Almost two dozen of Hilton Head’s prominent chefs are using at least 25 percent South Carolina products recognizing “Nothing’s Fresher. Nothing’s Finer.” It’s part of the state’s campaign promoting certified SC produce which is a cooperative among the producers, wholesalers, retailers and processors.

Charlie’s L’etoile Verte features a handwritten menu which showcases daily specialties and surprises. The fresh fish is often prepared with French sauces.  The River House Restaurant, especially for guests of Palmetto Bluff, is another fine dining choice serving many organic and seasonal ingredients from small family farms and markets.  Also, the menu of gifts from the sea showcases daily inspirations of shrimp from the May River or fish from today’s catch. 

Skull Creek Boathouse is new this year and joins Black Marlin and Frankie Bones with plenty of new seafood dishes along with fun family atmosphere. For a differing taste of freshness, select a pizza, calzone or salad at Mellow Mushroom and find local brews on the beer list.

CQ’s Restaurant , an upscale Harbour Town tradition, is known for many innovative dishes beginning with such favorites as the Local Shrimp Bisque.  Antonio’s  delivers the seafood, beef and pasta flavors of Italy with local ingredients. Old Fort Pub is a AAA Four Diamond-rated restaurant known for such creations as the Sea Island Bouillabaisse with plenty of ocean delicacies combined with roasted tomatoes and collards.

The owners and employees of Alexander’s and Redfish have teamed up to create their own farm to grow the produce for their tables. Their extensive menus also showcase Lowcountry seafood. 

Hudson’s Seafood is famous for the tons of shrimp and fish which come from the boats directly to this dock.  Marley’s Island Grille adds a tropical taste of the flavor of mesquite wood grilling to some local seafoods. Ocean Grille, Aqua Grille and Lounge and Oceans at Westin Resort also please diners while supporting the use of South Carolina’s freshest ingredients.

Additional members of “Fresh on the Menu” include these restaurants and caterers: Mainly Sandstone, Dye’s Gullah Fixin’s, Sage Room, Celebration Events Catering , Jump & Phil’s, Nick’s Steak & Seafood and Remy’s Bar & Grill.

All of these businesses serve cuisine which is fresh and fine in keeping with the theme. Enjoy!

Marley’s Ice Cream & Trading Co. is next door to Marley’s Island Grille where there are other delicious flavors such as seafood and steak. Their ice cream is homemade, and the choices are quite unique; try black raspberry or chocolate turtle. 

Hilton Head Ice Cream Company is an island tradition which has been making tasty treats for over 20 years. In addition to their location on New Orleans Road, their products are served in numerous local restaurants.  At the Waterfront Café in Harbour Town, their options are mango sorbet, heath bar crunch, mint chocolate chip, Oreo and Georgia peach & pecan. The adults in your party can top this dessert with a favorite liqueur.

Pino Gelato offers the Italian version of ice cream which has less fat, cholesterol and calories than ice cream. Mixed berry or coconut flavors are not often found in traditional ice cream. Blueberry pomegranate or watermelon sorbets are new flavors created this summer which incorporate the healthy benefits of luscious fruits with icy sorbet. Sorbet (or sorbetto) is made with no milk and almost no fat. The limoncello sorbetto is very refreshing. A coupon, which can be printed from their cool website, offers a discount.  While there, you can also enjoy a meal in a pizza cone, which is a Pino Gelato original.

Hungry for ice cream yet? Send us your thoughts on your local favorite.

Another element long associated with Harbour Town is the evening concert by Gregg Russell. It’s under the Liberty Oak every night except Saturday until August 27. The free show begins at 8 pm and varies nightly so there’s always something new to entertain families. With games and sing-a-longs to familiar tunes, everyone can be part of the excitement. Kids will grow up with Bubble Gum Pledge recollections to flavor their island vacation every year, and parents can appreciate some valuable life lessons underlying all of Gregg’s antics. 

Gregg has been writing and performing his children’s music for more than 30 seasons. He is also known for his television work with CBS, NBC and the USA networks. His movies are Camp Tanglefoot and Come Away Home. When he’s not entertaining, the performer is working with his serious kids’ programs such as Lids for Kids and Hilton Head Heroes which funds island vacations for families with seriously ill children.

For dining before or after the fun under the old oak tree, check out the diverse choices at Sea Pines. You can arrange your vacation stay at Sea Pines with inn, homes or villa accommodations or check out additional getaway specials throughout our island.

