On our way out to Folly Beach south and east of Charleston to enjoy some sun, sand and surf, we had passed what looked like a little fish shanty along Folly Beach Road. It turned out that the place - Locklear's on Little Oak, known to the locals as "LoLo's" - was on a list of recommended restaurants given to us by a longtime restaurant server at Amen Street in Charleston. One afternoon during our time in Charleston, we decided to head out to LoLo's to have some seafood for lunch.
Kris Kincaid owned Locklear's Beach City Grill that was located on the Folly Beach Pier in Folly Beach. In addition to owning the popular Beach City Grill, Kincaid also owned Anna Bell's in North Charleston. Kincaid shut down Anna Bell's in 2014 to concentrate on the Beach City Grill. But in October of 2016, Kincaid lost his lease at the pier when a large developer wanted to come in and repurpose the building. Despondent, Kincaid considered getting out of the restaurant business altogether.
However, about a year later Kincaid became involved with two partners to open Betty Lou's Bistro in Charleston's Ashley Harbor neighborhood. And at almost the same time, another opportunity near Folly Beach came into play.
A longtime restaurant by the name of the Anchor Line which was located along Little Oak Creek just northwest of Folly Beach came available. Kincaid signed a lease on the building, but found that some support pilings on the waterfront along Little Oak Creek were in need of replacement. The time it took to replace the pilings gave Kincaid some added opportunities to work on the Betty Lou Bistro's location. Once the pilings were in place, Kris Kincaid opened Locklear's on Little Oak - simply known as LoLo's - in early July 2017.
Going eastbound on Folly Beach Road into Folly Beach, LoLo's is located on the south side of the road just before the bridge over Little Oak Creek. (see map) The building that houses LoLo's is a small shanty with colorful murals and paint schemes on the outside of the structure. The parking lot is gravel and it's sort of a "park where you can" attitude with people who go to LoLo's.
Walking into LoLo's, you'll find the small bar area. Party lights were strung around the beams over the two-sided bar. They had metal stools - the kind that I find sort of uncomfortable to sit on. They did have a full bar including wine, domestic and import beers, and a nice list of local craft beers to choose from.
The dining area was off to the side with banquette seats along the walls and an open space in the middle. It wasn't very big - the dining room sat, maybe, 28 to 30 people. Colorful artwork hung on the walls provided by local artists. Price tags for the artwork were attached to the paintings. Given that there were a couple three open spaces on the wall, I'd have to say that some of the artwork had recently been purchased.
We decided to sit out on the screened-in patio. It had picnic tables with a few two-seater tables. It was pretty rustic and laid back out in the patio.
The creek next to LoLo's was bordered by low country marshes. LoLo's is less than a mile from the ocean as the crow flies, but is about 2.5 miles by boat down the creek and into Folly River which goes out into the ocean.
Our server that day was a young lady by the name of Madison. She gave us menus to look over and asked what we'd like to drink. They had a smoothie machine in the bar area filled with a couple different types of frozen drinks. One was a Bahama Mama and my wife got one of those. I got a 16 ounce can of the Bound by Time hazy IPA from the Edmund's Oast brewery in Charleston. I had a few Edmund's Oast beers while we were in Charleston, but never did visit the brewery.
Looking over the menu, we saw a number of interesting items starting with LoLo's She-crab soup - a South Carolina staple that is similar to a New England-style clam chowder. They also had a smoked pimento cheese dip with crackers, as well as a number of fried items - fried green tomatoes, fried buffalo shrimp, fried okra, fried crawdad bites, and fried Brussels sprouts. The fried Brussels sprouts sounded intriguing to my wife as they were mixed with chimichurri and bacon-bits and topped with a roasted garlic dijonnaise and crumbled bleu cheese. But when Madison told her that it was a pretty large bowl - and I told her I probably wouldn't help her eat that much of it - she decided against it.
I wanted seafood and it turns out that LoLo's gets their seafood fresh daily from a seafood market/wholesaler just up the road from them - Cosby's Fish & Shrimp Co. They had peel & eat shrimp by the pound at LoLo's fresh off the shrimp boat from Cosby's. The shrimp were large and meaty, and delicious! We plowed through a pound of the delectable boiled shrimp before I ordered a second pound for myself for lunch.
But I wanted something else to go along with the peel & eat shrimp. They had grilled mahi mahi tacos available on the menu and I got those. The mahi mahi was topped with a cabbage/carrot/scallion slaw and the taco shells were lined with an avocado purée. The tacos were absolutely scrumptious. Flounder is plentiful in the ocean waters near Folly Beach and my wife got the fresh flounder filet with grilled scallops. The fish and scallops came in a lemon butter sauce. She couldn't rave enough about the freshness of the seafood. She said some steamed vegetables would have been good with the flounder and scallops. But I thought they missed the boat by not providing some crusted bread to go along with the fish to dip into the lemon butter sauce. That would have made it perfect.
After finishing up with lunch, we hung around a bit talking with Madison about the restaurant. We were told that they've been wanting to add on to the building, but there's a tenant who lives on the second floor who has right of first refusal on any upgrades or additions to the building as long as he's living there. "We do pretty well with what we've got," she said.
Locklear's on Little Oak came highly recommended and we were not disappointed with our visit. While the place was a step above being classified as a dive, the rustic nature of the restaurant displayed the laid-back vibe it had. The seafood we had was fresh and delicious. And Madison was a fun server for us that day. LoLo's is not fine dining, but it's great seafood dining.
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