The Developers Are Scooping the Ice Cream

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Hanahan's newest ice cream window is run by the people building the town center around it.

Jennifer Rinella and Michael Sivel are partners in Blackwells Corner, the six-building, roughly 40,000-square-foot town center going up where Blackwell Hardware used to be. They are also the names behind Mimi's Soft Serve. So the developers didn't wait around for a tenant to bet on their project. They signed themselves up first.

Mimi's is named for Rinella's grandmother. The house vanilla blends Madagascar and Mexican vanilla with a pinch of sea salt. The chocolate gets billed as deep instead of sweet, which is how you describe chocolate for adults. Dips are made in house and the toppings rotate.

You'll find it at Blackwells Outpost, 1240 Yeamans Hall Road, directly across the street from the construction fence. It's an open-air lot with seats, some shade and a stretch of grass for live music, anchored by one food truck that Mimi's splits with Untitled Pizza Co.

Untitled is chef Jalen Reeves's wood-fired outfit. Everything cooks over live fire. The dough is Neapolitan, the finish is New York, and the menu runs classic pies, seasonal pies and small plates. Reeves has never had four walls of his own. The Corner will be the first.

Per the Post & Courier, Mimi's opened Oct. 23. The paper says the truck is where waffle cones and sundaes get tried out, and that Mimi's eventually lands its own walk-up window inside the Corner.

Yes, they launched a soft serve brand at the very end of October. Bold. Then again, this is Charleston, where cone weather mostly just takes a few weeks off.

The bigger play is the calendar. Blackwells Corner broke ground Sept. 10 and is aiming for fall 2027. That's a full year of fencing and dirt. The Outpost is how the developers get Hanahan in the habit of hanging out on this corner before there is a single building to hang out in. It closes when the real thing opens.

That corner already had a habit. Blackwell's sold hardware there from 1947 until it shut in 2025, and the family's operation started in an old Army warehouse on the site after World War II. The developers asked the Blackwells for permission before borrowing the name.

The lineup so far reads like a local roster on purpose. Kudu Coffee & Wine is opening a second location. Cane Pazzo owner Mark Bolchoz is doing an Italian mercato and wine bar. Pineapple House Boutique is coming from downtown, run by an owner who grew up in Hanahan. Tideline Aquatics, on the site for more than 30 years, stays right where it is. National chains are out, by the developers' own choice.

For the real estate nerds: Bello Garris is the architect, Hill Construction is building it and SeamonWhiteside did the land planning. Space is still available for lease.

The Outpost runs Fridays 4 to 9 p.m., Saturdays 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Sundays 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Pizza and a vanilla cone off the same truck, across the road from where Hanahan used to buy its nails.

Sources: Blackwells Corner (Outpost address, hours, Mimi's and Untitled menus), Live 5 News (developers, no-chains policy, tenants, hardware store history), ABC News 4 (groundbreaking, size, site history), SC Biz News (design and build team) and the Post & Courier (Mimi's launch date, test menu, permanent counter)