Orthodontist in Charleston, SC

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A James Island IHOP is now permanently closed following inspections that showed multiple health code violations.

Located at 771 Daniel Ellis Drive in Charleston, the restaurant has received continuous reports of problematic food safety practices.

Reports from the South Carolina Department of Agriculture show that since March, the IHOP has received 11 straight C-grades.

The restaurant violated the South Carolina Retail Food Establishment Regulations with the last recorded inspection on May 12, 2025.

Failures included temperature control for food safety, properly cleaned and sanitized surfaces, food in a good or safe condition, flies found in the dish area and utensils and other cleaning materials not properly handled.

Improper food date marking and disposal were noted in the reports, with steak, ham and pancake batter being held longer than seven days. The ham specifically was 14 days old when the inspection was conducted.

A family physician with Roper St. Francis, Dr. Valerie Scott, explained that a C-rating usually indicates there’s some fairly serious issues inside the business that could cause bodily harm.

“I think it is important for us to know when you see a rating, what does that mean to me, because you want to keep safe,” Scott said. “You do need to take a pause and be sure that where you’re eating takes good care to be sure you don’t get ill.”

As for the time and temperature control of food safety, reports state the IHOP was holding the following foods at a violated temperature:

“I think we all think about that in our own homes; when we have Thanksgiving, you’re always careful about not leaving the food out too long. Restaurants, too, have to follow these rules, and there are a lot of good reasons for that because you can get salmonella, E. coli., or even norovirus,” Scott said.

The business was not forced to close its doors by the state, but voluntarily shut down.

Now, the property remains empty and up for sale.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

It is time for the annual Strawberry Moon in the lunar cycle of 2025 — which means the June full moon, the last of spring, will rise this evening.

It won't be completely full until 3:43 a.m. June 11 over South Carolina, but it will appear full when it rises. To see it, look to the southeastern horizon at sunset, which varies across the state, from just before 8:30 p.m. June 10 in the Lowcountry to just after 8:40 p.m. in the Upstate.

A key factor will be the weather. Rain and thunderstorms are forecast along the coast, from Hilton Head through the Charleston area up to Myrtle Beach. Around Greenville, it should be partly cloudy and pleasant. The Columbia region stands a chance of seeing the full moon before rain possibly moves in later.

While the June full moon is typically the lowest of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, this one will be the lowest in the sky in nearly 20 years. That is because the moon is at the extreme of its orbit around the Earth, rising and setting at its most northern and southern points on the horizon. This happens every 18.7 years, which will make the full moon appear larger than normal. The last one occurred in 2006 and the next is expected in 2043.

The name of the moon has nothing to do with its color, but for the time of year for picking strawberries in the northeastern U.S., as noted by Native Americans and later shared broadly by The Old Farmer's Almanac. Other names include Blooming Moon, Green Corn Moon, Birthing Moon, Egg Laying Moon and Hatching Moon.

Here are the names and dates for full moons remaining in 2025:

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Roper St. Francis is beginning construction on a more than 1 billion project bringing a brand-new hospital to North Charleston by 2029 to replace its current downtown Charleston campus.

The hospital will be located off of Mall Drive behind the North Charleston City Hall. The campus is 27 acres and will feature a full-service 24-hour emergency department, operating rooms, inpatient units, a medical office building housing outpatient and specialty services and a vegetated green belt connecting facilities across the campus.

“To be able to continue the 170-year-old legacy that is Roper Hospital is an incredible thing,” Regional President for Roper St. Francis, Troy Powell, said.

The build is set to be completed in early 2029 and will create 3,600 construction jobs during the work.

“We’re here to celebrate more than steel and concrete, although there is a lot of it. We’re here because Roper St. Francis Healthcare is expanding our footprint to the center of our metropolitan area, bringing care, compassion and cutting-edge medicine even closer to the people we serve,” Roper St. Francis President & CEO Joseph DeLeon says.

DeLeon expects staff to transition into the building in early 2029 and run simulations to get used to the facility layout. He says it should be a smooth transition since they were instrumental in helping design the interiors through hundreds of workshops to hear from staff what layouts benefit them and patients best.

