Captain Gillan’s Waterfront Seafood Buffet & Raw Bar The Island’s Only All You Can Eat Seafoot Buffet. BY BARRY KAUFMAN • PHOTOS BY ROB KAUFMAN
There has never been a seafood buffet on Hilton Head Island. Ned Gilleland, Jr. says so, and he should know. As the biggest restaurant broker in Beaufort County, and with a family history that goes back through 40 years of local culinary history, he’s something of an expert. “I’ve sold about 300 restaurants over the years. Some twice,” he joked, strolling among the sea of oaken tables and chairs (350 inside, and another 75 outside) at Captain Gillan’s Waterfront Seafood Buffet and Raw Bar. The seemingly endless dining rooms of his latest venture circle an equally leviathan buffet, and as we talked Gilleland paced through them all, inspecting nearly every station. As we spoke, the buffet sat empty, but within hours it would be filled to the brim 16
TASTEOFHILTONHEAD.COM
with a mouthwatering array of seafood specialties and encircled by a mob of hungry diners. “No one has tried something like this on Hilton Head Island,” he said before pausing in his pacing to recall. “Actually, 30 years ago I think they had buffet at the Holiday Inn. But no one was here then.” They’re here now, and Gilleland along with his brother Joe are seeing it pay off big. It’s the latest venture in a string of successful restaurants that dates back to Gilleland opening the original South Seaport Café, which is now the Wreck of the Salty Dog. Gilleland’s father, Ned, Sr., built most of South Beach Marina back when the island was only served by a two-lane swing bridge. Ned, who handles the front of the house and Joe, who is the head chef and runs the kitchen opened
their first restaurant there before being bit by the brokering bug. “It was a general store and 40 slips when started. Everything else, we built,” he said. “Throughout that marina I owned every restaurant. I’d sell one, and then I’d do another one.” While buying and selling he’d amass decades of experience opening some legendary island eateries. He opened CQ’s before selling it to the Lowrey Group. He opened Charleston’s, which would become Charlie’s L’Etoile Verte. His most recent venture, Gillan’s Seafood, is now the Lucky Rooster. “I get bored after a while and I sell them,” he said with a chuckle. “This one here… I’d like to be here a long, long time. It’s on the water, we have a tentative dock permit in hand to put a dock out there, but we’re trying to change the