Surfside grapples with loss of town-favorite restaurant

The Pickled Cucumber was an anchor of Surfside Beach’s main street, and it was always packed, former patrons and neighbors said.

But after a fire on Wednesday night, the restaurant on Surfside Drive has been closed. Nobody was inside during the incident and there were no injuries, but a film of black sludge now coats the inside of the restaurant’s windows. The smell of smoke is apparent from the sidewalk.

In the corner window, a bright green “keep calm and love pickles” sign peeks out from behind the residue.

Nadya Batson ran the restaurant with her husband, head chef Eddie Batson. Their 15-month-old daughter, Tatiana, “started working with us when she was three days old,” Nadya Batson said.

“It was our livelihood,” she said. “But life goes on.”

In Surfside, the same building was once home to another town favorite, the Village Cafe. The building was so recognizable, Nadya Batson said, that when the Pickled Cucumber opened about three years ago, patrons started coming in even though the restaurant didn’t advertise.

The couple expected to serve 50 people a day at the restaurant, which is open from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. But as many as 200 would come through the doors in that time period each day.

On Wednesday morning, cars slowed and drivers craned to see what happened to the town’s favorite lunch spot. Multiple people walked by and tried the front door, which was locked.

Many told The Sun News they missed their favorite dishes — fried okra or pineapple upside-down cake.

Brenda Collier, a local Realtor, inspected the back of the restaurant and then called a friend to let them know about it.

“Their food was always so good,” Collier said. “There’s gonna be so many people so sad.”

Part of the experience of the restaurant, she said, was the family that operated it — patrons were sometimes greeted by Tatiana running through the interior.

Daniel Bobo, a dishwasher, rolled by on a bicycle, unsure whether he would still have a job.

“I haven’t heard anything,” he said.

Nadya Batson said that fire inspectors suspect that the fire started with an electrical issue in the breaker box. Repair workers estimated the interior damage could cost $100,000 to fix, not including the holes in the roof cut by firefighters as they fought the inferno, she said.

But the couple plans to reopen the restaurant in another location in town if the building isn’t fixed in time by the owners, Nadya Batson said. A Facebook post on the restaurant’s page said the owners of the property were working with their insurers, and that the eatery “WILL re-open in a matter of two months.”

Vicky Justice, the landlord for the property, could not be reached by phone Thursday. However, her daughter, Starlene Schafer, wrote on Facebook that the damage was “overwhelming.”

“We will rebuild better than ever for you and your great supporters,” Schafer wrote to Eddie Batson in the post.

This story was originally published September 28, 2017 at 4:40 PM with the headline "Surfside grapples with loss of town-favorite restaurant."