Medical staff got a chance to get a first look at the future medical campus back in December 2024.

Mid-2025 marks the start of construction on what the Roper St. Francis team says will be a major healthcare facility upgrade and leave a long legacy.

The move to North Charleston is a step in the Roper St. Francis Healthcare 2030 Strategic Plan to broaden access to quality care by expanding the health system’s footprint in the Lowcountry.

“We’re creating history today. Roper St. Francis has been around for a very long time, it’s taken care of so many people in the community. I know when we put this building in, it’s going to be the same for years and years, well past when I’m around,” DeLeon says.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

The final and perhaps most alarming chapter in the first round of SEAD Consulting’s eight-state seafood fraud investigation has been published, revealing that a staggering 90 percent of Charleston, S.C. restaurants tested were found to be serving imported shrimp, often under the pretense that it was local and wild-caught.

SEAD Consulting, under commission by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, tested shrimp dishes from 44 Charleston restaurants using its patented RIGHTTest (Rapid ID Genetic High-Accuracy Test). The results were jaw-dropping: “only four out of 44 restaurants were found to be serving genuine domestic wild-caught shrimp,” according to SEAD’s press release. The remaining 40 were misrepresenting imported products through menu descriptions, branding, or proximity to local docks. “25 were found to be outright fraudulent.”

“This is not only deceptive but also insulting to the hardworking shrimpers whose livelihoods are being undermined,” said Erin Williams, founder and COO of SEAD Consulting. “It’s decimating the entire regional economy and culture they’ve worked for generations to build and promote.”

Even restaurants overlooking local shrimp boats were found to be using imported product. “Charleston's culinary identity is built on the legacy of local fishermen and the unmatched quality of wild-caught shrimp,” said John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “Consumers — especially tourists — believe they’re eating authentic Lowcountry seafood, when in reality they’re being sold a globalized substitute likely raised in ponds treated with antibiotics, often using slave labor, with none of the tradition or taste.”

SEAD listed four Charleston-area establishments that are confirmed to be serving U.S. wild-caught shrimp:

1. Coosaw Creek Crab Shack 8486 Dorchester Road, North Charleston, SC 29420

2. Grace & Grit (Mount Pleasant) 320 Wingo Way, Suite 100, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464

3. Rappahannock Oyster Bar 701 E Bay Street, Suite 110, Charleston, SC 29403

4. Acme (Lowcountry Kitchen) 31 J C Long Boulevard, Isle of Palms, SC 29451

“These establishments are being publicly recognized for their integrity and commitment to preserving Charleston’s seafood heritage,” SEAD shared.

While other area restaurants may also use local shrimp, SEAD’s testing provides a representative random sampling. The organization plans to send letters to the 40 restaurants found to be using imports, urging them to switch to domestic shrimp or update their menus accordingly. Follow-up testing is also planned.

"Twenty-seven percent of shrimp consumption occurs on a seaside trip or vacation. Visitors are seeking local shrimp, and the vast majority of tested Charleston restaurants are failing to provide it," explained Craig Reaves, SC Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. "Our state legislators need to take action like other coastal states to ensure transparent restaurant labeling to help consumers, honest restaurants, and local shrimpers."

Currently, South Carolina has no restaurant labeling law or pending legislation in place. Nationally, the FTC has clarified that a restaurant giving the “net impression” of serving local seafood while actually serving imports is in violation of federal law.

The Charleston findings follow similar reports from Wilmington, North Carolina, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, both of which were investigated earlier this spring. Wilmington shows a 77 percent inauthenticity rate across 44 restaurants, with 25 found to be “explicitly fraudulent.”

Lake Charles offered a rare glimpse of hope. With strong country-of-origin labeling laws and active enforcement, only 5 of 24 restaurants were found to be misleading. “Lake Charles has a 21 percent inauthenticity rate compared to states without labeling laws and enforcement, where the average inauthenticity rate is 78 percent.”

