Best Moving Company in Bluffton

Claiming the moniker “Heart of the Lowcountry,” Bluffton is a small town chock-full of character, history, and hospitality. Whether you're visiting for a day or a weekend, you'll find plenty to do. Here are some of our top picks.

What To Do In Bluffton

When you arrive in town, make a stop at the Cole-Heyward House, which is the official Welcome Center. The Heyward House Museum and Welcome Center is owned and operated by the Historic Bluffton Foundation, a nonprofit that is dedicated to the preservation of the culture and history of the town. You can tour the House Museum, which was built in 1841 by enslaved people. It is one of only eight antebellum homes that remain in the Lowcountry.

Three blocks from the Welcome Center, admire the 1857 Anglican church, The Church of the Cross. Federal troops burned Bluffton during the Civil War, but spared this building.

Walk along Calhoun Street, the center of the town's arts and cultural district, which is filled with eclectic galleries and specialty shops. The Society of Bluffton Artists (SOBA), showcases more than 100 local artists, and offers workshops and exhibits. Next door is Bluffton General Store, where you can purchase unique gifts and coastal collectibles.

Afternoon is the ideal time to get out on the water with a guided adventure with May River Excursions. Be on the lookout for Atlantic bottlenose dolphins, or set sail at dusk underneath the cotton candy pink South Carolina sunset.

Where To Stay

Staying in Old Town gives you easy access to explore the area by foot. The first and only boutique hotel in the neighborhood is Old Town Bluffton Inn. Owned by husband-and-wife team Vince and Danielle Harrison, the elegantly designed hotel has 14 rooms, custom-made furnishings and original art, plus a lovely pale pink parlor and breezy front porch.

If you're looking for a stay with lots of on-site activities and amenities, the luxury resort Montage Palmetto Bluff consumes 20,000-acres along the May River. From pro shops to a Paris market, paddle boarding to golfing, Montage crafts luxury experiences specific to each guest. For a romantic outdoor adventure, try the "Veuve Clicquot Picnic + Pedal," which includes bike rentals, your choice of five picnic basket menus (the "Day Date" includes canapés, tea sandwiches, and a variety of sweets to please every palate), plus a bottle of bubbly, of course.

Where To Eat And Drink

Fuel up for a day of fun at The Cottage Café where chef Leslie Rohland dishes out Southern cuisine with a twist. Begin with a mimosa (there are three types to choose from), then tuck into a Crabby Southerner—a fried green tomato, crab cake, and poached egg perched on an English muffin.

Another option is Corner Perk Brunch Café and Coffee Roasters where the hot coffee is freshly roasted and the Huevos Rancheros are nice and spicy. Order a Tiramisu Whipped Cold Brew to go as you stroll through Old Town.

No visit to Bluffton is complete without a visit to Bluffton Oyster Company. Since 1899, the family-owned business has been harvesting fresh Bluffton oysters, the star of the May River from September through May. Take home an order of oysters, shrimp, blue crab, or fresh fish, or devour the fresh catch at the family’s Bluffton Oyster Company Seafood Restaurant. Seafood doesn't get any fresher than this.

FARM serves dinner with an ever-changing menu celebrating the fishers, farmers, and other local producers behind its food. Sample roasted oysters with horseradish souffle, chives, and saltines; grilled snapper with butterbeans; or pickled shrimp. Whatever you choose, don't miss the brown butter cornbread. Although the menu has global influences, chef Brandon Carter says the region inspires his cooking. “It’s the way the salt air smells. It’s the oyster beds that you can see from the banks of the May River," he says. "There’s a real sense of place and community here that you don’t find very often these days.”

Likewise, the Waterson brothers at Burnt Church Distillery craft spirits to honor South Carolina’s history. Every bottle has a story, like the Sin Eater Cinnamon Smoky Whiskey. Dating back to the 1600s, Sin Eaters were social outcasts who took sins of others upon themselves.

Chefs and Lowcountry farmers come together to make one great dining experience at Nectar Farm Kitchen in Old Town. The fried bologna sandwich will take you back to your childhood, and the butter bean burger is like nothing you've ever tasted. The restaurant has a complete cocktail and wine list, and Nectar Brewing Company, a craft brewery located in the kitchen.

As Bluffton residents woke to a sunny morning, clean up efforts began to clear the various debris littering the streets. Amid the pine straw, tree limbs, Spanish moss and Palmetto fronds littering local yards and roadways, coastal tides also remained high.

There were multiple clean-up efforts around the town.

Community members came together to clean up after Idalia impacted the county with strong winds and flooding. They helped clean around local churches and neighbors were helping neighbors.

“I think they love the day,” said Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka. “It’s not hot, so there’s no reason to get in a bad mood.”

Of those who were not cleaning up fallen debris, many individuals around Old Town Bluffton were spotted enjoying the cooler than normal weather out on their golf carts and walking their dogs.

Christie McKenzie and 8-year-old Harrison McKenzie helped clean up fallen debris and palmetto fronds around Alljoy Road and the “Chisholm Cottage” as tree work was occurring behind the residence to clear and remove trees.

