Fire destroys a piece of Calabash restaurant history, but this story isn’t over
As one of the restaurants that helped Calabash earn its reputation as the Seafood Capital of the World, Ella’s of Calabash has become much more than a business since opening in 1950.
It's a second home and a community hub. It weathered Hurricane Hazel in 1954 and Hurricane Hugo in 1989. Kurt Hardee, who now owns the restaurant with his sister, remembers taking refuge at Ella’s with the family and staff and hunkering down with sleeping bags during nighttime storms.
But at noon on April 15 with a full restaurant and line outside, a fire started in the kitchen. Once it hit the knotty pine roof, it was basically done, Hardee said.
“The damage was very extensive. It basically destroyed the building,” said Calabash Fire Chief Keith McGee. His department and Brunswick County officials have already determined the fire was unintentional.
Hardee said he was able to walk through the remains, where he noticed undisturbed cups of honey butter next to things he can’t imagine are lost.
“That was my office, my family’s personal office,” he said. Decades of paperwork, family photos, menus from the '60s, his high school yearbooks, mementos from his father’s funeral are all gone.
“The only word to use is violated,” he said. “I just feel violated by this fire.”
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Now, the restaurant site is bordered by yellow caution tape. Many have stopped to look at what’s left of the building in the heart of Calabash’s restaurant district.
This family started with Coleman’s Original, which closed in 2017 and is now The Oyster Rock on the waterfront.
“It was really just a shack located right where the fishermen would come in,” Hardee said. A sibling then started Beck’s Restaurant in 1940. Hardee’s grandfather, Lawrence High, opened Ella’s of Calabash (named after his wife) 73 years ago.
Hardee and his sister had the chance to buy Beck’s in 2004. That restaurant has taken on some of Ella’s staff for the season.
“But we’ve had so many other restaurants have been so supportive, too, and some staff have gone there, too,” Hardee said. “It’s been great.”
From memorable meals and more, longtime customers are reminiscing about Ella's on Facebook and elsewhere.
“It’s really touching to hear so many of those stories,” he said.
This isn’t the family’s first fire. Beck’s burned 11 years ago and had to be rebuilt. ("But nowhere close to this," Hardee said.) So did the nearby Milk & Honey restaurant. And Ella’s neighbor, Tony’s Pizza, was demolished after a fire late last year.
“The thing about so many of these Calabash restaurants is that they are old,” Hardee said. “They traced the Beck’s fire to one wire that was installed in 1969.”
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Plans are already underway to rebuild Ella’s, and this time they can do it in an updated way. Hardee said it's difficult not to be frustrated that Ella’s will miss an entire busy summer season serving fried shrimp and oysters and deviled crab.
“But, you know, thank the Lord that at least no one was hurt,” he said.
The restaurant was evacuated rather calmly, considering. And it’s comforting to know that Ella’s will soon, hopefully in six months or so, be a part of the Calabash community again.
Allison Ballard is the food and dining reporter at the StarNews. You can reach her at aballard@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Fire destroys historic Calabash seafood restaurant in Brunswick County
