Locals Sushi & Sports Pub is opening its fourth Charleston-area restaurant, at 1804 Crowne Commons Way in the Live Oak Square development just off Maybank Highway on Johns Island. The debut is anticipated for September.
The claim that makes it interesting: it will be the only dedicated sushi spot between James and Kiawah islands.
The room has a record
Blu Oyster Sushi & Seafood had the space first. Rick Agius and his wife Jennifer owned it, closed it for four months starting in late 2024, then reopened rebranded as Blu Smoke Pit. That quietly closed this summer.
So the address has now gone through two concepts in roughly two years, one of them sushi. Locals is opening sushi there anyway.
Why they think it works
The company has been at this since 2009, and the whole model is built around one specific table: the one where somebody wants sushi and somebody else will not go near anything raw.
"We've somewhat let our customers help create our concept for us," said Shawn Sherman, director of operations.
That is why the menu carries tacos, burgers, wings and hibachi dinners alongside the nigiri, and why plenty of the rolls contain no raw fish at all. It is less a sushi restaurant than a sushi restaurant that solved the group-dinner argument.
What's different on Johns Island
Mostly the calendar. The half-priced sushi night that runs Mondays in Mount Pleasant will run Tuesdays here. The roll lineup will look like the other stores with a few fresh additions. Brittany Gifford, who lives on Johns Island, is leading the restaurant.
The bet underneath
Johns Island is a fast-growing sea island about twenty minutes from downtown, and it is filling in faster than its restaurant supply. Locals is wagering that the two failures at 1804 Crowne Commons Way were about the operators, not the address.
The other three, for the record: 1150 Queensborough Blvd. in Mount Pleasant, which was the original, 1680 Old Towne Road in West Ashley, and 798 Folly Road on James Island.
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