Beaufort’s oldest downtown restaurants is expanding

-The Island Packet

One of Beaufort’s oldest downtown restaurants is expanding to accommodate more guests and a larger menu.

Plums will close for a couple of weeks this month while workers finish renovations at 904 Bay St., which the restaurant shared with the Shipman Gallery before the art store closed earlier this year.

When the restaurant reopens in early February, guests will notice a return to the original wooden walls, ceiling and floors of the building built in 1866. It will have more seating and an oyster bar at the front facing Bay Street, among other changes, he said.

“I’ve always felt constricted, being limited to the back of the building,” Price said. “We’ve wanted the whole building for a while, and it was like a dream come true when that became possible. I can truly see the building fulfilling its potential being one big space.”

Price’s family opened Plums in the building in 1987, and he took over ownership in 1995, he said.

“We want to expose all of those layers of the past and bring the building back to the vintage look it really lends itself to,” Price said.

Plums will retain its hours, and traditional dinner items will remain. The cooking staff will have more space, enabling it to prepare additional dishes, like po’ boys, oysters, more salads and other entrees, Price said.

The existing restaurant space will continue to serve as a seating area and will accommodate a longer bar after some walls are knocked down and the kitchen is rearranged, he said. After the expansion, late-night visitors will have more room to move around when they drop by for a drink and live music.

Plums will continue selling ice cream off the menu but will eliminate its take-out ice cream bar, he said.

“It’s kind of a burden having that bar there,” he said. “It will serve us better as more seating area.”

The bathrooms will be redone in a new spot, and some decor may change, he said.

Price said he hopes the new look, style and space will make Plums not just a lunch and dinner spot, but a place for people to stop in for a glass of wine and appetizer between meals.