Edmund’s Oast joins Indigo Road Hospitality Group

After 11 years as an independent restaurant, downtown Charleston mainstay Edmund’s Oast restaurant is joining The Indigo Road Hospitality Group.

Indigo Road Hospitality Group, based in Charleston and employing more than 1800 people across the South in restaurants, bars, hotels, and event venues, is one of the fastest-growing hospitality companies in the nation. Edmund’s Oast (EO) is the first existing restaurant to join the group.

Both companies declined to reveal specific financial terms of the agreement that moves EO under the Indigo Road umbrella, joining more than 30 other restaurants. But according to Indigo Road founder Steve Palmer, the hospitality behemoth has no plans at this time to acquire additional independent restaurants, nor does the company intend to replicate EO elsewhere.

Many of the brands that Indigo Road developed in Charleston, including Oak Steakhouse and O-Ku, now have multiple locations across the Southeast.

“We don’t have a growth strategy,” Palmer said. “It has always been organic.”

Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company—the beer production portion of the brand, which operates a taproom further north on Morrison Drive—will remain independent. As part of Indigo Road, Edmund’s Oast Restaurant will brew for on-site service, but under a more traditional brewpub restaurant license.

Shortly after the owners of Charleston Beer Exchange opened Edmund’s Oast in 2014, it was named a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, and just last year, made the Beard semis again for Outstanding Bar. Its menu includes elevated comfort food such as salt chicken, pickled shrimp, and a beloved “too much dressing” Caesar salad. The restaurant and its patio are a popular community hub.

Palmer and EO managing partner Scott Shor stress that guests won’t notice any changes, explaining this partnership is based in a longstanding friendship.

Shor in 2008 became friends with Indigo Road culinary director Jeremiah Bacon, who was then head chef at Carolina’s. After Bacon joined Indigo Road, Shor got to know Palmer.

“When we set out to lay the groundwork for what would become Edmund’s Oast, both of them were very involved in advisory roles,” Shor said. “They were quite involved in our pre-launch planning all the way through the early days of being open.”

Palmer said, “This isn’t about adding another restaurant, it’s about partnering with a friend and sharing our operational efficiencies.”

Staff members were alerted this past week to the corporate realignment, which will affect some aspects of financial management, including their insurance plans.

This deal, in talks for more than a year, is rooted in the rising costs of running an independent restaurant of EO’s size. Edmund’s Oast feels like a campus, with three distinct areas: the main building, with an interior of approximately 6500 square feet, the outdoor patio, which is an additional 2200 square feet, and the similarly-sized former wine and beer shop, known as the Exchange, now used for private events.

“On a busy weekend night, we are cooking it all. We don’t have a separate events kitchen,” executive chef Bob Cook explained. “That means our kitchen will routinely handle 300 plates of food at one time.”

Cook and the events sales team, helmed by Charleston restaurant veteran Nikki Anhalt Fairman, have grown the private events sales from around $100,000 in 2020 to close to $1.5 million in 2024, even while preparing everything for multiple private events for hundreds in an open kitchen that handles regular restaurant service at the same time.

Beyond making food, the stresses of ordering, staffing, and maintaining the massive complex are becoming less sustainable and desirable.

“We want to see the whole company take a step in a positive next direction, and this is just one of the only ways to do it right,” Cook said. “I’m very proud of what we’ve built so far, but we want to enrich that. Just in buying power alone, aligning with Indigo Road will help us. They have the accounting, the systems, and the ability to work with us day-to-day.”

Cook remains a partner in the restaurant—the third chef to helm the restaurant, he became a partner in 2020—and longtime general manager Suzy Stone-Lockheart will also assume a partnership role.

While he’ll still serve in a support role at the restaurant, Shor is stepping down as partner. He will remain an active partner at Edmund’s Oast Brewing Company, which distributes beer in eight states, as well as overseas. 

“What I’m excited about is that, in my career, I’ve only operated in a mom-and-pop sense,” said Stone-Lockhart, who managed the Tattooed Moose downtown and helped open its Johns Island location before joining the EO team close to five years ago.

“I’ve never had the structure behind me to be able to make really big picture financial decisions,” she continued. “It feels like I’m about to go to college for what I’ve been doing for 15 years.”

Palmer readily acknowledges the EO team knows what it’s doing. “Edmunds Oast will always be a one of one Charleston restaurant,” he said.