Paulie’s will be located inside the totally remodeled space once filled by Bridge Road Bistro
Charleston’s James Beard award-winning Chef Paul Smith is opening a new Italian restaurant inside the former, but completely remodeled, location of Bridge Road Bistro in South Hills, just steps away from his flagship 1010 Bridge.
Scheduled to open in early 2025 at 915 Bridge Rd., the restaurant will be called Paulie’s (one of Smith’s childhood nicknames) and will pay homage to his family’s rich Italian heritage – specifically to his grandfather, Joe Fish, who taught him how to cook as a young boy.
Calling it a “neighborhood Italian restaurant,” Smith said Paulie’s will offer great food and drinks in a comfortable atmosphere, but it won’t be the upscale fine-dining concept some people may be expecting.
“It won’t be casual like Leonoro’s, but it’s not Ristorante Abruzzi either,” he said.
“It’ll be that sweet spot in the middle that’s a great place to take the family. That’s what I grew up with – families making memories while enjoying a great meal – so that’s exactly what we want this new place to be.”
While the menu is still in the early planning stages, Smith said folks can expect the usual suspects like pizza, pasta and other Italian classics, along with creative dishes “done my way,” like maybe fried anchovies stuffed with olives and marcona almonds or fire-roasted Calabrian oysters.
“I guess you could call it old school, but with a new twist. I have a thousand dishes in my head I’ve been playing around with, so I definitely need to rein it in,” said Smith, who was recently named by the James Beard Foundation as this year’s “Best Chef: Southeast” in a six-state region that includes West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
The new restaurant’s owners include Smith and his wife, Carrie, along with Steven and Trey Frame, his business partners at The Pitch Sports Bar & Grill at the Shawnee Sports Complex. They’ve signed a five-year lease for the space, with the option to renew for another five years after that. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Although a full bar and “really good wine list” will be available, Smith says the restaurant’s beverage focus will be “martini heavy,” featuring drinks possibly made with antique turn-crank martini shakers that are served and left tableside with a variety of stuffed olives and such.
“Imagine a classic Italian restaurant with a whole Rat Pack vibe, prohibition-style cocktails, bottles of chianti wine in baskets with the candle drip, the whole bit. We’re also hoping to have wine on tap, so you can have carafes sitting right on the table as you’re enjoying your meal.”
Layout-wise, Paulie’s will be not unlike the restaurant it’s replacing with a kitchen in the back, a large bar in the front, tables in the middle and new long banquette seating along one of the side walls.
That, however, is where the similarities between the two places end.
“The space was completely gutted once we got in, there was nothing left, so we’re putting in a lot of money to design and build everything from scratch just the way we want it,” Smith said. “We’re ordering new tables and chairs to replace the old booths, we’ll have a completely new bar and seating area up front, some really cool art on the walls, everything will be new.”
But new in a way that honors his past while stirring up cherished memories from his childhood.
“When I was a kid, I would look forward to Sundays all week” Smith recalled, “just getting to spend time with my Italian grandfather in the kitchen, helping him stir pots and pans, feeling the buzz of having the extended family all around. You’d smell the tomato sauce bubbling on the stove all day, the meatballs searing in the pot, the garlic bread baking in the oven. Nothing brings back my childhood like those memories and that’s just the kind of place we want Paulie’s feel like.”
To help accomplish that, he’ll be breaking out some of his own family recipes for the menu and some old family photos for the walls.
Although the new restaurant is still several months from opening, Smith’s crews are currently finishing up a remodel of Bridge Road Bistro’s former Walnut Room behind the restaurant, which is also part of their new restaurant and will be ready in the near future to host events, holiday parties and private dining all catered by 1010 Bridge for now.
“It’ll be great to have both restaurants so close to one another and be surrounded by several other good ones as well,” he said, referring to a slew of others clustered around the Bridge Road Shops where Paulie’s will be located. “Fernbank is really good. Lola’s is really good. The Wheelhouse is really good. Sarah’s Bakery is really good. I think we’ll all feed off one another up here.”
Sarah Plumley couldn’t agree more. As the owner of Sarah’s Bakery, located in the shopping plaza right across the street from 1010 Bridge, she’s seen first-hand the benefits of having a chef of Smith’s caliber in the area.
“I'm thrilled to hear that Bridge Road Shops is welcoming another restaurant, particularly with Paul leading the charge,” she said. “Charleston is so lucky to have such a talented and accomplished chef like Paul. He really has helped expand the culinary scene in Charleston, and I'm excited to see what's next.”
Opening a new restaurant is an idea Smith said he’s been toying around with since soon after opening 1010 back in 2020. But it was the recent closings of restaurants like Bridge Road Bistro, The Chop House and Tidewater Grill that he said made him feel like now was the time to take action.
“We want our city and our region to grow, not shrink, so we’re putting our money where our mouth is,” he said. “We’re investing in our community and, in turn, investing in ourselves. Growing up in an Italian family made me realize that’s what is most important – family and community – and we’re trying to make both of those things better.”
And anyone who knows Smith knows he likes to talk about “food, music and stories” as some of the best ways to preserve a family’s legacy or a region’s history.
“Celebrating my Italian roots and the grandfather who taught me how to cook – who helped to get me where I am today – well, that’s the next chapter of the story I want to tell.”
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Steven Keith is a food writer and restaurant critic known as “The Food Guy” who writes a weekly column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail and has appeared in several state, regional and national culinary publications. Follow him online at www.wvfoodguy.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. He can be reached at 304-380-6096 or at wvfoodguy@aol.com.