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Jason Tucker reports that business is booming at the boîte known as La Cuisine du Chevalier, or La Chev, by the locals. The 40-seat restaurant, which translates to “the knight’s kitchen,” garnered rave reviews by online contributors when it opened in November at the former soup restaurant called Ladles in the Shoppes of Summerville.

It only recently held a grand opening celebration.

Tucker, who has lived in Summerville for the past 16 years, is no stranger to the restaurant business.

“My background is extremely diverse and it started back when I was 15-years’ old scooping ice cream in Central Pennsylvania,” he said.

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Over the years, Tucker has worked in numerous restaurants, from chains like Buffalo Wild Wings, Cracker Barrel and the Hilton, to groups like Charleston Hospitality and more. After bartending his way through college in Virginia, the hard-working transplant accepted a management position from his employer, which took him to Summerville, where he has been ever since.

The father of two boys is also the operating partner at Wine & Tapas in Summerville and was buoyed by the popularity of the business. This inspired him to open a new restaurant, this time with a French flair.

“They call the area the French Quarter, but it lacked a French-themed restaurant, which never made sense to me, especially with the growth we are seeing in this area,” he said.

Tucker said that La Chev was designed to evoke the feeling of walking down the Champs-Élysées.

“It’s a cute café that’s quaint and all about the food and wine,” he said.

It doesn’t hurt that Tucker worked in the wine distribution business and is well-versed on what’s exceptional. He said that his goal is to bring people in by rivaling the quality that a customer would get in downtown Charleston.

“It’s all about the ingredients and there’s a lot of precision and thought that goes into each of our dishes,” he said, adding that chef de cuisine Jonathan DuPriest, who grew up in Knightsville, is Johnson and Wales-trained.

When it comes to dishes, Tucker said that the most popular lunch items that they serve are the French Dip and the shrimp and grits.

“A lot of people judge the quality of the restaurant by their shrimp and grits,” he said.

As for dinner, Tucker offers quite a few specials, ranging from steak dishes, to surf and turf, scallops, crabcakes, and salmon.

“Everyone says that it’s the best salmon served in the Atlantic Coastal area,” Tucker said.

For now, La Chev is taking reservations, except for the bar and outside area, so last-minute plans to dine can be accommodated if guests don’t mind sitting in either area.

Tucker also recently announced that they will be open on Sundays for brunch.

“We’re currently working on the menu which we will implement sometime around the end of July,” he said.

Kurry Seymour was a Ladles customer who was wowed by his first visit.

“This place brings a refreshing vibe to the Knightsville area and I am impressed by the décor, which was converted into a very fine, but very cozy dining experience,” he said.

Reviews like this are music to Tucker’s ears.

“I never thought I’d be in a situation where I’d be running two separate restaurants, but I love the feeling one gets when someone is happy with an experience. Making moments special is the best feeling in the world and having the opportunity to have someone really love what you’re doing, well, it doesn’t get any better than that,” he said, with a smile.

Stefanie Kalina-Metzger is a contributing writer for SC Biz News.

A 14-year-old fitness site that changed brands in 2015 is now dark in Mount Pleasant.

Pivotal Fitness shuttered the 41,000-square-foot gym it operates at 627 Johnnie Dodds Blvd. in the Plaza at East Cooper Shopping Center on Friday, and movers were loading up the workout equipment into large moving vans Tuesday.

Discount grocer Aldi anchors a space near the opposite end of the 102,000-square-foot retail center.

Co-owner Michelle Berrard said the gear is being transferred to Pivotal’s recently upgraded Park West location at 3301 Stockdale St. about 8 miles away in northern Mount Pleasant.

All memberships will be honored at the Park West site, she said.

Berrard pointed to the coronavirus as playing a part in the move along with high rent. She said the gym’s lease was coming up for renewal, so the owners decided to consolidate operations elsewhere to save money.

The facility operated as ECO Fitness after opening in 2007. After Pivotal took over six years ago, the gym expanded into a former retail space next door.

Pivotal operates 24-hour locations in downtown Charleston and in Hanahan and Knightsville. Its other gyms are in Summerville and West Ashley.

A new tenant has not been lined up for the now-empty fitness site, but Steve Radekopf of Radekopf & Associates, who handles leasing for the shopping center, said plans are in the works to create small retail spaces across the front with the possibility of a smaller gym operating in part of the site.

All plans are preliminary and subject to change, he added.

Historic Charleston Foundation, with its recent reversal of the controversial decision to sell one of its homes after an outpouring of opposition, is making another pivotal move.

The preservation group plans to close its nearly four-decade-old gift shop at 108 Meeting St. on the lower peninsula by the end of February as part of its multiyear strategic plan to focus on its two museum properties and advocacy issues in the Lowcountry, according to CEO Winslow Hastie.

Hastie also pointed to the changing consumer landscape as a reason to shutter the 4,500-square-foot store that was once a gas station.

“Retail is a very volatile world, and it’s changed dramatically since (the shop) first started in the late 1980s,” he said.