Barbecue from the Smokehouse is a juicy part of this party. The Smokehouse barbecue was last year’s first place winner of the Reader’s Choice contest sponsored by the Island Packet, the third time to be awarded that specific honor. Their barbecue has also taken honors in the Rib Burn-off Championship for ten years and garnered many other awards for chili and wings. The restaurant is open daily for lunch and dinner at 34 Palmetto Bay Road with additional menu items including fresh seafood and steaks.

Hot dogs from Street Meet are another popular choice at Summer Jams. To date, Street Meet has sold 80,000 of their special dogs and is still dishing them out for their patrons. These are not your regular dogs either. They’re reminiscent of what you’d find on the street corner in many different cities in the U.S. The restaurant is located at 95 Mathews Drive in Port Royal Plaza, and you can order takeout or enjoy the indoor comfort of their family tavern all day, every day.

Pizza from Giuseppi’s is another award winner served at Summer Jams. The homemade dough is hand-tossed and topped with special sauces, cheeses and much more. A pizza or other specialty item from their menu is available for dine-in at their Shelter Cove Plaza or Bluffton’s Kittie’s Crossing locations, or can be ordered for takeout.

To accompany the evening of fireworks and fun, enjoy music from local radio station DJ, Jeff Taylor of 103.1 The Drive. Bounce houses and face painting will delight your children too.

Contact the Island Recreation Association at 843-681-7273 with questions. See you in the park for great fun and food!

On the day of their arrival on Hilton Head Island they had faced a crashing lightning storm in Sea Island, GA, seen their beast of transport — the much-loved, but not so much this day 1988 Dodge Ram Van (”Dodgy”) break down on I-95 and found themselves in the early evening hours near Main Street on the north end of the island still without 18 holes logged in for the day.

What to do? Resourceful chaps, they grabbed a map and located a golf course within walking distance and hoofed it across Highway 278 to Indigo Run with golf bags on their backs, explained their way through security, and managed 18 holes, on the dead run in the pouring rain, carrying three clubs each, as darkness descended.

And that wasn’t even the challenge they were expecting when they got to Hilton Head Island. The next day would bring that, when seven golf course management company partners, representing 18 different golf courses, collaborated with the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce to coordinate a memorable tour of the best of-the-best-of Hilton Head Island golf.

Needless to say, the logistical aspects of a project like this one are overwhelming. Just think of two young guys blogging their way around the globe (www.puregolf2010.com), arranging their own lodging, their own tee times, their own travel and trying to find time in the midst of all that for 18 holes of increasingly exclusive golf, grabbing a bite on the run here and there, chatting up their project with fellow golf fanatics smitten by their story and somewhere in there are the really boring, but necessary things like doing laundry and sitting down to eat a real meal. Oh yeah, then there’s sleep, of which they don’t get a whole lot.

The Hilton Head Island “18 on 18? wore these guys out — they hadn’t planned, in the midst of a transportation crisis, to be spending nearly 12 hours on the golf course. But that’s what it takes to play 18 signature holes on 18 of Hilton Head’s finest. The tour included stops in Palmetto Dunes, Port Royal, Hilton Head Plantation, Hilton Head National, Indigo Run, Shipyard and Sea Pines and wrapped up with a champagne toast with Harbour Town’s iconic lighthouse as backdrop. It’s an amazing story — not only that these guys are positioning themselves as golf romantics (the question is who will play them in the movie!!), but what’s also astonishing was quick and agile cooperation of Hilton Head Island and Blufftown golf course owners and managers to an oddball request. It was a great part of the story and has made the Kiwi Quest even more memorable.

Enjoy an evening of entertainment under the stars around a large inflatable screen with high definition movies. The events are free for children 10 and younger and only $5 if older. The experience begins at 7:30 pm, and the movie shows around 9 pm when the sun goes down. Bring your own lawn chairs or blankets to sit back and be comfortable.

You can bring your own picnic foods, too. Delicious choices can be picked up conveniently at Panera Bread or Atlanta Bread Company. Both specialize in fresh sandwiches and salads that can be quickly packaged to go and will please any taste. The breads at Atlanta Bread are influenced by seasonings from around the world with signature sandwiches on many varieties or paninis grilled on focaccia. Panera also offers various fresh-baked breads and frequently celebrates new creations of salads or combination meals. And both of these bakeries certainly tempt a picnic-lover with sweet pastries and cookies!

