by Denise K. James

It started out as just a small cafe tucked beside a health food store in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. Yet, soon enough, patrons from all over the Hammock Coast and beyond began talking about and visiting The Chive Blossom Cafe for its fresh, tasty menu and “exceptional wine list,” according to co-founder and chef Paul Kelly, better known as P.K. The concept started when he and his wife, Chive Blossom Cafe’s founder Trina Renault, met and decided to leave their roles at the time — bartending for Trina; working as a chef across the street for P.K. — and speak to the owners of the health food store about leasing part of it for their new venture.

It worked out better than they dreamed. In fact, after launching the new dinner menu and developing a larger following, the couple decided it was time to relocate into a bigger space. The current location of Chive Blossom Cafe has been open now for 13 years, but no one could have guessed it would thrive the way it has.

“Everyone thought we should stay in the smaller space and thought we were crazy to take this on,” P.K. laughs. “Everyone thought we didn’t know what we were doing.”

The current location was previously a Nigerian restaurant, painted bright yellow and red. P.K described how he and his wife “gutted it,” to the tune of all new floors, a reconstructed kitchen, a brand new bar, newly laid tile and wood and much more. All of the artistic touches in the Chive Blossom Cafe are custom as well. A local artist named Lee Arthur — the 2021 Featured Artist at the Georgetown Wooden Boat Show — designed the restaurant’s eye-catching wood pieces. “There’s a sea turtle made out of a 300-year-old log that sank in the Waccamaw River — he got his hands on it and made this enormous sea turtle,” P.K. beamed. “There’s also a seahorse, jellyfish, mahi — all original Lee Arthur art.”

And customers who grab a Chive Blossom Cafe keepsake on their way out the door will love the original, whimsical artwork on the “old-school” slide matchbooks. Travis Armstrong, another local artist as well as a chef, stenciled the illustration from a photograph of Trina as a 4-year-old girl.

Outside the restaurant, the artistic vibe continues with custom Sunbrellas, heaters for the chillier time of year, plus a new roof and skylights to protect up to 100 happy diners from the elements while they celebrate. “I hate to brag about my own property, but we’ve put a ton of work into it throughout the 13 years we’ve been here,” P.K. said. “Our updated courtyard is pretty impressive.”

And we haven’t even gotten to the food yet. I unabashedly told P.K. that one of my “favorite salads ever” is at The Chive Blossom: their namesake chopped salad, with candied pecans, cranberries, smoked bacon and other goodies, over a bed of greens. P.K. assured me my salad was still on the menu, along with a number of other tantalizing appetizers, salads, and entrees. Though everything was getting ready to transition to the warm season at the time of our conversation, P.K. was able to share a few crowd-pleasers on the menu for summer 2022: a juicy 16-ounce porterhouse steak, which he described as a “monster dish” graced with a delicious sauce of sauteed bacon and tomatoes; a hearty spinach salad with long-stem, marinated artichokes, fresh fried oysters and homemade green goddess dressing; delicious accompaniments, such as “the best collard greens you’ll ever taste” and black-eyed peas “made the Southern way,” and more.

Of course, the mark of a truly great restaurant is in the details, which is why P.K., Trina and the rest of the staff take care to create everything in-house, right down to sauces, dressings and desserts. In fact, Trina, along with the Chive Blossom floor manager who happens to be a pastry chef, come in early every morning and bake “150 desserts a day,” from fruit-filled cobblers to cheesecakes. “We sell a lot of whole desserts too,” P.K. added. Barflies, meanwhile, should get excited about refreshing cocktails and crisp wines for the balmier months, including a delicious-sounding (I’m biased) jalapeno vodka, homemade by the general manager who is also a gifted mixologist.

Besides good old-fashioned attention to detail, the other secret to The Chive Blossom’s scratch menu is a great relationship with the earth – their own garden behind the restaurant, as well as local farms and purveyors. From area fishermen to “the local guy who grows our microgreens and the lady who grows the blueberries for summer cobblers,” great food from The Chive Blossom comes from a network of great people. “We have a large garden out back with basil, jalapenos and other veggies — our guests take photos by the garden,” P.K. said. “The things we can grow ourselves, we grow. We can’t always grow things ourselves, but everything is from South Carolina.”

Both Trina, a native of Myrtle Beach, and P.K., a native of Georgia, have excelled in the culinary industry for decades; Trina formerly owned the Vintage House Cafe in Myrtle Beach, and P.K. has experience cooking all over the country, including a private island in Hawaii, Manhattan and South Beach.

“I’m in my 50s now, and this is all I’ve ever done; I’ve had a good career,” he mused. “My wife and I have been blessed with good fortune and hard work.”

He added that he joyfully wears the many hats of the restaurant on a regular basis. “I know how to put out fires, how to light fires, how to cook —  and how to eat and drink too!”