sanctuary have indoor night houses that are hurricane-grade, expansive outdoor habitats, and aerial walkways that give them the choice to safely move about their designated areas as they wish. It is important to the organization that each sanctuary resident is given as much freedom of choice as possible in a captive environment, while keeping them safe. Despite most residents having a rough start to their lives, they thrive at IPPL. They even have some residents nearing the age of 60!

International Outreach

IPPL is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and preserving the world’s remaining primates, great and small. For the last 45 years, IPPL has made a global impact by securing an export ban on primates from Thailand (saving thousands and thousands of lives) and working with over 20 reputable primate rescue and rehabilitation centers in Southeast Asia, Africa, and South America.

IPPL not only supports their efforts to care for native primates who have been rescued and are in need of rehabilitation or lifetime care, but also to thwart poachers and illegal wildlife traffickers, as well as educate local villages and communities on how they can help be part of the solution in preserving native populations of primates.

Small Team, Big Impact

With a small but mighty team of animal caregivers, maintenance technicians, office staff, and dog nannies, IPPL provides compassionate lifetime care for every resident, which includes nutritious and delicious fresh produce three times a day for the gibbons, as well as veterinary care and enrichment — to stimulate those intelligent minds of theirs!

Forms of enrichment vary from food puzzles that the gibbon must figure out in order to get their healthy treats, to special time with their favorite caregiver. Bubble-blowing is a big hit with some of the gibbons. Tong, who was one of the first four original residents at the sanctuary, loves a good foot rub — what girl doesn’t?

Absolutely nothing beats a life in the wild, but for these residents that is sadly not a reality. The team at IPPL feels that the least they can do is make the rest of these individuals’ lives the happiest and healthiest they can be. From residents used in invasive human vaccination studies and locomotion tests, to those kept in less-than-favorable conditions, IPPL’s sanctuary is a safe and loving place for them to thrive and to live as gibbons should.

Casey L. Taylor, JD is the Executive Director of IPPL.

MORE ABOUT IPPL

The sanctuary is not open to the public as an attraction, but it holds educational events in the community and offers options to visit during special times. Sign up to receive their e-newsletters on their website (www.ippl.org) and be the first to know about opportunities and events.

A 14-year-old fitness site that changed brands in 2015 is now dark in Mount Pleasant.

Pivotal Fitness shuttered the 41,000-square-foot gym it operates at 627 Johnnie Dodds Blvd. in the Plaza at East Cooper Shopping Center on Friday, and movers were loading up the workout equipment into large moving vans Tuesday.

Discount grocer Aldi anchors a space near the opposite end of the 102,000-square-foot retail center.

Co-owner Michelle Berrard said the gear is being transferred to Pivotal’s recently upgraded Park West location at 3301 Stockdale St. about 8 miles away in northern Mount Pleasant.

All memberships will be honored at the Park West site, she said.

Berrard pointed to the coronavirus as playing a part in the move along with high rent. She said the gym’s lease was coming up for renewal, so the owners decided to consolidate operations elsewhere to save money.

The facility operated as ECO Fitness after opening in 2007. After Pivotal took over six years ago, the gym expanded into a former retail space next door.

Pivotal operates 24-hour locations in downtown Charleston and in Hanahan and Knightsville. Its other gyms are in Summerville and West Ashley.

A new tenant has not been lined up for the now-empty fitness site, but Steve Radekopf of Radekopf & Associates, who handles leasing for the shopping center, said plans are in the works to create small retail spaces across the front with the possibility of a smaller gym operating in part of the site.

All plans are preliminary and subject to change, he added.

Historic Charleston Foundation, with its recent reversal of the controversial decision to sell one of its homes after an outpouring of opposition, is making another pivotal move.

The preservation group plans to close its nearly four-decade-old gift shop at 108 Meeting St. on the lower peninsula by the end of February as part of its multiyear strategic plan to focus on its two museum properties and advocacy issues in the Lowcountry, according to CEO Winslow Hastie.

Hastie also pointed to the changing consumer landscape as a reason to shutter the 4,500-square-foot store that was once a gas station.