Giuseppi’s Pizza and Pasta and Larry’s Giant Subs are located nearby in Shelter Cove Plaza. Hot or cold subs, hoagies and deli sandwiches from Larry’s are freshly made to order and are sure to please lovers of Italian-style, Philly-style or New York-style eats. Giuseppi’s is known for its luscious Philadelphia and New York style of pizza and their signature sandwich called a weggie®, which is essentially an oversized calzone sandwich with choices of fillings. Hoagies, wraps or wings also can be selected in creatively seasoned combinations.

“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” will be shown on July 9 and “Twilight: The New Moon” on August 6. For more information, call the Island Recreation Association at 843-681-7273 or visit www.islandreccenter.org.

Movies in the Park is a great deal at an awesome location. Hopefully we’ll see you there under the stars as you flavor your vacation with creative movie nights on Hilton Head which will be especially memorable for any teens and ‘tweens in your family!

Whether you’re looking for low carb, low fat, low calorie, or specific heart healthy meals, Hilton Head Island has plenty of selections. Seafood is certainly one menu item that is good for your heart (and is never far from our plates) as it’s naturally abundant in our local waters and estuaries. Local fishermen haul in fresh catch daily, and then it is served up in many of our local kitchens. As health experts agree, seafood offers large quantities of protein, vitamins and minerals without high levels of saturated fats, calories, sodium or cholesterol. Fats in fish are mainly Omega-3 fatty acids, which are a polyunsaturated fat proven to have heart-health benefits.

There are many healthy dining experiences available, but here we recommend just a few for your consideration. Visit Café St. Tropez for French Provencal cuisine created by the European-trained Chef Emmanuel. He suggests a healthy entrée of Halibut with Ratatouille and Risotto, which is prepared plain with no breading and accompanied by rice and vegetables. Another of Chef Emmanuel’s healthy choices is his Seafood Collection, which includes broiled shrimp, scallops, fish trio and crab cake, another entrée with no breading or frying – and nothing to detract from the inherent fresh flavors of the seafood.

For a bigger appetite, a great healthy lunch selection would be a Super-Salad from Signe’s Heaven Bound Bakery & Cafe, offering fresh, inventive salads that are extremely healthy (chock full of greens) plus other delicious All-American cuisine. Other local favorite entrée salads, perfect for lunch or dinner, can be found at Truffle’s and Truffle’s Grille. Under one ownership, all three Truffle’s locations (Sea Pines Center, Pope Avenue and Belfair Shopping Center) offer delightful, inspiring menus with fresh, tempting ingredients. Finally, for smaller, tapas-sized plates (to help keep your portions under control) try an evening on the town at Wise Guys, a popular, urban-feel restaurant with excellent wine bar and mouth-watering cocktails.

Hope you will plan your Island visit to include healthy eating options as well as relaxation!

While you are here, flavor one of your evenings out with Picnic & Pops, an exciting series of concerts to be held Wednesday evenings in July at Shelter Cove Community Park. Bring your own picnic, chairs or blankets and relax for an hour-long musical program presented by the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra. The picnic opens at 6 pm, and the music begins at 7 pm. Tickets are $20 online or onsite.

When planning your evening, your picnic might include goodies and treats from one of our local delicatessens. A hot or cold sub, wrap or salad from Jersey Mike’s, Hilton Head Deli, Bess’ Delicatessen & Catering Specialistsor Deli by the Beach would be easy to pick up en route to the show. Or, when you arrive, food and wine will be available for purchase at the park if you don’t choose to bring your own.

The featured music on July 7 is Broadway Tonight! by the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra. Who can resist the favorites such as “Guys and Dolls,” “West Side Story,” “South Pacific,” “Chicago” or “Phantom of the Opera.” None of the Above is a bluegrass-based acoustic band that will perform on July 14. Based in the Triad, NC area, None of the Above recently released a new album entitled “Turn the Page,” that includes a bluegrass version of the Journey’s 80s release, “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Pantasia Steel Drums, a South Carolina-based group, will play Latin music to get the crowd moving on July 21. On July 28, local favorite vocalists/pianist, Lavon C. Stevens, will present gospel, soul and jazz.

What better way to ‘season’ your beach getaway with an evening out to Picnic and Pops! Hilton Head Island once again offers the best ‘flavors’ and entertainment to liven up your summer vacation. See you soon!