A downtown Charleston seafood cafe that was compelled to contend with COVID-19 just weeks soon after a enormous enlargement has remained so well-liked all through the pandemic that its owners not too long ago acquired one more cafe to take care of overflow crowds.
“Things have no question been actually complicated, but it is been a effective fall for us even with COVID,” says 167 Uncooked owner Jesse Sandole, who is planning to change the previous Fulton Five into a Mediterranean cocktail bar.
While the eating places are separated only by a rear courtyard, Sandole stresses the new venue will keep on being physically and conceptually individual from his celebrated seafood cafe, which in January opened its recent spot on King Avenue.
“It’s absolutely invigorating and thrilling to imagine about new tasks,” Sandole provides. “It’s a great deal of constructive power on the horizon.”


Sandole is planning to open the bar by late 2021, which he hopes will coincide with the pandemic winding down.
Since its get started, the 167 Raw team has remained committed to running with as handful of noticeable reminders of the coronavirus as probable: For occasion, Sandole says the cafe chose to bring in sanitation crews several evenings a week somewhat than concern QR codes in spot of printed menus.
“It was vital for us to supply a minimal bit of aid and sustain at least some of the issues inside our command,” he claims. “One of the most gratifying issues for us is to have men and women arrive in and say, ‘Man, I sense so normal in listed here.’”
As a outcome, he says, it’s not unconventional for the cafe to have a lengthy checklist of patrons needing tables. When they now sit out their waits at close by bars, Sandole is searching ahead to sending them to a sister home so his workers can host their guests effectively from the second they demonstrate curiosity in consuming at 167 Uncooked.


Fulton 5 is the second set up Italian cafe in downtown Charleston to be succeeded by a Sandole challenge: The address that now belongs to 167 Raw, which in 2014 obtained its begin on East Bay Street, was beforehand associated with Il Cortile del Re.
Opened by Silvia Meier in 1992, Fulton Five was hailed on its debut for its “chic, old-entire world feeling,” decent bread sent from New York and nicely-made espresso. Rumors of its closing have swirled considering the fact that at minimum 2017, but lovers of the restaurant’s Italian cooking were being steadfast in their loyalty ahead of the pandemic forced a shutdown.
“The aged proprietors were being great close friends of ours, as properly as guests for a long time, so we opened up a dialogue about just looking at if we could get the job done out a offer, which we did,” states Sandole, who is scheduling to renovate the cafe about the coming months.
In the meantime, his attentions are concentrated on 167 Uncooked Sushi, which will occupy the personal setting up at 289 East Bay St., which the moment housed 167 Uncooked.


“We’re seriously going to make it nigiri concentrated, Tokyo-model,” he says. “And then the hot side, we’ve completed a great deal of Japanese specials in excess of the many years, so it will be additional of an izakaya: We’re genuinely excited about that.”
In accordance to Sandole, his crew is now placing ending touches on the room, acquiring a menu and finalizing the kitchen area roster. He tasks a spring 2021 opening.
Access Hanna Raskin at 843-937-5560 and observe her on Twitter @hannaraskin.
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