Last month Hannibal’s Kitchen was the only South Carolina restaurant awarded a grant for historic, small restaurants by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Now in its fourth year, Backing Historic Small Restaurants has awarded grants in all 50 states. The number of grants doubled this year, with 50 small restaurants awarded $50,000 each, totaling $2.5 million, up from 25 restaurants awarded $1 million in 2023.
The grants are meant to help each restaurant upgrade, renovate and grow their business. In addition to the grant funding, each restaurant receives one year of complimentary access to Resy’s restaurant management software, Resy OS.
The Trust selected this year’s restaurants from a group of spots that operate in historic buildings or neighborhoods.
“There aren’t many Charleston businesses, especially restaurants, that have been continued by three generations of the same family,” said Madison Lee, community outreach coordinator for the Preservation Society of Charleston. “That alone makes Hannibal’s special. To carry forward Gullah cultural traditions for nearly 40 years in downtown Charleston, is really a testament to the Huger family legacy and the vital role Gullah Geechee culture plays in our city.”
As a longstanding Eastside soul food restaurant, Hannibal’s has been covered extensively by City Paper in the past, topping the paper’s lists of go-to restaurants, top soul restaurants and perennial Lowcountry favorites.
Hannibal’s was even listed in The New York Times in 2021 as one of “America’s favorite restaurants.” Kim Severson wrote: “Sometimes, you can taste a lot of history in one bite of food. Here, that bite should be the crab rice served at Hannibal’s Soul Kitchen, one of the last old-school Gullah Geechee restaurants in the area. Its version is definitive, with local blue-crab meat pan-fried so it’s crispy but still retains bits of soft flesh, piled generously over white rice. And it’s just one item on a menu that delivers other Lowcountry dishes you’d be hard pressed to find better examples of anywhere.”
Celebrate the restaurant’s recent grant with a visit for lunch or dinner this week — and be sure to order the crab rice.
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