Guest Chomp! Where to Eat in Myrtle Beach? These places!
August 2, 2013
Chomp! loves his readers. He loves them EVEN MORE when they volunteer to write guest columns. Chomp! went to Irmo High School (we won’t say the year) with today’s guest author, and she was a wonderful, standout person then and is a wonderful, standout person now. She loves Chomp!, after all, so how could she not be? You’ll have to read her own bio at the end of the piece, but to sum it up, Janelle Beamer is a superwoman circling the globe in near-earth orbit until called upon to save the world from international emergencies. Along the way she likes to eat, and recently she was in Myrtle Beach averting yet another world crisis. Here’s what she ate! Enjoy!
Recently, I headed down to Myrtle Beach with a group of friends to soak up some rays and wallow in the sand. So, after 35 minutes in the sun, I turned lobster-red under my SPF 50 sunscreen (as usual) and shifted my attention to finding some good food. Cataloged here for you are some of my favorite tasty spots.
Breakfast:
Harry’s Breakfast Pancakes, N. Kings Hwy.
This place is really the epicenter of friendliness. The family-owned business has been operating for 34 years. The folks there were as warm and welcoming as a Carolina beach.
The gang at my table had an assortment of heavy breakfast orders to power up for our day of swimming, shelling and shopping. The bacon was declared perfect and crispy – not a bit floppy. Pancakes and eggs were suitably fluffy. I ordered a veggie omelet with egg whites and just a little cheese. It was huge and delicious, with just-right grits and toast. You name it, they have it on the breakfast menu. They serve lunch, too, but when you see options like bacon sandwiches and strawberry pancakes, you probably won’t care.
I took my leftovers with me in a to-go box that our wonderful waitress, LaTasha, decorated with a happy sketch of an ocean scene. How sweet is that?!
Lunch:
River City Café, 21st Ave. N.
If you have a crazy uncle who grills out for his friends in a shed behind his house every weekend, it probably looks a lot like River City Café. There are several River City Cafés on the Carolina coast, but this location is where it all started back in 1989. The décor is sketchy beach shack with license plates on every available surface. Of course, every table gets a bucket of roasted peanuts and it’s totally okay to throw your shells on the floor.
The juicy burgers are moan-worthy. And they will, apparently, put just about anything you want on a burger, including fried eggs, fried onion strings, Doritos, sauerkraut or even popcorn shrimp. They serve salads and turkey burgers, too, but I’m pretty sure people laugh at you if you order these there.
I had the Palmetto Cheeseburger that featured gooey-good homemade pimento cheese. Our bunch also ordered the hand battered homemade onion rings. They are as big as bracelets and come with an avocado ranch dipping sauce that will make you hear angels.
Dinner:
Sweet Carolina’s Lowcountry Grill and Smoke House, Broadway at the Beach
After a day of beaching and basking, we were overdue for some shopping, so the logical choice was Broadway at the Beach. If they don’t have it, you don’t need it. We stumbled upon Sweet Carolina’s, which has only been there about a year.
If you love sweet cornbread like I do, this is your place. It’s hot from the oven and goes perfectly with any of the barbecue on the menu. Our group sampled ribs, salmon, salads, baked sweet potato and pulled pork with a variety of barbecue sauces. We all declared it delicious.
To top off our feast, we ordered a skillet cookie to share. This takes a minute to arrive at the table because they don’t bake it until you order it. Either that, or they have to run and get it straight from heaven. You decide. It’s a big ole warm chocolate chip cookie baked in its own little cast iron skillet, topped with ice cream and chocolate syrup. I know!
Sweet Treat:
Friendly’s, N. Kings Hwy.
When we walked across the parking lot at Friendly’s we saw a double rainbow. Forget the pot of gold, what you really want at the end of a rainbow is a big dish of this restaurant’s ice cream.
An east coast restaurant chain with a couple of locations at the beach, Friendly’s slogan is, Where Ice Cream Makes the Meal. Skip the meal and go straight for the ice cream. We tried scoops and sundaes with delightful toppings.
I ordered Celebration flavor ice cream, which was so good and sinful that it was just obnoxious. The rich vanilla ice cream was full of pound cake pieces, swirls of blue icing and colorful make-your-heart-happy sprinkles. It really is a wonder I survived it. But if I hadn’t, I’d have died happy.
Janelle Beamer is a writer who grew up in Irmo and returned to the area last year. She works at the University of South Carolina, sending out public information and planning events. She doesn’t cook at all, but she does love to eat, so she’s always on the lookout for great restaurants.
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