Charleston, SC restaurant advances as finalist for coveted James Beard Award
A downtown Charleston restaurant is now the only South Carolina establishment still in the running for a 2022 James Beard Award, an accolade considered one of most prestigious culinary honors in the nation.
Butcher & Bee, now located on Morrison Drive, is one of five finalists for Outstanding Restaurant. It is chasing culinary glory alongside four other established eateries: Brennan’s in New Orleans, Chai Pani in nearby Asheville, N.C., Parachute in Chicago and The Walrus and the Carpenter in Seattle.
After the James Beard Foundation announced Butcher & Bee had made the short-list of finalists this week, the restaurant posted the news to Instagram.
It began with one word, typed out in all-caps: “WOW.”
“When we started the Bee in 2011 our goal was to be part of the national conversation around excellence in food, hospitality, and community engagement,” the restaurant wrote, saying it was “humbled” to be recognized as a finalist for Outstanding Restaurant.
When it first opened on King Street in downtown Charleston, Butcher & Bee had a humble vision of serving up honest-to-goodness sandwiches.
It has become so much more.
Owner Michael Shemtov now has an entire restaurant group, which includes a second Butcher & Bee location in Nashville, Tenn., and The Daily, a coffee and bodega-inspired concept with locations in both Charleston and Atlanta.
For Butcher & Bee, this is the first time the restaurant itself — and not its former pastry chef — has been recognized by the acclaimed foundation.
“I am proud of our team — from the bakery in the back, to the host team in the front — for working hard and focusing on getting better every day,” Shemtov said in an emailed statement to The State newspaper after the restaurant was named a semifinalist in February.
In addition to serving its customers, Butcher & Bee also made a name for itself serving others during the pandemic when it launched Pay it Forward Charleston. The restaurant team joined forces with farmers, restaurants and community members to feed laid-off food and beverage workers during the COVID-19 crisis.
Charleston’s Orlando Pagán, the executive chef at Wild Common, was among the 20 James Beard Award semifinalists for Best Chef: Southeast, a regional category that spans Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia.
He did not advance to become a finalist and was bested in the category by four North Carolina chefs and one in Tennessee.
The James Beard awards went on hiatus last year, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The winners will be announced June 13 in Chicago.