What’s to come

SEAD and the Southern Shrimp Alliance are urging consumers to ask questions when dining out and request proof of shrimp sourcing. They suggest looking for “wild-caught U.S.” or asking directly about local origin. Restaurants, meanwhile, are encouraged to be transparent about their seafood and honor the communities they claim to represent.

“There’s no shame in selling imported shrimp,” said David Williams. “But there’s a big problem when you pretend it’s local. Let consumers decide with the truth.”

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Carli Stewart

Carli is a Content Specialist for National Fisherman. She comes from a fourth-generation fishing family off the coast of Maine. Her background consists of growing her own business within the marine community. She resides on one of the islands off the coast of Maine while also supporting the lobster community she grew up in.

Four area restaurants tested by researchers last month were found to be selling local, wild-caught shrimp when advertised.

A team from SeaD Consulting, a Texas-based research firm, spent several days in May sampling shrimp from 44 Charleston-area restaurants to sniff out "shrimp fraud," or identify restaurants that are advertising fresh, local product but in reality are serving customers imported, farm-raised shrimp.

The results, published on June 10, show that 90 percent of the restaurants sampled were considered to be misleading customers in menu descriptions or by using shrimp boats in branding.

"This is not only deceptive but also insulting to the hardworking shrimpers whose livelihoods are being undermined,” said Erin Williams, founder and chief operating officer of SeaD Consulting.

The four restaurants tested in May that were found to sell domestic, wild-caught shrimp are Rappahannock Oyster Bar on East Bay Street, Acme Lowcountry Kitchen on the Isle of Palms, Grace & Grit in Mount Pleasant and Coosaw Crab Shack on Dorchester Road in North Charleston.

Bobby Simmons, owner of Acme Lowcountry Kitchen, said the results were staggering, noting that he didn't expect the number of restaurants selling imported product to be that high.

"It's really just sad. I didn't even expect the number to be that low," Simmons said. "It's pretty shocking and eye-opening. I hope everybody sees it and uses that as a guide for where to go out and eat. Especially if they want to eat shrimp."

Twenty-five spots were found to be "outright fraudulent," according to a release from SeaD Consulting. These restaurants listed local shrimp on their menus but sold imported shellfish in its place.

The 44 restaurants were identified using data available through local health department licensing to create a list of seafood restaurants.

Researchers focused on establishments advertising fresh seafood or using fishing-related imagery in their marketing materials. Researchers assigned numbers to the restaurants that fit this description, then used a random number selector to blindly choose the testing locations.

"We acknowledge that there's more than four restaurants in Charleston that serve local, wild-caught shrimp, and we do our best to promote them," said Bryan Jones, vice president of the South Carolina Shrimper's Association. "It doesn't mean everybody's bad, but it does really amplify the pervasiveness of the shrimp fraud in our market."

SeaD Consulting did not release the names of the other 40 restaurants that were tested. The research firm will send letters to the locations serving imported shrimp, encouraging them to serve domestic shrimp or update their menus to make it clear they aren't selling local shrimp.

Charleston was the last stop on an eight-state study conducted by SeaD Consulting and funded by the Southern Shrimp Alliance, an organization of shrimpers and processors across the Southeast.

Shrimp was tested from restaurants in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Texas — states with strong domestic shrimping industries.

Charleston's results ranked slightly above the Tampa and St. Petersburg region in Florida, where just two out of 44 restaurants were found to be selling domestic shrimp.

Testing results throughout Louisiana were promising, largely due to the state's seafood labeling laws, Erin Williams told The Post and Courier in May. Around 30 percent of the restaurants tested in Louisiana sold imported shrimp.

There, restaurants must display the product's country of origin in a manner that's clearly visible to the consumer or risk receiving fines and health code violations.

Texas and Alabama recently adopted seafood labeling laws in the past year, and Mississippi legislators advanced a similar bill in March. In South Carolina, there are no requirements for labeling seafood's country of origin.

"Our state legislators need to take action like other coastal states to ensure transparent restaurant labeling to help consumers, honest restaurants and local shrimpers," Craig Reaves, S.C. director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, said in a written statement.