Chow Daddy’s The concept was envisioned on Hilton Head Island, but it seems right at home in Bluffton. BY BARRY KAUFMAN • PHOTOS BY ROB KAUFMAN
It’s hard to miss the sign for Bluffton’s Chow Daddy’s. Perched right by 278 at Belfair Center, it’s a vibrant orange star-spangled statement piece that promises a kind of free-wheeling fun and carefully crafted cuisine that feels like pure Bluffton. Yield to the promise of that sign, and you’ll find yourself inside a masterpiece of reclaimed couture with a homestyle menu to match, bursting with an array of sliders, tacos and entrees – sweets, savories and everything in between. While each dish might originate in the contemporary casual, a glance at the ingredients, toppings and fixings reveals an inspired culinary pedigree that pushes each bite from familiar to fabulous. It’s that refined approach to comfort food, not to mention the spectacularly upcycled décor, that have made Chow Daddy’s right at home in Bluffton. The concept wasn’t born here, but it sure seems like it could have been. “We like Bluffton, and it’s been good to us with Truffle’s,” said Price Beall, owner of both Chow Daddy’s and Truffle’s along with wife Karen. “It’s a good market and it’s such a diverse group of people out there.” The restaurant resonated so well with Bluffton, it reinvigorated a space that Beall admits had somewhat of a curse to it. Or, at least, the perception of a curse, owing to several high-profile restaurants opening and closing in the same spot over a matter of a decade or so. “I knew the baggage of it being a ‘cursed location,’ but as I started looking around, that location hasn’t had that many more restaurants than many other places in Bluffton, to be honest,” said Beall. “I never paid that much attention to that – I figure if you do something good, people will pay attention.” They did just that, and people paid attention. And if you want to know what that something good is, pick anything off the menu. Unpretentious but far from ordinary, the food at Chow Daddy’s is like a greatest hits list of your favorite comfort foods and pub favorites, delightfully re-imagined with fresh, wholesome ingredients. That’s probably because that’s more or less what it is. “When we did the menu, we started out with me, my brother and partner Sandy, his wife Suzanna and Karen all writing down foods that we like to eat and how we like them prepared. Then we started looking for recipes,” he said. Sister restaurant Truffle’s provided the perfect test kitchen to prepare the first draft of Chow Daddy’s menu, which was then refined over and over until it was perfect. “If we liked it, it stayed. If we didn’t like it, we sought another item and went through the whole process again.” 106 TASTEOFHILTONHEAD.COM