During his cleanup efforts, Harrison didn’t hesitate to talk to nearby community members as he continued to drag along various branches, moss and other fallen debris. His opinion on the matter, “I did not like that hurricane,” he said as he carried a “Harrison-sized” palmetto frond above his head and heaved it into the pile of other collected debris.

Luckily, there wasn’t too much damage from Idalia in Bluffton. The Bluffton Township Fire District were only called 10 times between 1 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. Wednesday about fallen trees or debris, according to the Fire District’s spokesperson Stephen Combs.

“Overall we dodged a bullet and thankfully everyone escaped rather unscathed,” said Combs.

As of noon on Thursday, all trees that were blocking roads were cleared, said Combs. However, Combs noted that the fire department does not have authority in gated communities and trees may still be blocking roads in them.

“We’re blessed, but I just always feel we got to be prepared,” said Sulka. “We take the steps, thinking it’s going to be a hit.”

If you think the Bluffton bakery Cupcakes 2 Cakes looks charming enough to be in a Lifetime movie, you wouldn’t be alone. It seems a Lifetime film crew agrees.

The bakery, located in Berkeley Place near Cinemark Theater off Buckwalter Parkway, was used as a filming location earlier this year for an upcoming television romance titled “The Royal Bake Off.”

Here’s the plot synopsis from IMDB.com: “The rivalries of bakers Allie and Marily intensify when the royal prince of Samavia rolls into town looking for a royal baker. When Allie and the prince hit it off, it seems he might be in the market for more than just a terrific cake.”

While the release date for the movie hasn’t been announced, the owners of the Bluffton bakery are launching some romantic ideas of their own in the meantime, shifting the focus of their business from primarily a custom-order bakery to a dessert bar.

“Custom orders were great, but I wanted to increase the foot traffic coming into the building,” explained Erica Ashby of Okatie, who operates the business with her mother, Linda Ashby, and daughter, Kaiya Medrano.

“We’ve expanded our lines. We’ve expanded our hours,” Erica said.

Cupcakes 2 Cakes started as a home-based business then moved into a Berkeley Place storefront in late 2021. The bakery shut its doors temporarily in July before reopening Aug. 1 with a refreshed purpose.

“We made the decision to shut down and rebrand,” Erica said, “partly because I wanted to change the aesthetic and the feel of the business, and I wanted to change kind of the direction in which we were going.”

Now, Cupcakes 2 Cakes offers at least 13 flavors of cupcakes on any given day. Customers also can choose from 10 or so different pastries or order cake slices and even Jack Frost ice cream.

“Of course, we still have our decorated sugar cookies and then our gourmet cookies,” Erica said.

Everything is done in small batches, she explained.

“We don’t use a lot of dyes. We don’t use extracts and emulsions. We use natural flavorings for our cupcakes. ... We put out our pastries, and when we are sold out, we are sold out for the day,” she said. “We don’t keep anything in the freezer.”

The trio of bakers hasn’t stopped creating extravagant celebration cakes for birthdays, anniversaries and weddings, and they use an edible ink printer to create logo cookies for corporate events.

New to the menu, though, is an expanded lineup of drinks.

“We do more coffee, more tea, more funky drinks like our cotton candy lemonade, our Shirley Temple floats, our bourbon coffee.” The bourbon coffee is non-alcoholic; it uses coffee beans aged in whiskey barrels from The Grind Roasters.

Cupcakes 2 Cakes has started opening in the evenings on Fridays and Saturdays and soon will add a menu of special dessert and drink pairings available during that time.

“After the movies, couples, singles, family members, if they’re looking for something to do after dinner, after the movies, they can come in and grab a mocktail that we will set up to pair with a specific dessert so that it’ll be a type of an experience.”

Customers can expect the evening hours will feature the same creativity evident in the current cupcake menu.

“We try to do out-of-the-box flavors,” Erica said, listing habenero peach, elote street corn, or chicken and waffles among some recent offerings.

“We tend to do kind of a crazy flavor each week, and people love us for our creativity,” she said. Holidays are particularly fun because the bakers like to take a theme and run with it.

Right now, they are learning all they can about beverage pairings.

“We’ve been hiring mixologists and baristas, and we’ve been attending classes just to get a better understanding of the chemistry and everything that’s involved with actually making drinks,” Erica said. “We want to do something that’s the show, fancy cocktails, smoked cocktails ... creative stuff.”

What: Cupcakes 2 Cakes

Where: 108 Buckwalter Parkway, Suite 2C, Bluffton

Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; closed Sunday and Monday.

Phone: 843-415-5678

Website: cupcakes2cakes.com

This story was originally published August 17, 2023, 4:00 AM.

BLUFFTON, S.C. (WTOC) - Neighbors say they are coming together for a Bluffton family left without a home.

That’s after a fire started in the house on Behr Mills Lane around 3:30 a.m. Wednesday.

“They got rid of the fire so quickly but it was blazing.”

