DAUFUSKIE ISLAND, S.C. — At least once a day, a patron bellies up to Casey Long’s bar, looks around the place and asks him about Marshside Mama’s Cafe.
About the time rock-and-roll icon John Mellencamp played a set on the stage across the room.
Or if he ever saw Ned, the free-roaming potbelly pig who lived next door to the establishment, swill a Corona.
Or about which Marshside Mama’s dish, made by resident culinary genius Beth Shipman, was his favorite.
Long pleads ignorance to all those questions save the last one. He is relatively new to the island and doesn’t recall when his bar and restaurant, now known as D’Fuskie’s, was home to the universally loved Marshside Mama’s honky-tonk and cafe.
Often featured on Food Network and the Travel Channel, Marshside closed on Jan. 1, 2018, after 21 years in business because of a lease dispute between Shipman and the property owner, the Beaufort County government. A brokenhearted Shipman promptly left Daufuskie, an island reachable only by boat from neighboring Savannah or Hilton Head Island, to care for family members and think about the next chapter of her life.
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Three years of soul searching brought her back to Daufuskie and back to the kitchen. Earlier this summer, she recast her Marshside Mama’s magic — the shrimpburgers, the gumbo, the mango blackened fish and the voodoo pasta — in a new location a half-mile down the road from her old digs: A food truck attached to the Daufuskie Island Rum Co. distillery known as the On-Deck Diner.
“This is my home. This is what I do. This is where I’m happy,” Shipman said. “It was horribly depressing to give up my baby after 22 years. I helped my sister and went on a couple of adventures since we closed Marshside, but it was time to come home.”
Shipman was raised across Calibogue Sound from Daufuskie on Hilton Head Island and has owned property on Daufuskie since 1990. She’s known Tony Chase, owner of the distillery, for 12 years. He was a Marshside Mama’s regular.
“One of the hardest hits this island has taken emotionally in recent times was the day she decided to close,” Chase said.
Chase called Shipman about running his kitchen earlier this year after Beaufort County changed ferry service companies and the new operator’s schedule made it difficult for the On-Deck Diner’s previous head cooks, both Savannah residents, to get to and from work.
The opportunity was just what she’d been looking for, and the On-Deck Diner relaunched in May, albeit with no fanfare. Yet word is spreading — the eatery’s dozen or so tables were full for a Tuesday lunch in July and the diner’s by-reservation-only Wednesday night dinners are consistent sellouts.
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Credit: Katelyn Myrick
Complementing Shipman’s food is the On-Deck Diner’s setting. The eatery’s name comes from the fact that the dining area is located on the deck of the distillery, overlooking a freshwater pond popular with local wildlife, including alligators. A 10-footer that Chase’s wife and business partner Kristi calls “Purse” is a frequent visitor, and the gator keeps an eye on arriving customers, most of whom come by bicycle or golf cart and park next to the pond.
As for Shipman, she’s reveling in the fun of “making things up again” in the kitchen and finds humor in her humble workspace. At a recent Wednesday dinner, she cooked tuna steaks on a charcoal grill.
And unlike her days at Marshside Mama’s, Shipman’s only responsibility is the food. Chase handles the business end.
“She’s loving it,” he said. “She has the time and energy to be that much more creative with her food.”
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