“Retail is a very volatile world, and it’s changed dramatically since (the shop) first started in the late 1980s,” he said.

The foundation opened a second retail space in 2011 in the City Market, a few blocks north of the Meeting Street gift shop, to capitalize on tourist-heavy foot traffic. The proximity of the two retail outlets is no longer ideal, Hastie said.

“The need for that amount of space is not really necessary,” he said of the soon-to-be-darkened site.

Retail

The foundation ideally hopes to lease the commercially zoned property, which is between Chalmers and Queen streets, as offices for a government agency or a professional services firm. Hastie doesn’t see the building as a good fit for restaurant or retail uses. He added the foundation would adamantly oppose any effort toward transforming the T-shaped structure into an inn.

“We will have restrictive covenants on the property,” he said. “It also doesn’t have parking. Any user will have to get creative on parking.”

The foundation acquired the property in 1986 from Exxon Corp. after paying $207,000, according to Charleston County land records. It made a few changes to the site, including the construction of a connection between the former storefront and the rear garage bays, but the building’s exterior, with its Colonial revival architectural features, remains intact.

The existing design came about to help the 1930s-built gas station blend into the surrounding historic neighborhood. When Exxon-predecessor Standard Oil decided to build the service station on the property, it demolished three historic homes built between 1782 and 1805 in 1929, stirring Charleston’s preservation movement to life.

Founded in 1947, Historic Charleston Foundation now wants to focus its attention on broader advocacy issues such as land use, development, tourism management, sea-level rise and settlement communities. It also hopes to expand its affordable housing-focused Common Cause Loan Fund that helps make home repairs for longtime city residents.

The decision to darken the retail shop is part of the recommendations in the group’s multiyear strategic plan, which included the decision late last year to sell the Nathaniel Russell House it owns down the street at 51 Meeting.

The group reversed its decision earlier this month after a public outcry, including a petition with thousands of signatures opposing the sale to a private entity.

“It’s been a rough couple of months,” Hastie said. “We are in a better place now.”

The foundation plans to keep its gift shop in the City Market as well as retail outposts in the Nathaniel Russell House and the group’s historic Aiken-Rhett House on Elizabeth Street in the Wraggborough neighborhood. The group also will focus on online sales more to generate revenue for its Lowcountry-centric products such as china, jewelry and home decor items.

SUMMERVILLE — Tables begin to fill up just past noon at a restaurant 31 miles from downtown Charleston.

Surrounded by chain eateries in a Publix-anchored strip mall, La Cuisine Du Chevalier — or La Chev, as most call it — has the buzz of an energetic lunch crowd ready for some midday human interaction.

A trio of women attempt to corral four children while dunking grilled bread into large white bowls of bouillabaisse, brimming with mussels, shrimp and white fish, all steeping in saffron broth.

Empty black shells are pushed aside at another round mahogany table, where two friends catch up over mussels and glasses of iced tea.

A man sitting solo at a two-top finishes his meal and tells the server he will be back next week.

These are the sights and sounds of a restaurant that’s become a neighborhood lunchtime favorite less than a year after quietly opening in November 2022.

I would have never found La Chev without a tip from a colleague, but I’m glad I came. That satisfaction extends to residents of the Knightsville and Summerville area, who have thanked owner Jason Tucker for bringing his Southern take on French cuisine to them rather than downtown Charleston.

“A lot of people were confused about why I did it here,” said Tucker, a Summerville resident. “I saw the direction of where the homes are going.”

Tucker struck out on his own after cutting his professional teeth at restaurants in Charleston’s French Quarter. Inside the strip center space that previously housed a Ladles sandwich and soup shop, the Johnson & Wales University graduate is teaming up with La Chev’s chef de cuisine, Jonathan DuPriest, who grew up in Knightsville.

Whether it’s crab dip with grilled bread or seared scallops over French onion cheese risotto, DuPriest is consistently coming up with new daily specials that the restaurant posts on its Facebook page, which takes the place of an actual website.

