Red's Ice House is on historic Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, and the whole place is built around one idea: a cold beer, some fresh local seafood, and a view of the water. It started as an old fish and ice house, and the owner's stated intention was to turn it into a public gathering place at the water's edge where locals and visitors - regardless of age, wealth, or culture - could sit, watch the boats go by, and celebrate the traditions of Shem Creek. That's exactly what it is now: a casual, elevated wooden shack with dockside dining, indoor and outdoor seating, and the kind of Lowcountry wildlife and sunsets that make the setting do as much of the work as the kitchen.
The food is fresh seafood and ice-house fare - the kind of thing you order in shorts and a t-shirt, not a dinner jacket. The happy hour is the reason a lot of people build their afternoon around it: $5 beers, $5 bites, fried calamari, jalapeño caps, and fried pickles. There's a real split in the reviews - some say the food and service are consistently good, others say it falls short on both when the room gets busy - but the view and the setting are the things that keep it on the list. It's the place you go when the Charleston sun is going down over the creek and you want to watch it happen from a dock.