The Single Mom Who Changed Myrtle Beach Dining Gets Her Due

When Dan had to plan his mom’s big 80th birthday dinner, he knew just where to take the whole family: Myrtle Beach, SC. The group of ten celebrated at Hook and Barrel, a sustainable seafood and wine restaurant owned by restaurateur Heidi Vukov, who’s a legend in Myrtle Beach. She started out as a single mom who opened a small bakery, and 31 years later became the city’s first James Beard semifinalist.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:11Dan Pashman?

  This episode of The Sporkful is brought to you by Visit Myrtle Beach. And as you're going to hear in this episode, we had a blast. I went there with my whole extended family, 10 of us, down to Myrtle Beach recently. And yes, we ate well, but as you'll also hear, the beaches, 60 miles of beaches, 14 communities. Myrtle Beach is an affordable destination where you can find what you're looking for in a fun and relaxing vacation. They got water sports, theater, nightlife. Make Myrtle Beach your own. You belong at the beach. Plan your next trip to the beach at visitmyrtlebeach.com.

• 0:43Speaker 01

  This is super casual. And as my family knows, nice clothes make my body hurt.

• 0:52Speaker 01

  So this is like living the dream out here in South Carolina, just chilling, listening to the waves, eating delicious food with the family.

• 1:09Dan Pashman?

  This is The Sporkful. It's not for foodies, it's for eaters. I'm Dan Pashman. Each week on our show, we obsess about food to learn more about people. And today, we're bringing you an episode sponsored entirely by Visit Myrtle Beach. I took my first trip to Myrtle last summer by myself, and I had such a good time eating my way across the city. The whole time, I'm thinking, man, I gotta bring the fam here. So when the folks at Visit Myrtle Beach invited me back, it was an easy decision and the perfect chance to celebrate my mom's 80th birthday. We kicked off the vacation with a birthday dinner celebration at Hook and Barrel. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, dear grandma. Happy birthday. Hook and Barrel is a sustainable seafood and wine restaurant owned by restaurateur

• 1:54Dan Pashman?

  Heidi Vukov. Heidi's kind of a legend in Myrtle Beach. She runs two other eateries in the area, Croissants, Bistro and Bakery, and the Coffee and Cream Cabana. And this year, she was named a semifinalist for the James Beard Best Chef Southeast Award.

• 2:06Speaker 02

  I'm not like one of those like jump up and down kind of people. I'm pretty laid back. The moment I found out about it, I was screaming and jumping up and down.

• 2:22Dan Pashman?

  Heidi grew up in Pennsylvania. She didn't set out to become a chef, although she says the women in her family have always been great cooks. Out of college, she got a job in Florida as a front desk manager at a hotel, but she always seemed to find herself hanging out in the kitchen. Eventually, Heidi left her job at the hotel and transitioned to the back of the house. She started working at a bakery in the pastry department.

• 2:40Speaker 02

  I'm a pastry chef by trade, I would say, and mostly on the job training.

• 2:46Dan Pashman?

  Later, Heidi helped open two new locations for that bakery, splitting her time between managing and baking, which got her thinking about opening up a place of her own someday. Then, in the early 90s, she moved to Myrtle Beach, looking for a fresh start.

• 2:59Speaker 02

  I was divorced and I was a mom and I needed to figure out how to make a living for my kids and it seemed to be a good place to settle. At the time, I didn't really realize as much as I would appreciate the way southern people are. You know, they're very hospitable by nature.

• 3:19Dan Pashman?

  At the time, Myrtle Beach wasn't the obvious destination for Heidi to open her own place. The food scene wasn't much of a scene.

• 3:25Speaker 02

  We had a lot of pancake houses and all-you-can-eat calabash seafood restaurants and lots of franchise restaurants. And there were a few independents, but not a lot.

• 3:37Dan Pashman?

  As it turns out, though, Heidi's timing was perfect. Myrtle Beach was just about to take off and transition from a popular regional summer vacation spot to an international year-round destination.

• 3:47Speaker 02

  Oh, my gosh, it's changed dramatically. We have so many different ethnicities that are represented and we just have so many different options. It's like night and day.

• 4:00Dan Pashman?

  And Heidi's had a big hand in that transformation. In 1995, a few years after moving to the area, she got a loan from the bank and opened her first restaurant, Croissants, Bistro and Bakery.

• 4:09Speaker 02

  When I first opened Croissants, my children were very young and we were a bistro bakery. And so I had to go to work at 4 o'clock in the morning. And I was a single mom, so I took them in their pajamas and they slept on beanbag chairs in the dining room while I would get all the baking started in the morning. And then my staff would start to come in and it was time to take them to school. And so I'd get them dressed and take them to school and come back to work.

• 4:37Dan Pashman?

  Business was a little slow at first, so Heidi got creative.

