FlashBack Fridays: Center Street and East Arctic Avenue, Folly Beach 7.4.14

FlashBack Fridays: Center Street and East Arctic Avenue, Folly Beach

It’s the 4^th of July, and in the Lowcountry, that means almost everyone is headed to the beach. In honor of the holiday, we sifted through our collection of reviews to find a beachside eatery that surely would have been abuzz with patrons celebrating America’s independence.

Folly Beach, known as the Edge of America, has seen more than its fair share of restaurants and bars through the years. Like Folly’s swirl of locals, day-trippers, and transient residents, restaurants here are eclectic and seem to ebb and flow with the tide. On one particular corner of the island’s main district, the corner of Center Street and East Arctic, sat Café Suzanne.  

Jane Kronsberg first reviewed Café Suzanne in 1994, and revisited for a second taste in 1997. She described the restaurant as having a good reputation and funky flare fit for Folly Beach. When looking into the restaurant’s location, we dreamily wondered what may have come before Café Suzanne. We discovered a history of offbeat inhabitants reflective of the beach town’s shifting shoreline and culture of frivolity.

In the 1920s, The Folly Pier and Pavilion occupied the spot where Center Street and East Arctic converge. This was back when Arctic Street looked akin to Coney Island, boasting its own Ferris wheel, among other amusements. The Pavilion was later transformed into the Dancing Bear, Folly Beach’s own bowling alley, and later into a bar named Monk’s Corner.

More recently, The Terrapin Café took up residency here. Writer Jeff Allen reviewed the spot 11 years after Kronsberg’s visit to Café Suzanne. Allen was not keen on the cuisine, but acquiesced that the island’s constant parade of motley beach-goers might find their place at the table here (or on its dark dance floor post sunset).

Perhaps caught in the outgoing tide of tourists, trekkers, and beach bums, The Terrapin Café eventually shuttered to make way for another hopeful restaurateur. Rita’s Seaside Grille now sits proudly at the corner of Center and East Arctic, and, as the décor demands, is reminiscent of the days long before The Terrapin, Café Suzanne, and the Dancing Bear. Rita’s invokes memories of the boardwalk carnival era when the Pavilion was the main attraction and everyone was dancing to the sounds of The Beach Boys. Allen also reviewed Rita’s, and in his 2009 write-up suggested that the establishment might kindle a shift in food culture on the island. Five years have since passed, and while Folly Beach—true to its nature—has been slow to change, Rita’s has kept a stronghold on this corner.

We are certain on this 4^th of July that Folly Beach and its many restaurants will be brimming with the same eclectic patrons it has always welcomed, and we look forward to seeing what washes up next for this quaint and curious beach community.