Drive Maybank Highway toward the Wappoo Cut Bridge this month and you'll pass a plaza at 1739 Maybank Highway that's quietly becoming a case study in what happens when a well-known name finally decides James Island is worth another location. Five Guys is moving into the suite that used to be Charlotte's on Maybank. A few doors down, Caviar & Bananas is renovating the old Maple Street Biscuit Co. space for what will be its third Charleston-area location. Two multi-location brands, one address, one fall.
Head the other direction toward Folly Beach and the pattern flips. Girl Nextdough, led by a former FIG pastry chef, has opened its own doors rather than taking over someone else's kitchen. CudaCo Seafood House just opened a standalone crudo bar. And a longtime-empty outparcel at Riverland Market, the Publix-anchored center at 1411 Folly Road, is finally getting claimed by The Oyster Tavern, a concept most residents haven't heard of yet.
Same season, same island, two very different kinds of openings. One road is where familiar names are landing. The other is where new ones are actually being built.
The Plaza Absorbing Familiar Names
There's a particular kind of restaurant opening that doesn't require much imagination from the reader: a chain or a multi-location concept takes over a space that already had a name and a kitchen layout, updates the signage, and reopens under new ownership. That's what's happening at 1739 Maybank Highway right now, twice, in the same stretch of road.
Five Guys is filling the suite once occupied by Charlotte's on Maybank. Caviar & Bananas, the specialty cafe founded by Joe Caradonna, has been renovating the former Maple Street Biscuit Co. space, aiming to open its third Charleston-area location and its first outside a "city landscape," as Caradonna put it when the move was announced back in February. He's framed James Island as new territory for the brand, telling What Now Charleston it represents a totally different demographic that we haven't tested. The plan includes expanding the grab-and-go case for people picking up dinner on the way home from work or school pickup, and bringing back beer on tap, something the downtown location dropped years ago.
Neither opening required new construction. Both are counting on a location that already trained customers to park, walk in, and order at a counter. That's a different bet than building a restaurant from scratch, and it's the bet that's currently landing on Maybank Highway.
Where the New Names Are Actually New
Folly Road is telling a different story this year. Girl Nextdough opened on James Island under the direction of Caitlin Schumacher, who spent time as a pastry chef at FIG before striking out with her own concept, according to the Post and Courier's restaurant tracker. CudaCo Seafood House, run by Shaun Brian and Chris John, recently opened a crudo bar on Folly Road serving seasonal seafood and a curated wine list, a second concept from owners who already had a name on the island.
Then there's Riverland Market itself. The Publix-anchored center at 1411 Folly Road broke ground with an ambitious footprint: the main building plus two outparcel structures designed to hold four restaurant spaces and eight retail slots, according to reporting from the Post and Courier when the grocery store opened in 2019. Those outparcel buildings were still under construction at the time. Years later, one of those remaining restaurant slots is finally set to become The Oyster Tavern, though an exact opening date hasn't been announced. A shopping center that was planned to be fully leased within a year or two of opening is only now filling in its last restaurant space, which says less about the concept moving in and more about how long unbuilt commercial space on this island can sit before demand catches up to it.
The One Still Without an Address
Not every fall opening fits neatly into either category yet. Char House Social, a Southwestern-inspired steakhouse, is planning to open on James Island this fall, according to WCBD News, though the operators haven't pinned down an exact address in their public announcements. What they have described is the intent: steaks, whiskey, live music, and what they've called a new neighborhood restaurant and bar built for everything from a weeknight dinner to a celebration. Whether that lands on the Maybank side of the island or the Folly Road side will say something about which pattern it's following. A concept built around "neighborhood" language and live music sounds more like Folly Road's build-from-scratch approach than Maybank's plaza-infill one, but nothing is confirmed yet.
What This Means If You're Driving Either Road This Month
If you're heading down Maybank Highway for dinner over the next few months, expect more of what you already know how to order, just with new paint and a new sign. If you're headed toward Folly Road, expect to be trying something that didn't exist on the island a year ago, in a space that either sat empty for years or was purpose-built for exactly this kind of tenant.
That split matters if you've been assuming James Island's restaurant scene is expanding uniformly. It isn't. One corridor is absorbing brands that have already proven themselves somewhere else in Charleston. The other is where the island's own chefs and owners are testing new concepts and finally finishing a shopping center that's been under construction, in some form, since before the pandemic.
Before the fall openings settle in, James Island County Park has its own calendar worth marking. The park's October lineup includes Palmetto Peaks belaying and lead-climbing classes at the adventure center, a naturalist-led walk along the fishing dock to look at marsh life, and the Oct. 31 fun run and festival with trick-or-treating and face painting, according to the park's own October events listing. And the Holiday Festival of Lights, now in its 37th year, is confirmed to run nightly from Nov. 13 through Dec. 31, 2026, with its three-mile driving route and more than 750 illuminated displays, per the festival's official page. That gives the island's new restaurants roughly six weeks to get their kitchens running smoothly before the park's biggest crowds of the year start looking for somewhere to eat dinner first.
Whichever road you're on this fall, the island is changing table by table. Knowing which corridor is testing something new and which one is just changing the name on the door makes the difference between a predictable Tuesday dinner and an actual discovery.
If watching James Island's storefronts turn over has you thinking more broadly about what's changing on the island, Georgia Nettles has spent years tracking how this market moves block by block. Schedule a private consultation with Georgia whenever you're ready to talk about it.
