Do home-cooked pork chops, baked chicken, okra and biscuits get your stomach growlin’? Marketing itself as a destination for the local population and those in Columbia for a visit, The Southern Skillet in West Columbia is becoming a must-stop for Gamecock football fans, business groups and families. “We want you to have lunch or dinner with us. We have the best Southern buffet in the Columbia area,” says Jeremy Chavis, owner of The Southern Skillet.
At 1213 Sunset Boulevard, The Southern Skillet operates in the shadow of the South Carolina Statehouse, downtown and the USC campus. Chavis says his reputation has blossomed in the months since he opened the restaurant, and he’s getting repeat customers who are in the mood for cooking like their mamma’s. “We use the best blend of seasoning and spices to prepare the best in Southern cooking,” he says. “It’s something that you will remember and come back for, once you’ve eaten it.”
Chavis says the food at The Southern Skillet is prepared with his family’s fifth-generation recipes. The fine taste has been honed over years, beginning with the family’s Orangeburg County roots. Chavis uses fresh local and regional produce and vegetables, and when he puts out banana pudding, peach cobbler, or bread pudding, you can bet it’s made from products that are South Carolina grown and certified. It helps that the new SC State Farmer’s Market is in West Columbia, too.
The business also caters and provides a take-out service. It has an Internet-based Skillet Club, that sends e-mail deals to members. Chavis says, there are a lot of restaurants, even new ones, but cooking like mamma’s is more difficult to find. Chavis says he wants to use his family’s culinary customs to feed people of the Midlands, and make a stand in the business world for the product his family has enjoyed for years.