When Charleston Grill serves its last meal on Aug. 23, a 36-year chapter of Charleston fine dining will close. While few will ever forget the Grill’s crab cake or its extraordinary wine list, its greatest legacy will be the people who created, maintained and worked in the world-class restaurant that incubated talent in the kitchen and dining room.
Since this month’s surprising closure announcement, there has been time to take stock of what the Charleston Grill meant to the people who worked there and to the greater community.
The birth of the Grill
Lowcountry legend Louis Osteen was opening chef in 1989 at the Grill, the cornerstone restaurant at what then was called Omni Charleston Place. He handed the kitchen over to Bob Waggoner eight years later. Waggoner brought sous chef Michelle Weaver with him, and she later became executive chef in 2009. Waggoner also brought Mickey Bakst to the Grill where he captained as general manager for 17 years before retiring in 2020. Bakst brought wine director Rick Rubel to the restaurant in 2005 and he ran the wine program for 15 years. These throughlines were deliberate and thoughtful. They built the restaurant’s foundation.
Charleston’s unofficial mayor
Anyone who visited the Grill during Bakst’s tenure knows just how important he was to the restaurant and to the Charleston community.
Paul Stracey, longtime general manager at the hotel, shared a story about watching Bakst greet guests at the restaurant door one evening many years ago.
“I knew how good he was, but it blew me away,” Stracey said. “Watching the peoples’ faces light up and the way he made people feel like they were the only ones he’d been waiting for that night. It was remarkable, absolutely remarkable.”…