Chef Vivian Howard is heading south. Look for 2 new restaurants in Charleston.

Chef Vivian Howard is taking a bit of Lenoir County to the Lowcountry.

The North Carolina chef announced plans Thursday for two new restaurants, but they won’t be in her home state. They’ll be in Charleston, S.C., one of the South’s most popular dining cities.

Howard plans to open Lenoir, a small casual restaurant named after her home county. Lenoir will serve dinner and weekend brunch.

She also will open Handy & Hot, a brick-and-mortar version of her bakery that currently operates as an online shop. Handy & Hot will open for breakfast, serving pastries, biscuits and hand pies, along with freshly pressed juices and a full coffee bar.

“I lived in Charleston some in college and have spent a bit of time there for festivals and events, and it’s one of my very favorite places,” Howard said in a phone interview with The News & Observer. “It’s near the ocean. It’s this vibrant city with a really cool dining scene.”

The restaurants were first reported by the Charleston-based magazine Garden & Gun.

The news comes as Howard is set to return to television March 27 with her new PBS show, “Somewhere South,” which will air Fridays nationally in primetime.

More than a decade ago, Howard and her husband, Ben Knight, opened their first restaurant, Chef & The Farmer, in Howard’s hometown of Kinston in Eastern North Carolina.

The restaurant led to the acclaimed PBS documentary series, “A Chef’s Life” with director Cynthia Hill, which went on to earn numerous awards, including a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Culinary Program, in its five-season run.

Howard also owns The Boiler Room, an oyster bar in Kinston, and Benny’s Big Time pizzeria in Wilmington.

Opening in downtown Charleston hotel

The new Charleston restaurants will be in the Renaissance Hotel, located at 68 Wentworth St., situated about a half a block off of Charleston’s bustling King Street of shops and restaurants in the city’s historic district.

Lenoir will be a love letter of a restaurant to the farmers of Eastern North Carolina. Charleston is home to numerous Southern restaurants, but Howard said most serve the cuisine of the South Carolina Lowcountry.

“Charleston has a deep history and restaurant culture, but most of the restaurants that define themselves as Southern serve Lowcountry cuisine, like shrimp and grits, which is not necessarily the food I cook, the food of the agricultural South,” Howard said.

She said that distinction made her feel like she could add something to the city’s dining scene without competing with what’s already there.

“I’m not stepping on anyone’s toes, not challenging anyone’s cuisine. There’s an open space to do what I do and add to the really tasty pie that is Charleston’s restaurant scene.”

Lenoir will have about 60 seats, with a menu of a dozen or more small plates focused on seasonal fruits, vegetables and regional grains, with meat largely used a condiment, Howard said. There will also be a handful of larger dishes, with the entire menu meant to be shared.

For brunch on Sundays, Howard said Lenoir will offer a family-style fried chicken meal. A large 20-seat bar will be in the center of the dining room. There will be a patio where Howard sees future oyster roasts.

Handy & Hot and Lenoir are set to open this summer, possibly by June, Howard said.

Exploring Eastern North Carolina

Much of Howard’s career has been spent exploring the region she grew up in through its land, its ingredients, its home cooks and its farmers. She said her answer for where she was from was never Deep Run or Kinston, but Lenoir County.

The restaurant’s logo includes a simple tobacco leaf, the former gold of Eastern North Carolina. Tobacco sticks will hang on the restaurant’s walls along with a photo essay from the 1980s of her father’s tobacco warehouse, with farmers sitting atop bales of cured leaves.

Howard said others wanted the restaurant named “Vivian’s,” but she wanted to give it another name for home.

“The name has brought me so much joy,” Howard said. “Lenoir will speak to the food that Lenoir County is know for but in a really modern way.”

Handy & Hot was initially planned to open in Kinston, but Howard said Hurricane Florence made her rethink those plans. For nearly a year, she has sold cakes and pies online. But having a brick-and-mortar shop was still something Howard said she wanted for the brand.

Even though she’s moving into the Charleston market, Howard said she’s not leaving North Carolina.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Howard said. “My home and my first restaurant children, Chef & the Farmer and Boiler Room, are here. This serves to strengthen our restaurant group.”