Bluffton Township firefighters responding to this home in about three minutes. Bluffton fire official Stephen Combs says the fire took them about 30 minutes to put out.

“They could see what they call the crown of the fire probably close to 50 to 100 feet in the air,” Stephen Comb said.

There were four teenagers and a woman in the home when the fire started. They all made it out safely.

And just taking a look at the damage this fire caused, it’s clear that a family is now without a home. People living around them say they’re coming together to make sure they have clothes on their back and toiletries during this time.

Linda McDonnell lives just up the street from the home and says the woman inside is 76-years-old. She was taken to the hospital and is now recovering and staying with a neighbor, according to McDonnell.

“I’m so happy that she’s alive and anything she wants, we’ll provide it for her, if she needs it. That’s the kind of neighborhood we are here,” Neighbor Linda McDonnell said.

A parent of one of the four teens who made it out of home safe tells WTOC, all the teens are recent graduates of May River High School. They say they were having a sleepover when the fire started.

The woman and one teen living in the home will be getting help from the American Red Cross,

“They have been in contact with us. In fact, I received a contact from them a bit ago and they’re working with the family to provide them with temporary shelter, clothing and whatever they might need to get through a short period of time.”

The cause of the fire is unclear right now, according to Combs. They are investigating and hope to know within a few days.

Copyright 2023 WTOC. All rights reserved.

A nationally recognized chef plus a prime location in Old Town Bluffton are adding up to the newest sensation on the Bluffton restaurant scene.

Okan opened June 22 in The Bridge Collective at the intersection of Calhoun Street and Bridge Street. Helmed by chef Bernard Bennett, a James Beard Foundation semifinalist, and business partners Matt Cunningham and Benjamin Carson, the restaurant offers African-inspired dishes that don’t typically grace Lowcountry menus.

“There’s nothing like it,” Cunningham said.

In fact, the menu at Okan includes a glossary for those unfamiliar with the cuisine. Still, the hope is that diners will be able to see the influences African culture and the slave trade have had on local foods.

“Rice is a big part of the story that we’re trying to tell,” Bennett told The Island Packet. “Rice was a cash crop, definitely during the slave trade. … Jollof rice, in my opinion, is the mother rice of several dishes — tomato-based dishes. Think of dishes like jambalaya, red rice, paella, all have this influence from jollof rice.”

Other menu offerings include bara, a flatbread popular in Trinidad, served with mango chutney; a fonio pilaf bowl made with a traditional West African grain; and obe ata potatoes inspired by a Nigerian red pepper stew.

Main courses like jerk goat served with carrots, duck and oyster gumbo, or cashew curry with lobster tails and pumpkin dumplings are fragrant and flavorful tributes to communal “hearth” cooking over a fire.

There are multiple vegetarian and vegan options as well, such as a hearty ital stew made with coconut milk and vegetables, or djon djon noodles, a Haitian dish that includes several different types of mushrooms.

Entree prices are generally in the $30-40 range, while shareable appetizers and sides are between $10 and $15. The restaurant has a bar with a menu of specialty cocktails, wine and beer.

While reservations aren’t required at Okan, they are highly recommended, Cunningham said. On Wednesday, which marked a week since the restaurant’s opening, there were 77 reservations on the books.

“It’s been packed,” Cunningham said. “The response from the community has been overwhelmingly positive.”

“I’m personally happily surprised that, even though we’ve just gotten started, we have already been seeing a lot of repeat guests,” said Carson.

Both men said it has been gratifying to be thanked for bringing a different kind of restaurant to Bluffton.

“An overwhelming response has been an excitement to have something new that pushes the boundaries and norms for cuisine and cocktails in the area,” Carson said.

Bennett grew up and went to school in Michigan but was working in Chicago during the pandemic when the restaurant industry took a hard hit, especially in the northern winter’s cold when it wasn’t comfortable for diners to sit outside. He made the decision to relocate to Bluffton because he had family here.

Okan, which means “heart and soul” in the Yoruba language of West Africa, is the culmination of a dream several years in the making. It started as a food truck last fall while plans were being laid and construction completed.

The food truck, which has been a popular addition to the Bluffton Farmers Market in Old Town and Starland Yard in Savannah, among other locations, is expected to return to a consistent schedule once the restaurant team is at full capacity.

In addition to Okan, The Bridge Collective is home to J Parker, a luxury apparel brand, and En Dentelle, a lingerie shop. Businesses yet to open include Fiddle and Shine, which sells home goods; a Bluffton Candles gift shop; and Collab, a clothing boutique. The development also includes 11 apartments, a mix of unfurnished long-term rentals, furnished short-term rentals and Airbnbs.

What: Okan

Where: 71 Calhoun St, Suite 100, Bluffton

When: 5 to 10 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday; hours will be expanded

Phone: 843-949-3002

Website: okanbluffton.com

Facebook: facebook.com/okanbluffton

Instagram: instagram.com/okanbluffton

This story was originally published July 3, 2023, 10:07 AM.