Keoni’s Express, a soul food restaurant from local chef Marcus Middleton, is now open inside the BP gas station located at 2703 Hwy 17A in Summerville. After years of cooking as a personal chef and operating a food truck, Keoni’s Low Country Diaspora, Middleton is happy to have a place to call home.
Folks in the Summerville area can snag quality takeout from Keoni’s, with a soul food-focused menu that features meats, sides and combos. Choose from salmon, shrimp, Gullah garlic wings, a double bacon cheeseburger, roasted veggies, red rice and sausage, smack and cheese (a Middleton specialty that he says is pretty simple, but “jazzed up” with spices and seasoning) and fries. Combo prices start at $15 for one meat and one side.
Keoni’s Express is the result of good timing and silver linings. Middleton had talked to the folks at his local BP about what it would take to get into the kitchen there, which, until recently, had been occupied by other food concepts. Around the same time that the space at BP became available, the commissary kitchen out of which Middleton operated, abruptly closed.
“It made sense to come to something like this,” said Middleton of the location for Keoni’s Express. “It’s consistent traffic, it has air conditioning and it gives me another source of security … it brings consistency to the business, too.”
While Middleton will continue to operate his personal chef service and food truck, he appreciates the ability to plan ahead for Keoni’s Express. “Since everything is not a big moving puzzle every week, every day, I can definitely focus more now … since I’m in a centralized place,” he said.
And while Middleton is currently operating out of the gas station on a month to month basis, he’s in it for the long run. He hopes to start offering a meal delivery service for the dense residential population near the gas station, as well as for larger companies located off of Dorchester Road, like Bosch.
Keoni’s Express will be staffed by Middleton’s team from the food truck and other people who have worked for him before. He also hopes to draft folks from the culinary school at Trident Technical School, which he attended.
“We’re going to grow and train and build more systems,” he said. Middleton said that after years of working in Charleston area restaurants, from Cypress to The Ordinary to Swig and Swine, he’s ready to utilize his experience to “aim past the stars.”
Aiming past the stars, for Middleton, looks like one day putting his food in people’s refrigerators, possibly through a major distributor like Sam’s or Walmart. Until then, Middleton plans to let himself and his business grow organically. As he said: “I know I’ll be ready when the time comes.”
Keoni’s Express is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Follow Keoni’s on Instagram for the latest updates @keoni_sc.
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