Tasty Trips: Between the Antlers, Georgetown SC
A Menu Made in Georgetown
Between the Antlers:
by Brian Sherman
The recipe for a new restaurant in Georgetown is peppered by a dash of history and a pinch of poetry, but the most important ingredient in the creation of Between the Antlers was the influence of the divergent groups of people who have called this historic coastal city and its environs home for centuries.
“The food is purely Georgetown-centric. Our goal was to create what you would have seen at the Santee Gun Club or any home in Georgetown County. All the recipes are indigenous to this region,” said Tom Hall, the eatery’s owner, pointing out that his menu is influenced by the area’s long-standing African American, Barbadian, Native American and Huguenot communities.
The name of the restaurant is a nod to “A Starry Place Between the Antlers,” a book penned by the late U.S. Poet Laureate and University of South Carolina Professor James Dickey. Hall said he was frustrated by his unsuccessful efforts to come up with the ideal name for the restaurant until his friend, Roger Pinckney, mentioned a moniker that seemed to fit just right.
“It hit me square, so I said that’s what it will be. It was different. I love that name,” Hall remarked.
Located on the Sampit River, on a bluff known as Vinegar Hill and not far from the heart of Georgetown, the site of the restaurant once was a federal wharf, the embarkation point for rice and indigo leaving the East Coast of the United States for the world market. A thriving rice mill, the largest in the world at that time, according to Hall, was nearby. And, during what Hall called “the heyday of Georgetown,” the city hosted an assortment of American icons, including President George Washington.
“Most of the men who signed the Declaration of Independence walked along those docks where the rice mill was,” Hall pointed out.
Hall said he discovered the location for his restaurant by accident. The abandoned building once served as a shrimp processing plant, and it took him a year to renovate it; he kept the steel frame and jettisoned just about everything else. He said the building’s proximity to Georgetown’s Front Street and to the river, as well as its historical significance, made the tedious job of transforming it into a place where people would be able to enjoy a meal with a view worthwhile.
A sense of history and a view of the water are important factors in a restaurant’s success, but food is the main draw when it comes to attracting customers. Hall pointed out that the inspiration for a good part of the Between the Antlers menu comes from his experience as a hunter and outdoorsman and the meals he consumed at fishing and duck camps.
“I’m lucky that my dad took me around, and I got to do all those things and experienced all those great meals,” he said. “Outdoor cooking in South Carolina has been going on for hundreds of years.”
An example is Brice’s Country Store Sandwich. A popular item on the restaurant’s lunch and brunch menus, it’s a combination of fried bologna, American cheese, lettuce, tomato, Duke’s mayo and a fried egg on white bread. “It was the sandwich I ate dove hunting 30 years ago,” Hall explained. “It was always the same sandwich on opening day. That was a tradition.”
The most sought-after item on the menu at Between the Antlers is an appetizer – Wild Santee Fried Perlau (also spelled perloo and pilau and probably several other ways) and Fritters, “a completely unique idea,” according to Hall. Rice is rolled in egg and batter, deep fried into a ball, served atop a bed of collard greens and accompanied by Santee-style remoulade.
The menu includes an array of other Georgetown-area favorites, from shrimp and oysters to brisket and from shrimp and rice grits to she crab soup – as well as the catch of the day, which can be snapper, grouper, tilefish or something else altogether.
Hall gives much of the credit for the early success of Between the Antlers to his chefs, Scott Dwyer and Chelsea Cribb, and General Manager Joseph Schuman. Hall and his wife, Amy Peterkin, live in St. Matthews, but he said they are in Georgetown four or five days a week taking care of their new restaurant. An attorney and the sales director for a title company, he has found inspiration in the hospitality business.
“A restaurant is an art form. You put art on a plate in front of someone and provide them with a great meal. You don’t get that satisfaction being a lawyer. That’s rewarding,” he concluded.