For many years now, I have considered an absolutely joy in my life to be able to grow roots in this area. It’s been over 20 years since I first moved to Savannah to become a weekend sportscaster at WSAV-TV.
It was that TV job that allowed me visit Hilton Head Island more times than not. Some of my greatest thrills as a sportscaster over the years came at The Heritage Golf Tournament. It was always a good time, if not a TON of work. But when you love your work as much as we did, it didn’t feel like it at all.
Some of those good times came at The Quarterdeck. The restaurant at the base of Hilton Head Island’s iconic lighthouse at Sea Pines Plantation. After covering rounds of golf, we’d file our stories back to the station and hit ‘the deck’ to begin our evening of fun. We were 20 somethings. I wasn’t even a father yet. So we let the good times roll. And they did.
All these years later, the scene at The Quarterdeck hadn’t changed much during The Heritage. The restaurant itself hadn’t either for that matter. Until now.
If you haven’t heard, Sea Pines announced late last year that the building around the famed lighthouse is coming down. Yes, all of it. It is going to be torn down to make room for an all new Quarterdeck. A building the likes the island has yet to see.
The restaurant is going to be rebuilt from scratch. It will feature a rooftop bar, a seafood market, an enhanced general store for the boaters at the Marina and private dining area upstairs that may serve as the spot for the island’s best sunset view. That’s what I was told anyway.
I do know the new building is going to be amazing. I know the team involved in this project took a tour of nearly every rooftop bar in Savannah. Including the two at the brand new Plant Riverside District. They wanted to make sure they could see everything that was available to them before a shovel went into the ground on this new project at Harbour Town.
This is going to be a treat. Scheduled to open in Spring 2022 ahead of that year’s Heritage Golf Tournament. Fingers crossed.
In the meantime, if you have memories there like I do. And I know a lot of you on the island do, then you should make a point to come out to join us for one last night at The Quarterdeck. It’s a one night event hosted by Sea Pines Plantation as part of their month-long Savor Sea Pines event running the entire month of February.
There will be food and drink, drawings of the new property plans to be built and a glorious view of the harbor from the old gal one last time on Saturday, February 13th. Valentines Day weekend.
After this event, the building is coming down to make way for that year-long construction project.
There are plenty of tickets available for that right now, but my guess is it will sell out because numbers are being kept low for safety purposes.
In fact, in chatting with Anthony Matteo, Operations Manager at Sea Pines last week, I asked him what was the main thing he wanted the public to know about this month-long event. His response?
“Safety. Absolutely safety.” he said “We are making sure everything is spaced out and comfortable so there shouldn’t be any concerns for the public at Savor Sea Pines.”
It’s going to be a month long good time on the island. If you can’t make it to The Quarterdeck event, take a look at the list of events. There is something for everyone to join us and Eat It and Like It.
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