Greater Charleston Seafood: The Docks, the Markets, and the Fish Camps

Shem Creek is where a good share of Charleston’s shrimp comes ashore. The trawlers tie up along the Mount Pleasant side, and within a short walk you can buy the catch at Mt. Pleasant Seafood, Tarvin Seafood, or Abundant Seafood, which sells shares of the daily boat catch the way a farm sells a vegetable box. Down on Folly, Crosby’s Fish & Shrimp has worked the same stretch of water for decades. Up the coast in McClellanville, Livingston’s Bulls Bay Seafood handles the oysters and clams out of Bulls Bay. In the city, Seven Seas keeps the counters stocked for people who’d rather cook at home.

If you’d rather someone else did the cooking, the range is wide. Bowens Island has been frying flounder and roasting oysters off Folly Road since 1946, in a cinderblock room that has burned and come back more than once. Ellis Creek Fish Camp does the marsh-view version. Downtown, Hyman’s has fed the Meeting Street crowd for generations, and Magnolias set a template for upscale Lowcountry cooking that half the city still follows.

The move, if you have a kitchen for the week, is to do both. Buy shrimp at the creek one night and let Bowens Island handle the oysters the next.

Part of the Lowcountry Seafood Guide. Browse the full list in the directory.

Buy Direct — Seafood Markets

Abundant SeafoodMount PleasantCrosby’s Fish & Shrimp Co.CharlestonLivingston’s Bulls Bay SeafoodCharlestonMt. Pleasant SeafoodMount PleasantSeven Seas Seafood MarketCharlestonTarvin Seafood / Miss Paula Shrimp/Abundant SeafoodMount Pleasant

Sit Down — Seafood Restaurants

Hyman’s SeafoodCharlestonMagnoliasCharlestonEllis Creek Fish CampCharlestonBowens Island RestaurantCharlestonShem Creek Crab HouseMount PleasantSaltwater CowboysMount Pleasant

The Map