Vern’s, a neighborhood restaurant from former McCrady’s chef de cuisine Daniel “Dano” Heinze and his wife, Bethany, opens Thursday at 41 Bogard St. in downtown Charleston, The Post and Courier reported.
The couple renovated the 1,427-square-foot corner space once occupied by Trattoria Lucca, Ken Vedrinski’s Italian restaurant that closed in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic. They expanded the kitchen, adding a window and a walkway between the kitchen and the dining room, and resurfaced the six-seat bar with marble. The 141-year-old space seats about 40 people, according to the newspaper.
The Heinzes leased the site last year for three years, with options for two more three-year terms, according to Jim Moring of restaurantbrokers.info, The Post and Courier reported in December. The restaurant is named after Dano Heinze’s grandfather.
“Vern’s has kind of been our vision of our first restaurant forever since we met,” Bethany Heinze said. “A place that’s intimate that has this really warm feeling to it.”
The two met at McCrady’s, where they both worked for years. Dano Heinze spent nearly 10 years at the East Bay Street restaurant before the couple left for California in 2016 to take jobs with Joint Venture Restaurant Group. They moved back to Charleston in April 2021, according to the newspaper.
Dano Heinze, the executive chef, will lead a kitchen crew of five or six. Bethany Heinze, the operations and beverage director, will oversee a front-of-house team of seven.
The dinner menu will be divided into snacks, small plates and larger, protein-focused mains meant for sharing. Three or four fresh pastas and rotating specials will fill a chalkboard.
“We’re going to have a chalkboard that sits over the fireplace that will be the driving force for the kitchen,” Dano Heinze said.
The wine list will feature small producers committed to organic and biodynamic practices. The restaurant will also pour beer from local breweries and offer three or four desserts, including house-made ice cream, The Post and Courier reported.
