The smell of hot oil and seasoned seafood drifts down West Boyce Street long before customers reach the front door of Gullah Gullah Fish. Inside the small downtown Manning restaurant, owner Craig Levy moves between the fryer and the stove while his mother, brother and relatives greet regulars by name and slide paper-wrapped plates across the counter.
This weekend, the family-owned spot at 23 W. Boyce St. is celebrating 10 years in business with an anniversary event on Saturday, Nov. 22, and the launch of a new Sunday schedule. To thank customers, Gullah Gullah Fish will offer $10 shrimp and fries, $10 fish and fries, and $10 shrimp and grits — three of its most popular dishes — during the celebration.
“We’re here offering good food if you’re not looking for fast food and you’re looking for something that’s freshly cooked,” Levy said. “We put a lot of love into our food and we just try to have something different for the community — another option.”
Levy is the restaurant’s owner, but he is rarely alone in the kitchen. His mother, Barbara Levy, and brother, Kevin Levy, work alongside him. His aunt, Betty Benbow, and cousin Mona Benbow help in the front of the house, handling customer service. In the back, Levy cooks with his other cousin, Brett Benbow. Craig’s fiancée, Preese Abraham, and Kevin move easily between chatting with customers and helping behind the line.
The restaurant’s story stretches far beyond the four walls of the early-1900s brick building it occupies. Barbara Levy was born and raised in Clarendon County before moving north in 1965. She and her husband, Johnny Levy, joined the wave of Southerners who left for New York in search of better opportunities. He became a New York City police officer; she worked as a schoolteacher. Their sons, Craig and Kevin, grew up in Brooklyn, Queens and Long Island.
Years later, after Craig’s college basketball plans were cut short by injury, his parents retired and came home to Manning. They invested in several properties, including the downtown building that now houses Gullah Gullah Fish. At first, they rented it out. Craig, who had always imagined opening a restaurant, waited for his chance.
In 2016, that chance arrived when the tenants moved out.
“I always had an idea to put a restaurant in the building whenever it was free,” he said. “I asked my mom and dad if they would let me rent it from them, and that’s how it all started.”
For Barbara, the business represents something even deeper than a new chapter in retirement. Levy said some of his favorite moments are when local customers recognize his mother from her childhood days in Manning.
“Some of the people that come in that’s from the area, they see my mother — she was born and raised here — and just to know that she owns a building on the property downtown, when she was a little girl walking around like in the ’60s,” Levy said. “She probably never thought that she would own that property.”
The menu honors the family’s Gullah Geechee roots. Barbara’s family is from the Charleston area, and traditional dishes from that coastal culture anchor the offerings. Her recipes shine in the macaroni and cheese, candied yams and a blue crab rice. Levy said the dish comes from his mother’s traditional recipe and is “like a Gullah Gullah rice,” reflecting the family’s heritage. Newer favorites — like chicken wings, crab legs and richly braised oxtails — came from Craig and Kevin’s experiments after visiting restaurants in Charleston and Savannah.
“We sell a lot of crab rice, our crab legs and our oxtails,” Levy said. His own favorite plate, he admits, is the oxtails.
The past decade has brought challenges as well as growth. Just as the restaurant was finding its footing, the COVID-19 pandemic forced Levy to close his dining room for about a year. Rather than give up, he cut a pickup window into a wall, repainted and refreshed both the interior and exterior, and slowly rebuilt the business with to-go orders.
“I didn’t want to stay shut down too long, so I built a to-go window,” Levy said. “We slowly reopened and it sort of took off from there.”
Today, Gullah Gullah Fish remains a regular presence at local events, offering specials for occasions like Veterans Day and catering community gatherings. Levy is also finishing a Gullah Gullah food truck and working to franchise the concept so other aspiring entrepreneurs can operate trucks — and eventually brick-and-mortar restaurants — under the same name and recipes.
At home in Manning, though, the focus this week is on saying thank you. In addition to Saturday’s anniversary specials, the restaurant is adding “Sold Out Sundays,” opening an extra day each week from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. so families can pick up platters of fish, crabs and sides after church or before football.
Ten years in, Levy said the milestone still feels a little unreal.
“It seems like a long time, but it went so quick,” he said. “We’re just grateful we’ve been able to do this together as a family and to serve the community that supported us.”