• 4:40Speaker 02

  I would take my stuff to all the local businesses around the area and just, you know, give them cakes and give them cookies and give them muffins and hope that they would come and visit me.

• 4:51Dan Pashman?

  Today, Croissants is a Myrtle Beach institution, and that was just the beginning for Heidi. In 2017, she opened Hook and Barrel, featuring scallops from the Virginia coast, clams from Bull's Bay near Charleston, and shrimp from Merle's Inlet just down the road. The breads, cakes, and ice cream are all made from scratch. And there are other reasons why Hook and Barrel stands out.

• 5:10Speaker 02

  I wanted to build a restaurant and make a difference in our town. And so I came up with this idea to build a sustainable, eco-friendly seafood restaurant, which was even a bigger, a much bigger risk than a bakery.

• 5:30Speaker 02

  I also decided that I was going to build a kitchen that would be the first non-gas kitchen in the state of South Carolina, which was also a risk because, you know, although some of this equipment had been out for years, you know, not a lot of people had tried to do something like that.

• 5:46Dan Pashman?

  After being in the game for so long and taking such big risks, you can understand why it meant so much to Heidi to be named a James Beard semifinalist this year.

• 5:54Speaker 02

  It's an amazing honor to have been recognized, you know, at this, at this point in my career.

• 6:00Dan Pashman?

  Right.

• 6:00Speaker 02

  People get it when they're, you know, in their late 20s, early 30s, not when they're in their 60s.

• 6:08Dan Pashman?

  When Hook and Barrel opened, Heidi projected they'd serve 200 people a night. Today, in the summer, on a typical night, they're serving over 700.

• 6:20Dan Pashman?

  I talked with Heidi a few days before arriving in Myrtle Beach. Knowing her backstory made her all the more special. And we got to Hook and Barrel to celebrate my mom's 80th.

• 6:29Dan Pashman?

  Cheers to grandma. Cheers.

• 6:35Dan Pashman?

  All right, having a taste of the she crab soup here.

• 6:39Dan Pashman?

  Little peppery, paprika, the sherry.

• 6:44Dan Pashman?

  Mom, thoughts on the she crab soup?

• 6:46Speaker 03

  It's delicious. It's just such a great, complex flavors. You don't expect it to be, I expect it to be sort of like one flavor. It's not. It's exceptional.

• 6:57Dan Pashman?

  That's high praise.

• 7:01Dan Pashman?

  All right, this is the sheed scallops corn puree.

• 7:09Dan Pashman?

  This is outstanding. The sweetness of the corn puree, the salty smokiness of the bacon. I would be worried like, oh, this might overpower the scallops, but it doesn't because these are phenomenal scallops. I would have licked my plate clean if I wasn't saving just a tiny bit of room for dessert. This pineapple bread pudding with the caramel sauce and coconut ice cream is entering my Hall of Fame of desserts. The problem with a lot of bread puddings is that they're like monotextual, but this is like gooey in the center, but with the perimeter that is crispy, almost char. And then the coconut ice cream, oh mercy. I haven't been this full in a while.

• 7:54Dan Pashman?

  There's a passion family trait that when we get really full, our noses get stuffed. So you know, I ate a lot, but this was phenomenal.

• 8:07Dan Pashman?

  Coming up, I hear the story behind the Myrtle Beach brewery that doesn't just serve humans.

• 8:11Speaker 04

  We have a dog bowl, which consists of some turkey sausage and white rice. And we have Argus malt liquor. It's just beef broth with some veggies in it. So if they get to come in, eat, eat nice and healthy as well.

• 8:22Dan Pashman?

  Stick around.

• 8:30Dan Pashman?

  We're taking a break now to thank the sponsor of today's episode, Visit Myrtle Beach. And let me tell you, Myrtle Beach is a phenomenal family vacation destination. We went there, 10 of us, ranging in age from nine to 83, and everyone had a blast. Of course, they have beaches, 60 miles of beaches. They have phenomenal food, dinner theater, fine dining, global flavors from around the world, but also live music on waterfront stages, water parks, golf as far as the eye can see, and mini golf, some of the most elaborate and incredible mini golf courses you have ever seen. Then they have these beautiful areas called like Barefoot Landing is one, Broadway at the Beach is another, and it's just like really cute shops, nice restaurants, tons of outdoor seating.

• 9:15Dan Pashman?

  Point is, I went expecting great beaches. We got that. I went expecting great food because I've been there before and we got that. I didn't expect how many other great family activities there would be. So don't wait to start making memories. You belong at the beach. Plan your next trip to the beach at visitmyrtlebeach.com.

• 9:38Dan Pashman?

  Welcome back to The Sporkful. I'm Dan Pashman. Let's get back now to my family vacation to Myrtle Beach. On the last day of our trip, we stopped for lunch at Title Creek Brew House, just south of downtown Myrtle. Josh Ashley, the executive chef, gave me a tour of the place.

