Like more than three dozen other expat entrepreneurs who’ve opened restaurants in South Carolina over the last four years, Richard and Phyllis Riccio wanted to make sure there wasn’t any confusion about their culinary persuasion. They stuck the all-important adjective “Italian” smack in the middle of their Summerville deli’s name, same as the owners of Brother’s Italian Cuisine in Anderson, Richie’s Italian Bistro in Rock Hill, and Crave Italian Oven in North Myrtle Beach.
To say the state’s contending with a swarm of red-sauce dealers is to badly understate the case. With South Carolina absorbing tens of thousands of New Yorkers since the onset of the pandemic, surpassing Texas in 2024 as the nation’s top destination for one-way U-Haul rentals, it’s only noteworthy when a new restaurant doesn’t tout its borough bona fides. In Charleston, for example, the buzziest recent openings have included Allora, Pelato, Volpe, Abbracci, Legami, and Sorelle.
Dining and Cooking