La Chev boasts separate lunch and dinner menus, but there are several crossovers, including the shrimp and grits, crab croquettes and yellowfin tuna — a dish that stood out after two visits to the restaurant.

The lightly-seared tuna, served cold, rests on a steaming hot medley of chopped asparagus, corn, confit tomato and cubed bacon. A speckled cream sauce pulls the vegetables together, adding sweet smokiness to the fresh but mild fish.

“It doesn’t just play with your taste buds, it plays with the temperature sensitivities of your palate, as well,” Tucker said.

With a nice crust and firm pink center, the tuna hits all corners of my mouth, leaving soft, peppery spice behind. Though served as an appetizer, I enjoyed it as my full meal with an order of duck coq au vin dumplings — a fun riff on a French classic — on the side.

During dinner, the white tablecloths are brought out and topped with larger appetizers and mains that allow for some “Lowcountry liberties,” Tucker said.

For instance, crab croquettes are more petite crab cake than filled-and-fried roll, but the flawed descriptor doesn’t take away from each delicate bite. Paired with a light and bright diced cucumber salad, the patties’ crab-to-filler ratio favors the former.

A trio of cheese-adorned meatballs, floating in tomato ragù and served with small wedges of garlic bread, is another appetizer that satisfies without reinventing the wheel.

The same can often be said for the restaurant’s dinner entrees.

Roasted salmon, stuffed with crab and served atop crisp green beans, is one example of an expertly cooked daily special. On the side, Carolina Gold rice is bound with cheese to form a thick patty, bringing substance and salt to the Southern grains.

Steak, which appears to have been marinated and spent some time in the oven, makes up for a lack of crust with a juicy, tender texture — almost reminiscent of the roasted filet of beef my mother serves at Christmas.

Megan Hatcher did not initially have plans to become a teacher.

The Rochester, N.Y. native went to Clemson University to get her business degree. She got a job doing corporate accounts – Hatcher described it as a great job with great benefits.

Hatcher was living in Richmond, Va., when she met her husband Shannon, whom she has been married to for almost 11 years. When the couple found out they were having a baby they decided to move down south.

Hatcher’s two older sisters were already teaching in Dorchester District Two, with one at Ashley Ridge High and the other at Beech Hill Elementary. Hatcher loved coming to her sister’s class at Beech Hill to volunteer with her students.

When Hatcher became a mom to her now 8-year-old son Carter she realized she really wanted to be a teacher.

With that Hatcher changed her career. She went back to school, got her master’s in education and came to Knightsville Elementary, where she has been for the past four years. She initially started teaching self-contained third grade but now the 34-year-old teaches fourth-grade gifted and talented math, science and social studies – and she just loves it.

“I have the best job in the world,” she said. “I feel lucky.”

That being said, Hatcher said she couldn’t think of a single “worst experience” she has had with her teaching career. The best part, she said, is seeing the accomplishments her students make.

“Watching the kids, and really watching them turn into young adults, it’s a really cool experience – and knowing that you helped with that,” she said.

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Hatcher was Rookie Teacher of the Year her first year at Knightsville. Aside from teaching she stays active with a kickball club, coaching the Math is Cool team and teaching the after-school Junior Science Exploration Team (JSET). She serves on the Sunshine Club as well.

Hatcher said she has considered going into administration one day, but wants to stick with being a teacher for now.

“Right now I can’t imagine being out of the classroom,” she said. “I love being in the classroom. I feel like I would miss it.”

When she is not at school Hatcher enjoys reading, traveling, doing crafts and playing with Carter. The family resides in Summerville and has an 11-year-old male Yorkie named Wrigley (named after Wrigley Field).

Hatcher says her family loves Disney World. They like sports and enjoy traveling together and being outside. They travel to Virginia often to visit Hatcher’s in-laws.

“We’re just three peas in a pod,” she said.

Hatcher’s mom also enjoys visiting her students at school.

Right now Hatcher said she is in a good place with her job and her life.

“I love my job, I am blessed with a wonderful family that supports my job,” she said. “I hope to be this happy in 40 years. I really feel like I’m in a very lucky spot.”