The foundation opened a second retail space in 2011 in the City Market, a few blocks north of the Meeting Street gift shop, to capitalize on tourist-heavy foot traffic. The proximity of the two retail outlets is no longer ideal, Hastie said.

“The need for that amount of space is not really necessary,” he said of the soon-to-be-darkened site.

Retail

The foundation ideally hopes to lease the commercially zoned property, which is between Chalmers and Queen streets, as offices for a government agency or a professional services firm. Hastie doesn’t see the building as a good fit for restaurant or retail uses. He added the foundation would adamantly oppose any effort toward transforming the T-shaped structure into an inn.

“We will have restrictive covenants on the property,” he said. “It also doesn’t have parking. Any user will have to get creative on parking.”

The foundation acquired the property in 1986 from Exxon Corp. after paying $207,000, according to Charleston County land records. It made a few changes to the site, including the construction of a connection between the former storefront and the rear garage bays, but the building’s exterior, with its Colonial revival architectural features, remains intact.

The existing design came about to help the 1930s-built gas station blend into the surrounding historic neighborhood. When Exxon-predecessor Standard Oil decided to build the service station on the property, it demolished three historic homes built between 1782 and 1805 in 1929, stirring Charleston’s preservation movement to life.

Founded in 1947, Historic Charleston Foundation now wants to focus its attention on broader advocacy issues such as land use, development, tourism management, sea-level rise and settlement communities. It also hopes to expand its affordable housing-focused Common Cause Loan Fund that helps make home repairs for longtime city residents.

The decision to darken the retail shop is part of the recommendations in the group’s multiyear strategic plan, which included the decision late last year to sell the Nathaniel Russell House it owns down the street at 51 Meeting.

The group reversed its decision earlier this month after a public outcry, including a petition with thousands of signatures opposing the sale to a private entity.

“It’s been a rough couple of months,” Hastie said. “We are in a better place now.”

The foundation plans to keep its gift shop in the City Market as well as retail outposts in the Nathaniel Russell House and the group’s historic Aiken-Rhett House on Elizabeth Street in the Wraggborough neighborhood. The group also will focus on online sales more to generate revenue for its Lowcountry-centric products such as china, jewelry and home decor items.

SUMMERVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – It was 1973 when Shirley McGreal, then living in Southeast Asia, saw beady bright eyes staring back at her from between the slats of a wooden crate.

The eyes belonged to a gibbon — a primate native to the region — who had fallen victim to the dangerous world of the pet trade, where gibbons were being sold into homes, zoos, or labs, only to later be discarded.

In 1977, McGreal created the International Primate Protection League (IPPL) in Summerville as a gibbon sanctuary. The now 47-acre property remains nestled in a quiet area of the Lowcountry that is illuminated by the sounds of the primates singing to one another.

Meg McCue-Jones, the Compliance and Outreach Manager, explained that the land was a sod farm in the late 70s and started taking in the gibbons that needed help soon after.

One of the sanctuary’s residents, Gibby, is one of the oldest known living gibbons at over 60 years old.

Like most of the gibbons at the sanctuary, his life started off rough.

McCue-Jones said that Gibby was wild caught, and “with every gibbon wild caught, they shoot mom out of the tree, hoping baby falls, and then they take the baby.”

He was first sold into the pet trade in by a Bangkok dealer, but that was just the beginning. Gibby went to labs at Hofstra University and the State University at Stony Brook.

Researchers embedded electrodes in his skin as part of a locomotion project.

The electrodes and thin wires were inserted into his muscles and connected him to a suit that would measure his muscle movements. McCue-Jones explained that this was obviously not an ideal situation on any aspect, whether it be a human or animal.

At 44, Gibby made it to his first sanctuary, but the conditions were hard on his body. In March of 2007, just four years after his arrival, the IPPL reached out to the sanctuary to relocate not only Gibby, but several other gibbons.

For Gibby, like the other 29 at the sanctuary, Summerville is his last stop. McCue-Jones says that the sanctuary is their forever home.

But with the pandemic, their home has become more difficult to manage.

With fear of COVID-19 spreading to the primates, volunteers were no longer allowed to assist with the many daily tasks necessary to keep the place running.

From hosing the outsides of the enclosures, to raking, food prep, and even assistance inside the office—the staff was left with mounting responsibilities.

The economic impacts of the pandemic left donors and community partners reeling financially, but the bills at the sanctuary remained steady.

As a non-federally funded organization, the IPPL relies heavily on donations to meet the needs of the animals.

Stacy Lambert, a Senior Animal Care Giver, said that since a lot of their population has started to reach geriatric ages, their vet bills are getting bigger as they are having more interventions and medications, different procedures, and checkup appointments with Dr. John Ohlandt.

While expensive, their system of care has proven to work.

Lambert says that in the wild, gibbons usually live about 30-35 years. However, in captivity, gibbons living into their 40s is normal. However, the IPPL has quite a few gibbons that are up in their 40s and 50s while, of course, Gibby is 62.

