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Sticky Fingers, the well-known barbecue restaurant in a prime south-island location, closed its doors in late May after six years. The store was the Mt. Pleasant-based chain’s ninth location when it opened. It closed without fanfare just as the busiest tourist months were kicking into high gear.
But the restaurant closing its doors on its Palmetto Bay Road location is not necessarily an indicator that other island businesses are struggling through a tough tourism season during the recession, hospitality officials said. Many restaurant owners on the island looked at economic forecasts last year and already braced themselves for the recession, said Ann-Marie Adams-Arrington, executive director of the Hilton Head Area Hospitality Association.
“If we had individual properties that had difficulties, we saw that last year more so than this year,” she said. “If we saw that attrition of properties, they probably made that judgment
call last year.”
Now the island is in a transition period, she said, with some new eateries opening up in Coligny Plaza and Palmetto Bay Marina.
“I think in terms of Hilton Head, we’re seeing that trend upwards,” she said. “It is not an incline; it is a steady pace.”
Sticky Fingers still operates locations in Savannah, Charleston and about 17 other locations in the South.
