Henry's on the Market
Charleston, South Carolina · New Century & Prohibition · Est. 1932 · Open today
Since 1932
Henry's traces its roots to the late 19th century, when German immigrant Henry Otto Hasselmeyer opened a grocery store at the corner of Market and Anson Streets in downtown Charleston. The restaurant was established in 1932, and when Prohibition ended in 1933 Hasselmeyer converted it into 'Henry's Beer Parlor,' serving beer alongside boiled shrimp and deviled crab. In the 1950s and '60s, under Hasselmeyer's son and son-in-law with chef John Bolton in the kitchen, Henry's became renowned for French-inspired seafood and was a favorite of locals and tourists alike. After a decline in the 1970s, restaurateur Leo Chiagkouris bought it in 1985 and added a whiskey lounge, rooftop bar, and dance club. It bills itself today as the oldest continuously operating restaurant in Charleston and South Carolina, with live music nightly across from the historic City Market.
Henry's began as a German immigrant's corner grocery and reopened as a beer parlor the moment Prohibition ended in 1933 — it has been serving Charleston drinkers from the same Market Street corner ever since.
What to order: She-crab soup and Lowcountry seafood (shrimp and grits, crab cakes), with live jazz and dueling-piano acts nightly across its multi-floor bar spaces.
How solid is the claim?
South Carolina’s oldest bar — the evidence
Henry's on the Market in Charleston is our featured pick for the oldest bar in South Carolina, with a claimed founding year of 1932. Henry's is widely cited in Charleston media as the oldest continuously operating restaurant-bar in Charleston and South Carolina; its official site says 'Established in 1932,' with beer service beginning as 'Henry's Beer Parlor' at Prohibition's end in 1933. The claim originates with the restaurant but is echoed by Charleston Magazine, Charleston City Paper, and travel outlets. The historically older titleholder — McCrady's, with tavern roots to 1778 — closed permanently in 2020, leaving Henry's the state's operating claimant; note the 'oldest' title depends on the word 'continuous,' since Henry's dates only to the 1930s.
Competing Claims
Other South Carolina establishments with a stake in the title:
Sources
- 1. Henry's on the Market — About (official site)
- 2. It's hard to become a local institution, and even harder to stay one — Charleston City Paper
- 3. Henry's On The Market: A Historic South Carolina Restaurant — OnlyInYourState
- 4. McCrady's Tavern and Long Room — Wikipedia
- 5. McCrady's Restaurant in Charleston — National Trust for Historic Preservation