• 9:51Speaker 04

  Right now, we're standing in the brew house. This is where all the magic happens as far as all of our beers get made. Our brewmaster gets down to work and makes all the great booze we sell here.

• 10:01Dan Pashman?

  So when you call it Title Creek Brew House, it's not just a cute name. This is actually a brew house.

• 10:06Speaker 04

  Exactly. We not only just brew our own beer here, but we roast our own coffee beans as well. So it's kind of got two meanings.

• 10:14Dan Pashman?

  Title Creek Brew House is owned and operated by husband and wife team Adrian Sawchuck and Dara Liberatore. Adrian's an army vet who spent time stationed in Germany. While he was there, he fell in love with German beer halls. And that experience provided the inspiration for Title Creek. You can see the German influence in the menu. Hefeweizen on tap, brat platters and big pretzels with beer cheese alongside classic low country dishes like she crab soup and fried green tomatoes.

• 10:38Speaker 04

  The bratwursts actually come from Cooper's farm, which is a small farm in Charleston. There's no fillers, nothing in there. It's just the herbs and the pork and we smoke those. Then we braise them for a couple of hours in our backwater brown ale, some herbs and carrots and celery. They come out very good.

• 10:59Dan Pashman?

  Inside, the brewery has a light industrial feel, high ceilings, wood benches, tin paneling behind the bar. There's also something I love. Oh, you have board games back here.

• 11:08Speaker 04

  Oh, yeah. People say kid friendly, very kid friendly.

• 11:10Dan Pashman?

  My family, we love board games, Pictionary, Taboo. Listen, Josh, do not play Taboo with my wife. She gets very competitive.

• 11:17Speaker 04

  Mine does as well.

• 11:18Dan Pashman?

  Let's not get them together.

• 11:19Speaker 04

  Exactly.

• 11:22Dan Pashman?

  Title Creek opened in June 2020. Tough timing, I know, but they made it through the pandemic. It helped that they're located on over an acre of land on the former Myrtle Beach Air Force Base. And I love that you got a lot of outdoor space here. We're making our way to the picnic tables. Oh my gosh, you have a little teeny tiny picnic table.

• 11:40Speaker 04

  Yes, sir.

• 11:40Dan Pashman?

  That's the cutest picnic table I ever saw.

• 11:42Speaker 04

  Yep. We have a nice wide open area out here. We have lots of room for the kids to come and hang out while the parents hang out. And we have lots of outdoor games.

• 11:53Dan Pashman?

  There's cornhole, giant Connect Four and giant Jenga, a ring toss, even a putting green and axe throwing.

• 11:59Speaker 04

  We do live music here on the weekends. Someone will come out and set up out here.

• 12:03Dan Pashman?

  Is there a garden area too?

• 12:04Speaker 04

  Yep, we have a beer garden back here. We'll get back there. It's right past the dog run here. It's a very dog friendly place. We have a menu for the dogs. They eat well.

• 12:12Dan Pashman?

  Really?

• 12:12Speaker 04

  Yes, sir.

• 12:13Dan Pashman?

  Yes, there's a menu for the dogs, a bowl with turkey, sausage and rice, another with beef broth and veggies. So when you set out to be a chef, you probably didn't anticipate that.

• 12:21Speaker 04

  No, I didn't, but it's definitely fun.

• 12:28Dan Pashman?

  Josh was born and raised in Myrtle Beach. He says his interest in cooking came about naturally as a result.

• 12:33Speaker 04

  Growing up in this town, you know, there's a restaurant on every corner and you kind of just fall into it. And either you end up hating it or you end up loving it. And I was just one of those people that just was in love with the chaos of it all.

• 12:46Dan Pashman?

  What do you love about that chaos?

• 12:47Speaker 04

  Just, you know, the satisfaction when it's all done, you know, to sit back and look, everybody's happy and fed. And I think that just kind of stems from growing up southern, you know, the locals here, they take their food very seriously being in the south.

• 13:02Dan Pashman?

  What were some of your favorite foods to eat around here growing up?

• 13:05Speaker 04

  I've always been big on the smoked meats, you know, the pulled porks and stuff of that nature, briskets. And I mean, through and through, I'm a burger guy, you know, I think there's nothing better than a nice, big juicy cheeseburger.

• 13:17Dan Pashman?

  With a good beer.

• 13:18Speaker 04

  With a good beer, that's it.

• 13:20Dan Pashman?

  And that's what Title Creek does best, beers and burgers. But they have a pretty big menu.

• 13:24Speaker 04

  Breakfast, lunch, dinner, brunch menu.

• 13:27Dan Pashman?

  So I had Josh talk me through a few of his favorites.

