Chef Bob Carter, a founding father of Charleston’s vibrant dining scene, died Tuesday night in a Mount Pleasant hotel room where he was staying, according to Charleston County Coroner Bobbi Jo O’Neal.
The cause of his death is pending, she said, offering no other details.
The death of the 59-year-old Carter, past executive chef of the celebrated Peninsula Grill from the late 1990s to 2011, is expected to send shock waves throughout Charleston’s food and beverage community.
Carter has been in the news in the Charleston City Paper for almost two decades. One of the peninsula’s iconic chefs, Carter is often praised for helping to put Charleston on the national dining scene map.
Carter left the Peninsula Grill in 2011, to pursue other ventures, including writing a cookbook and appearing on the Iron Chef television show. Carter’s days as a chef were far from over, though.
In a 2012 interview with former City Paper Editor Stephanie Barna, Carter reflected on his impact on Charleston’s dining scene in the early 2000s:
“Back then, I was into setting the world on fire from a culinary standpoint,” he said during a meal in North Charleston. “But I’ve never been trendy. I was always into the pomp and circumstance of what fine dining was.”
Carter seamlessly moved into his role as restaurateur, opening Carter’s Kitchen in I’On in 2012, the first of several projects he helmed.
As prolific as Carter was in the dining industry, he had his share of personal health issues to deal with, too. A 2013 car crash on the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge left him with a broken neck, broken nose and several broken ribs. It was not the last incident to sideline the chef.
“They’ll come for the food”
In 2014, Carter penned an essay for City Paper’s Dish magazine in which he waxed poetic about his time at Peninsula Grill. An excerpt:
“When I moved back in ’97 to open Peninsula Grill, we were the only restaurant in the city to have a printed menu item over $20. We opened with a $24 rack of lamb and everyone said ‘You’ll never make it.’ Well, first they said a restaurant on the alley in the Market would never make it.
“At that time Peninsula Grill opened onto an alley between Market and Hayne streets and a bunch of bums slept there. But we said, ‘They’ll come for the food.’ We opened to incredible success. Peninsula got the Esquire award and then Planters Inn received the Relais and Chateaux designation. Peninsula Grill raised the bar in Charleston, and then that same year, Bob Waggoner opened Charleston Grill.”
Carter wasn’t stuck in the past, though. With eyes on the future of dining in Charleston, he helped to open Rutledge Cab Co. with co-owners Brad Creger, Bill Murray and Mike Veeck. The burger-focused joint was a departure from Peninsula Grill’s fine dining format, one that Carter described as “edgy and fun” before it opened.
His stint there was brief, though, as he then left to open a new project, Barony Tavern, which featured “upscale American fare.” Carter led the kitchen at Barony Tavern for two years before leaving in 2017, citing health concerns.
“I’m a candidate for a kidney transplant,” he said then. “It’ll be a while, but it’s getting closer and closer and to do that I have to have a caregiver, so I’m going to stay with my family in Florida to have the transplant and be close to some people to convalesce.”
According to The Post and Courier, Carter eventually moved to Florida to receive dialysis. Food writer Hanna Raskin wrote about the chef’s issues receiving dialysis during 2020’s Hurricane Michael.
Carter’s impact on the Lowcountry’s culinary scene cannot be understated. Perhaps celebrated chef Sean Brock said it best when, in 2016, he reflected on his time at McCrady’s and his Charleston-based inspirations:
“But I knew that my ultimate goal and what I really wanted to push myself to do since I was 18, was stand in the shoes of the Bob Waggoners, the Frank Lees, the Bob Carters, the Donald Barickmans, the titans of that era when I arrived in Charleston in 1997.”
Connelly Hardaway and Andy Brack contributed to this story.
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