FOOD & DRINK
At Shug’s, the food brings you in, the feeling brings you back.
Chef Noah Coleman was born less than half a mile from the spot where he now stands behind a stove on Central Avenue in Summerville.
He grew up on Carson’s Road, the oldest of five, cooking for younger siblings who didn’t care much about plating or technique—they just wanted to eat. He didn’t come from a culinary family in any formal sense. His mother was a good cook. His grandmother was better. But food in that house was sustenance, not art.
The art came later, at another Summerville restaurant called Oscar’s, where as a young man, Coleman saw food presented in vivid color for the first time—composed on the plate with care, arranged with intention. Something clicked, hard and permanent.
“A light came on in my head,” he said, “and I said, ‘I know what I’m going to be doing for the rest of my life.'”
That life has taken its time unfolding. Coleman enrolled at Johnson & Wales but couldn’t finish—at the time he was a single parent raising two children and holding down a full-time job. He found his real education instead at Applebee’s, of all places, where he spent the better part of a decade working his way from line cook to certified trainer to assistant kitchen manager, eventually opening new locations across the region. He later sharpened his skills in notable Charleston kitchens, including 82 Queen. But the pull of home never left.
Shug’s was born in 2006 in St. George, inspired by a friend’s suggestion that he start a restaurant and name it in the spirit of The Color Purple. That potential partnership didn’t materialize but Shug’s did. Shug’s took shape as a place where people could gather around good food without pretension. But Coleman admits his early menus were too polished for the room.
“I was so much into culinary, I wasn’t feeling the pulse of the people,” he said. Once he pivoted toward the soul food and comfort cooking the community actually craved, the tables filled.
Now at 1208 Central Avenue, in the heart of the town where he was raised, Shug’s is both a homecoming and a declaration.
The fried chicken alone is worth the visit—marinated deep to the bone in a proprietary blend Coleman guards closely, then fried without a wash so the seasoning does the talking. The menu stretches from Charleston crab cakes and shrimp and grits to collard green egg rolls and a she-crab soup that appears on weekends like a Lowcountry secret everyone already knows.
Seasons shift the offerings: summer brings barbecue, tacos and lighter salads; winter calls for pecan pie and sweet potato pie.
But Coleman will tell you, without a trace of false modesty, that Shug’s was never meant to be only about the food. It’s about the experience—live music under the lights, oyster roasts, a space where people gather around each other and good food.
“Food is common at the core,” he said, “but it’s not the whole thing for us.” He wants Shug’s to feel the way the best Lowcountry gatherings have always felt: a table that holds everyone, a pot that stretches to feed whoever shows up.
There is, beneath the warmth of the place, a quieter story. Coleman’s mother, who sat at his table every Mother’s Day surrounded by the women of the family, passed in 2022. His father, estranged for 42 years, found his way back to him—they had five good years together before he passed in 2023. Coleman speaks of both losses with a gratitude that outweighs the grief, the way only someone who has cooked through hard seasons can.
Chef Coleman’s rhythm in the kitchen is steady, unhurried, distinctively grounded and rooted in a love for cooking and hospitality that feels earned.
Shug’s, in its best moments, carries that same cadence. Come in, sit down, let the food do what it’s meant to do.
This is Coleman’s home, and at his table, it becomes yours.
If You Go
Shug’s Southern Soul Express
1208 Central Ave., Summerville, SC 29483
(843) 900-8000 · shugssouthernsoulexpress.com
Don’t miss: Soulful Sunday Brunch. The fried chicken. The she-crab soup (weekends only). The vibe.
