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The priciest thing on the menu at West Ashley's next wine bar might be a binder.
Deanna's Wine Bar and Bert's Pig Shop are moving into 521 Wappoo Road, the shell of a long-dark 7-Eleven. The pitch is wine plus charcuterie cured in-house. The flex is where that charcuterie gets made: in the building, from whole pigs.
TOGETHER WITH VILLAGE BOOKSELLERS
They read 179 books this year. These three won
Three booksellers at Village Booksellers read 179 books between them this year. Their winners: Yesteryear for the book club bestie, A Founding Mother for the historical fiction fan, London Falling for the true crime fanatic. Gift receipts and exchanges at 761 Coleman Blvd.
Sounds simple. In South Carolina, it is a whole production.
State retail food rules treat curing and smoking meat as a "special process." Jerky, sausage, ham, bacon, all of it. A restaurant that wants in has to write a HACCP plan (food-safety speak for a step-by-step hazard control system), send it to the S.C. Department of Agriculture and get it approved before a single pork shoulder meets salt. After that, the kitchen follows the plan to the letter and keeps a copy where staff can grab it.
How thick a binder? Roughly 180 pages, the Post & Courier reports, adding that the permit also lets the shop sell its cured meats to other restaurants. Deanna's is the only bar in the state holding that kind of license, according to co-owner Douglas Hickerson. Bold claim. We'll keep an eye out for a challenger.
By day, Hickerson sells homes for Cobblestone Properties. The wine bar carries his mother's name. His partner, Bert Sheffield, is the restaurant guy. The Post & Courier puts him behind about 10 area spots, Paddock and Whiskey and Santi's among them, and says he learned whole-animal butchery as an executive chef in Asheville.
Then there's the pig.
The pork comes from Peculiar Pig Farm in Dorchester County. Marvin Ross started it in 2009 on 12 acres his grandfather once worked, raising Yorkshire, Hampshire and Red Duroc hogs. The family is now on generation five. The herd runs about 250 to 300 head, and a good share of their dinner is food that would have been tossed, picked up from the Lowcountry Food Bank, Veggie Bin and GrowFood Carolina.
So yes, your salami may come with a food bank backstory. Charleston does love a provenance.
On the glass side, the list leans on smaller producers from Europe and the U.S., priced for a Tuesday. The Post & Courier reports the sommelier is Andres Contreras, who had a hand in Rue de Jean's 300-bottle list, and that his move is steering pinot grigio loyalists toward Txakoli. Quick intro: it's a Basque white, sharp and bright with a little spritz. In San Sebastián they pour it from shoulder height. Wappoo Road may or may not commit to the bit.
One for the nostalgia crowd. The owners kept the old 7-Eleven floor and the green walkway out front, per the Post & Courier, and Sheffield is hunting for vintage shots of the old store for the walls.
No opening date yet. Sheffield is aiming for year's end, so this either squeaks in before the holidays or becomes a January thing. The corner to watch is 521 Wappoo, near Plantation Pharmacy just off Savannah Highway.
Sources: S.C. Department of Agriculture (special process rules for curing and smoking) and its HACCP plan guide (approval before use), WhatNow Charleston (owners, address, former 7-Eleven, name, wine focus, license claim), Modern Farmer (Peculiar Pig founding, acreage, breeds), ABC News 4 (herd size, food bank feed), Devour Tours (what Txakoli is) and the Post & Courier (180-page plan, wholesale rights, Sheffield background, sommelier, preserved floor, timeline)
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