A restaurant coming to Myrtle Beach promises a new culinary experience for the area
The owners of Heirloom Bistro promise to provide a new culinary experience in the Myrtle Beach market.
The menu will be prix fixe with at least three and up to six courses to choose from at a fixed price per course, and diners will have options in each course. The menu will change regularly and according to the seasons.
The multiple courses will allow diners to experience “a lot of different flavors and a lot of different foods, and it ends up being more of a dining experience,” said principal owner Sharon Treffeisen.
Shaun Baxter is a partner and the executive chef. He and Treffeisen are already a team at the Hot Tomato Italian restaurant in Myrtle Beach, where she is the owner and he is the corporate chef.
They plan to open Heirloom by the end of October. They hoped to open in March but the worker shortage in the area forced a delay.
Heirloom will offer upscale food at upscale prices. The small location in the Northwood Plaza at 77th Ave. North and Kings Highway will offer an intimate dining experience, and much of the woodwork in the dining room and bar has been handmade.
“We are truly going to be a culinary event. We want to make your night perfect. We’re looking to do more of a full dining experience,” Baxter said. “Like there are places here that have really good food, and there are places that have really good service, and in between you have the very few places that have both. And I don’t mean good service as far as being polite. I mean good service as far as interacting, as far as food knowledge, as far as suggestions, as far as being able to pair wine successfully for you if you’re not a true gastronomer.”
Baxter was trained at the Culinary Institute of America in New York and has been a chef for three decades, including a dozen years on the Grand Strand at restaurants including Ciao, Hot Tomato and Costa Coastal Kitchen & Bar in Murrells Inlet.
“This is basically a different kind of dining experience that we want to bring to Myrtle Beach using his culinary skills,” Treffeisen said. “We find at [Hot Tomato] a lot of people really enjoy the specials that the chef creates so we figured let’s have specials all the time in a restaurant where he can be creative and do whatever he wants to do.. . . So we want to give [locals] an opportunity to try different things and go to their favorite place and have something different every time they come.”
Everything will be fresh, Baxter said, and Heirloom will be farm-to-table with products from within 300 miles as much as possible, and will use local purveyors when possible. Much of the produce will come from Lee’s Farmers Market.
Baxter said he intends to have complimentary amuse-bouche hors d’oeuvres of his choosing on occasion.
Baking will be done on site.
Exotic foods that he plans to offer at times include wagyu beef, aged beef, wild boar chops and Alaskan halibut, and a number of fresh local fish will be featured.
“We’re definitely going to be cutting edge.” Baxter said. “We’re going to have some fare that other people don’t have. We’re not afraid to spend the extra money to get a product that’s of the best quality. We buy the best food so we can cook you the best food.”
Special events such as bourbon dinners and wine dinners will be planned, and high-end bourbons and scotches will be available, as well as an extensive wine list.
The owners expect the restaurant to require reservations, potentially backed up for days or weeks.
“We don’t want to serve 200 people a night,” Baxter said. “We’d rather you stay here, truly enjoy it and hope you make it back in as fast as you want to.”
The name Heirloom was chosen because “it’s the nicest and most beautiful of tomatoes, and they come in many colors,” Treffeisen said.
The owners plan to give back to the community, particularly with autism fundraisers because that cause hits home for both with family members.
If Heirloom Bistro is successful, Treffeisen and Baxter hope to open a similar restaurant in the North Myrtle Beach area.
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
