MOUNT PLEASANT — An Alabama-based breakfast restaurant chain plans to open a second location in the Charleston area in a space that once served morning meals.
Big Bad Breakfast will take over the spot vacated in January by Cabana Burgers & Shakes at 2664 Highway 17, near the recently opened Bohemian Bull restaurant.
Before Cabana Burgers & Shakes' eight-month run at the site, the property housed an Eggs Up Grill location that closed in 2021.
"We have to get through permitting, but we are looking at a mid-July opening there," said Wayne Bumgardner, operating partner of Big Bad Breakfast's other Lowcountry location at 456 Meeting St. in downtown Charleston, which opened in 2019.
"There is not a whole lot that needs to be done there, but it could be a little later in the summer if things don't go as planned," he said. "We've built some time into that schedule, so hopefully we will be open in July."
Bumgardner lamented the closing of Cabana Burgers, which has another location on Johns Island, but "it created an opportunity for us and we are excited about it."
The restaurant will be open 7 a.m.-2:30 p.m. daily, serving a full breakfast menu along with lunch items such as sandwiches, burgers and salads as well as alcoholic beverages that include mimosas, beer and wine.
Bumgardner said the restaurant will need no less than 40 employees. The Meeting Street site employs 47.
Big Bad Breakfast has 15 locations across eight states in the Southeast, with six more in the works, including the East Cooper site. They stretch as far west as Little Rock, Ark., where another one is planned, to as far north as Louisville, Ky.
Others are planned for Huntsville, Ala.; Destin, Fla.; Durham, N.C.; and Chattanooga, Tenn., according to the company's website.