Although the interventions from the IPPL show the ability of the sanctuary, McCue-Jones said all those at the IPPL ultimately wish there was not a need for them at all, and that the gibbons could live freely in the wild.

McCue-Jones said, “as Shirley has spoken of before, if you really think about it, do humans need sanctuaries, should we have them? Should we be treating the animals this way?”

To send the Gibbons a care package full of nuts, click here.

To donate to the IPPL’s missions and day-to-day operations, click here.

To send specified items needed by the IPPL via Amazon, click here.

There were smiles, cheers, high-fives and even a few tears as Knightsville Elementary bid farewell to its fifth-graders on May 26 -- the last day of school for Dorchester District Two.

Knightsville Elementary traditionally has its fifth-graders parade through the school in celebration of graduating from elementary school, but this year the school had a special twist on the tradition: they invited back 2017 high school and college graduates -- also Knightsville Elementary alumni -- to return to their old stomping grounds wish the fifth-graders good-luck as they set off for middle school.

Drew Massey, graduating senior at Summerville High, called it nostalgic.

"It's weird to come back 10 years later," she said.

Massey was one of approximately 25 returning graduates who participated in the walk. Summerville High graduates donned their signature green caps and gowns. A handful of Clemson University and University of South Carolina graduates also participated.

The returning students spoke to fifth-graders in their classrooms prior to the parade to offer words of encouragement and students also heard from college professors from Charleston Southern University and The Citadel.

Massey said she wanted to participate because it felt special.

"I saw a lot of them (students) crying," she said. "I think they thought it was special too."

The entire school lined the hallways, along with parents, faculty and staff, to watch all the graduates weave through the building. Younger students awarded the graduates with cheers and high fives along the way while the school played "Pomp and Circumstance" over the intercom.

Teachers wore little graduation caps as well and, if they still had them, they were invited to wear their old graduation robes.

Principal Claire Sieber referred to the returning graduates as the "continuance of the legacy of learning that started here at Knightsville."

"You have empowered our fifth-graders to rise on and continue their education. I'm looking forward to all that the future will hold," she said.

The idea to invite the former Knightsville Elementary students back was Assistant Principal Carey Hodge's idea. Hodge said she had seen a similar event in her former hometown.

Sieber and Hodge said they wanted to have a community connection with the fifth-grade parade this year. With the response they got, Sieber said she anticipates this will be a tradition going forward.

Hodge said their focus for the last couple of weeks has been words of encouragement. She said they have been working on coordinating the event for three months.

Hodge said she thinks the Knightsville Elementary students really enjoyed it.

"I'm seeing tears of...joy and miss -- they're going to miss us. I know it's very bittersweet for them," she said. "But it's always a great thing when kids don't want to leave."

"Above all we just want them to love, learn and lead," she said.

Goodwill Industries of Lower South Carolina celebrated the Grand Opening of its Knightsville Retail Store, located at 825 Orangeburg Road on May 3, with a Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. Summerville Mayor Bill Collins was on hand to accept the “Key to Goodwill Industries” from Goodwill President and CEO, Robert Smith. The symbolic key signifies Goodwill’s dedication to the community.

Goodwill opened its doors for business directly following the Ribbon Cutting Ceremony at 9 a.m. and was greeted by excited bargain hunters eager to find treasures! The store remained busy throughout the Grand Opening weekend.

“We are extremely grateful for the support that the community has already shown Goodwill,” said Robert Smith. “With continued support, Goodwill will be able to provide vital programs and services to the Knightsville community through the power of work!”

Smith pledged his support of the local needs of people with disabilities and barriers to employment and asked the Knightsville community to donate clothing and other household items. “This is a sustainable model, which in the long run will continue to grow and generate opportunities for years to come,” said Smith.

Goodwill provides employment and training to people with disabilities and other barriers to employment, all of which is made possible through the sale of donated goods. The new Knightsville Retail Store will provide mission opportunities through the direct employment of people with disabilities and support other vital community services without costing taxpayers a dime.

A treasure hunter’s paradise, Goodwill offers gently used and new clothing, household goods, furniture and more. Goodwill is proud to report that over 90 cents of every dollar earned through the sale of donated goods fund mission revenues to provide sustainable and consistent programs and services.

The new retail store brings approximately 20 job opportunities to the Knightsville community. The building features a brightly lit, clean interior and a convenient drive-through donation center for donors. Also planned to open at a later date is a 1,000 square foot Job Link Center which will offer individuals in the Knightsville community free employment services such as access to computers for job searches, assistance with resumes and other resources that help to ensure economic independence.

Goodwill Industries of Lower South Carolina is a nonprofit social service organization whose mission is to help people achieve their full potential through the dignity and power of work. Over 90 percent of Goodwill’s revenue goes to fund mission related services. Goodwill serves their mission by providing career counseling, job training, and other employment related programs to people who have barriers to employment. Last year, Goodwill was able to place over 560 people into new jobs and served over 30,850 in South Carolina. For more information about Goodwill’s programs and services, please visit www.palmettogoodwill.org.