Dave Peck has been on Hilton Head Island as long as he can remember. Anyone who is associated with running a restaurant on the island knows who he is. So do many customers of his various enterprises.
Serial entrepreneur? If you pinned him down, he’d probably agree. Why else would someone take on a new food venture simply because he was a little bored? Dave did, and we all might just be the beneficiaries of his new island collaboration at the Jarvis Creek General Store. Here’s a portion of my chat with Dave on how this all came to be.
Dave Peck
JB: You’re an island guy. Were you born and raised here?
Peck: Not born here, but I’ve been here 51 years now.
JB: Wow! How did you end up doing food?
DP: The long short story is that I was in advertising for many years, first with Island Communications. Then I was with the Anderson Group, an ad agency on the island, and I met the owner of Salty Dog and started working with him on some advertising. He simply said, “Hey, do you want to come work in the restaurant business? I had no experience, but I thought it might be kind of fun. And he felt like I could do it, based on some good marketing experience I had. And that’s what happened. My first job with them was bar-backing at Salty Dog, and then I progressed quickly into running the restaurant. He just kind of wanted to get my feet wet with a couple other things.
JB: What year was that? It sounds like you jumped into the deep end quickly.
DP: Oh gosh. You’re going to tell everybody how old I am. I don’t even know the year. I can tell you it’s been about 25 years, maybe 29 years. Yeah, it was a really deep, quick jump.
JB: What was the first time you opened a place on your own, just you?
DP: The first time was when we opened Lowcountry Backyard.
JB: You started that place and then jumped from there to Bad Biscuit?
DP: Yes, we opened that. We still owned Lowcountry Backyard when we opened Bad Biscuit.
JB: How did the whole Pool Bar Jim’s thing come along?
DP: I worked for Jim – I’m dating myself again – at Jim’s Paradise, the nightclub he opened in 1984. I was his DJ back in the day, so I’ve known Jim for many years, and when he was in the process of leaving Marriott, where he had the pool bar, he came and hung out with us – we already had the bar at the Seacrest – and had a couple of beers after work one day. When he told me he was getting out of Marriott, I said, “Why don’t you come over here?” And he said, “Well, it’s been 35 years, I think I’m just going to retire. I think I’m done.” And I said, “All right, you have to change your mind. Let me know.” About a week later, he showed up for another beer and I said, “Jim, why don’t we just do this? Why don’t you run the bar? I’ll do the food – we’ll work it out.” And he said, “All right, let’s do it!” And I think we’re on year number six with him now.
JB: Six years. This stuff isn’t easy, and I know you’re not cooking in all these places, but what possessed you to take on one more with the Jarvis Creek General Store?
DP: To be honest, the main reason I sold Lowcountry Backyard was because it was getting difficult to find help. And not having enough help was forcing me to work more. I was cooking and spending a lot more time in the kitchen, which is fine. I loved it, but I just didn’t want to be full-time back in the business.
So I sold it. I’m in my early 50s and I didn’t see any real reason to slow down, but I was getting bored. I think my wife was tired of me pacing around the garage. Then, these guys called me and said, “Hey, we’ve got this spot. We feel like it’s missing something. Do you have any advice?”
My advice was I thought it might be better with a local dining experience attached to it because it’s such a cool little spot. I felt like if we added that missing element, we might be able to draw more of a crowd down there. So, I said, “Let’s do it.” And it was mostly out of wanting to have something to do. Plus, I like seeing other places succeed. I like contributing to their success. I like a challenge. And here we are.
JB: Tell me about the food there. What are your plans?
DP: We’re going to keep it Lowcountry and Southern. That’s what I know how to do, and that’s what I’m comfortable doing, and that’s what I’ve been successful doing. We’ve got some cool stuff on the menu.
We’ve got a Lowcountry Boil Parfait, which is my original creation. I like to twist things, make it my own. It’s not a traditional Lowcountry Boil like you would dump on the table. It’s actually a parfait with red rice, rosemary potatoes and corn. Then we finish it off with a Daufuskie double crab cake. I happen to know how to make that – I learned from a guy on Daufuskie how to make it the right way. And we finished off with that and some garlic shrimp, and we also drizzle some hurricane sauce on it, which is our own creation as well.
JB: Sounds good. How would you describe the scene there at the general store? The fact that you’re sitting practically on top of 278 – do you kind of forget it’s there?
DP: I would call it very low key, laid-back, Lowcountry style dining. You’re under this huge oak tree outside. You’ve got the big screen TVs out there if you want to watch football or see what’s going on. And you can sit in an Adirondack, you can sit at a table, you can sit at a picnic table, you can sit at a bistro table under an awning. It’s kind of like the laid-back outdoor atmosphere at your own house. I’m not going to lie and say when you pull up, you don’t hear the traffic, but once you’ve got the live entertainment going or you’re watching something on the TV and you’ve got the volume turned up, you forget about all that.
