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Cuisine

Big Bamboo Cafe at Coligny is built on a 1944 South Pacific bar story

Big Bamboo Cafe, upstairs and oceanside in Coligny Plaza, takes its look from the story of a bamboo bar a fighter pilot opened in the Pacific in 1944.

The bar at Big Bamboo Cafe, crowded with customers under strings of colored lights, with a bartender working in front of shelves of bottles.

Photo: Big Bamboo Cafe

Big Bamboo Cafe is upstairs on the ocean side of Coligny Plaza on Hilton Head Island, a short walk from Coligny Beach Park. It calls itself a locals' restaurant and live music venue, and its bamboo-and-tin look comes from a story the cafe published on its own website in 2013.

Jimmy Phipps opened the first Big Bamboo in 1944

In the cafe's telling, Jimmy Phipps, a former fighter pilot, opened the Big Bamboo on March 3, 1944, a bar and grill overlooking the Pacific. He built it from bamboo, corrugated tin, palm fronds "and whatever else Phipps was able to get his hands on." Food and liquor came in weekly on cargo planes, brought by people he knew who were still serving in the air force, and the menu carried food from across the United States for soldiers a long way from home. Pilots were known to report engine trouble near Tarawa as an excuse to stop in. On any given night, Big Band music carried across the island on the warm breeze.

The Hilton Head version, the cafe wrote in 2013, was "constructed as closely as possible to the configurations of the original," with indoor dining in a "1940's themed south pacific" room. The welcome on its website ended with a toast: "Here's to Jimmy!"

The oceanside deck opened in 2013

In May 2013 the cafe opened a new deck on the ocean side, with its own bar and a breeze off the water. Live music plays there most afternoons, with weekday sets starting at 4:30 p.m., and the cafe opens at 3 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and at 11:30 a.m. Thursday through Saturday.

A tall pink drink with a lime and a paper umbrella on a table at the deck railing, with an American flag and palm trees behind it.
A drink on the deck railing.Photo: Big Bamboo Cafe

The Carolina Crab n' Shrimp Fireballs are the order

The fireballs are crab and shrimp with cream cheese and jalapeños, fried golden and spicy. The current menu marks them "Top Seller!", and the cafe's listing in Coligny Plaza's directory named the Carolina Fireballs as a customer favorite back in 2015. They come five to a plate and count as a starter, and starters are two for one at the bar and on the deck from 4 to 6 p.m.

A foil-lined basket of boiled shrimp on a deck table, with a flag in the background.
Shrimp in a foil-lined basket on the deck.Photo: Big Bamboo Cafe

The Beagles still play on Fridays

In 2013 the weekly music list put The Beagles on Friday nights, and they are still there, starting at 7 p.m. and playing the Beatles from "Nowhere Man" to "Eleanor Rigby." Rock Candy plays 80s rock on Saturday nights, and Wednesday nights turn into Disco Nite with DJ Ben Hughey.