Peninsula Grill, the downtown Charleston restaurant best known for its 12-layer Ultimate Coconut Cake, is closed while it gets a new look.
The restaurant and its Champagne Bar served their last dinners in the old dining room Aug. 30 and closed Aug. 31 as part of a renovation of the Planters Inn, the hotel that houses them, The Post and Courier reported. The restaurant’s website says it is “temporarily closed for renovation” and looks forward “to welcoming guests back this fall.” It has not announced a reopening date.
Planters Inn, at 112 N. Market St., said July 27 that it would renovate all of its guest rooms and suites, its public spaces and the restaurant, reimagining the property for the first time in decades. The work is being done in two phases and is set to be finished in January 2027, the hotel said. While it is underway, the hotel has moved its lobby to its Charleston Room, according to its website.
Jackson, Wyoming-based Crystal Creek Capital bought the 64-room hotel in March 2025 for $75 million, or about $1.1 million per room, according to the deed, The Post and Courier reported. The firm’s management company, Crystal Creek Hospitality, runs it.
“We didn’t want to come in and turn the inn into just another hotel in Charleston,” Erik Dombroski, Crystal Creek Hospitality’s vice president of sales and marketing, told The Post and Courier in July.
“This next chapter allows us to celebrate the dishes and traditions our guests return for,” Executive Chef John Ondo said in the hotel’s announcement.
The hotel’s main building dates to 1844 and was a dry goods store before it became a lodging property in 1983, according to The Post and Courier. Peninsula Grill opened in 1997. The hotel has been part of Relais & Châteaux, the association of high-end hotels and restaurants, since 1998, the newspaper reported.