• 13:29Speaker 04

  All right. So our brewmaster burger is short room and sirloin mix. Cook however you want it, you know? I like mine medium rare preferably. And it has our in-house smoked pulled pork on it. And then it also has our tomato cheese, which we make in-house. And we also make the tomato jam in-house. It goes well with the pork and the pickles.

• 13:49Dan Pashman?

  That sounds phenomenal. Then you got the black and blue with the blue cheese, mushroom Swiss. You know, I'm so happy to see that here. I feel like for all the focus on burgers and of course, they've always been popular. It feels like they've been especially popular the last few years. There are not enough people putting mushrooms on burgers.

• 14:04Speaker 04

  Oh yeah, it's very important. Very important.

• 14:08Dan Pashman?

  What do you think is something that's underrated? Like if someone had been here a bunch of times and you were like, you know, this one thing here you never tried, like what's the menu secret that you feel like you would recommend to that person?

• 14:18Speaker 04

  Well, I would have to say for our dinner menu, our shrimp and grits are very good. We cook our grits as you normally would, and then we put them out on a sheet pan. And then as they get cold, we take a cookie cutter, we cut them out and then we dust them in cornstarch and lightly fry them before we send them out. So you get a nice crispy cheesy grit cake with the Cajun cream sauce with the shrimp on top.

• 14:41Dan Pashman?

  Oh man.

• 14:42Speaker 04

  A lot of extra steps, but it's worth it at the end.

• 14:45Dan Pashman?

  After talking through the menu with Josh, I was ready to put in my order. I started with a flight of beers. I got the Breezy, which is their blonde ale. I got the backwater brown, brown ale. I got the harmonic Hefeweizen and Janie got a crisp apple cider. So four little tastes of those four. And for food, I had to try their signature burger. The flavors came together perfectly. But for Janie's order, she threw a little bit of a curve ball.

• 15:13Speaker 05

  I ordered the hummus toast. You know, I love avocado toast. It's a similar type of structure as like the toast and there's hummus and cucumbers and a vinaigrette and some greens. It's so good. They make their own hummus here and I know this might be even better than avocado toast.

• 15:31Dan Pashman?

  I'm going to try the hummus toast. That is good. What I'm enjoying about the beers and the burger and really everything here is that I feel like everything's really well done. It's really fresh, but nothing is like over the top. I don't like beers when they're like, it's quadruple hopped. It's like the strong, it doesn't need to be the strongest flavor. This burger doesn't need to have 27 favorable things like, like just start with the basics and do it well. Becky, what are you going to say?

• 16:00Speaker 05

  Well, I ordered the Caesar salad wrap and basically same thing as you said, that it's like good, but it's not too much dressing or too much stuff packed into one wrap. It's like good.

• 16:13Dan Pashman?

  Especially with the Caesar salad wrap. If it's like drowning in dressing, the whole thing turns to mush.

• 16:17Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 16:18Dan Pashman?

  But they did not make that mistake here.

• 16:25Dan Pashman?

  When everyone was done eating, we piled into our rental car and headed to the airport. As soon as we boarded the plane, I fell asleep in my seat, dreaming about that pineapple bread pudding. As promised, I did not leave Myrtle Beach hungry. A big thank you to the folks at Hook and Barrel and Title Creek Brew House, as well as Abraham's Euros, which we covered in one of our recent segments on Myrtle Beach. As you heard in this episode and the segments we've been running recently at the end of some of our other episodes, I ate extremely well in Myrtle Beach. There's a huge variety of different kinds of foods, different cuisines at all different kinds of price points, and it's super family friendly. There's something for everyone, no matter who you're traveling with. Like I said, our group was ages nine to 83 and everyone loved it.

• 17:06Dan Pashman?

  Every moment can become a memory at Myrtle Beach. So make more moments together. You belong at the beach. Land your next trip to the beach at visitmyrtlebeach.com. And hey, did you know you can listen to The Sporkful on the Sirius XM app? Yes, the Sirius XM app, it has all your favorite podcasts, plus over 200 ad-free music channels curated by genre and era, plus live sports coverage. Does your podcasting app have that? And there's interviews with A-list stars and so much more. It's everything you want in a podcast app and music app, all rolled into one. And right now, Sporkful listeners can get three months free of the Sirius XM app by going to siriusxm.com/sporkful. This episode was produced by me along with managing producer. Emma Morgenstern. And senior producer. Andres O'Hara. And producer.

• 17:51Dan Pashman?

  Grace Rubin. Our technical director is. Jared O'Connell. Music help from Black Label Music. The Sporkful is a production of Sirius XM Podcasts. Our executive producer is Camille Stanley. Until next time, I'm Dan Pashman.

• 18:03Speaker 05

  And I'm Leif Larson in Winnipeg, reminding you to eat more, eat better and eat more better.