Talking Treasures - Episode (8) - Stay Cool, Play On — Little River's Indoor Game Changer

 Summer in the Grand Strand Just Got a Whole Lot Cooler!   When it is too Hot to Stop, Little River's coolest new hangout is the place to be!  Summer on the Grand Strand is gorgeous — but let's be honest, July and August outside can feel like playing sports inside a hair dryer. 🥵

This week on Talking Treasures, we're stepping INSIDE and turning up the fun at Little River's newest indoor event space — where pickleball courts meet golf simulators in one fully climate-controlled, play-all-day destination.

That's right. No heat index. No sunscreen required. Just pure, competitive, good-time energy — whether you're a pickleball obsessive, a golfer looking to dial in your swing year-round, or just someone who wants something genuinely fun to do that isn't wilting on the beach.

This is the kind of venue the Grand Strand has been missing — a place where locals and visitors alike can stay active, stay cool, and have a blast no matter what the thermometer says outside.

We're sitting down with the people behind this game-changing space to talk about what they've built, who it's for, and why indoor entertainment in a beach market is anything but a consolation prize — it's the main event.

Summer just got a whole lot cooler. Literally. 🏓⛳❄️

Come for the pickleball. Stay for the AC. Listen to find out everything you need to know before your first visit.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Welcome to our latest edition of Talking Treasures with the Little River Chamber of Commerce. Jennifer Walters, it is that time of the year, Little River. Well, first of all, we should say we are on location. We are on location, but I can't think of a more beautiful place to be than the historic Little River waterfront. And we're sitting on the deck at Makos.

SPEAKER_02 0:26

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

And Makos, uh, our owner and proprietor, and uh today carpenter, among other things. Steve Martin, welcome. Welcome. Glad to have you. Jennifer, what do we got going on? Because there's a blue crab festival.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Yeah, and we're just we're counting down to the 44th annual World Famous Blue Crab Festival coming up May 16th and 17th right here on the waterfront in Little River. And today we're on location at Mako's because they've got some new surprises coming for us this summer. Steve, what do we got? What is this monstrosity I'm looking at out here? It's not a monstrosity.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

We have our first over-the-water tiki bar. It is gonna be called the Shark Bar at Mako's. And we will hopefully be open before Crab Fest.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Yay! And man, this thing looks like it's gonna be so much fun. It is a real tiki bar with a thatched roof and bamboo sides and everything.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah, that really is a thatched roof. What is that, palms, or how does that work?

SPEAKER_00 1:31

It is a HPDE imitation palm. Okay. Uh it is a 10-year warranty. It is uh fireproof and uh it is a water, but basically it keeps the water out. It's been on my tiki boats for the last seven years, so it does last.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

So what's happening out there once it's finished? Because uh by the time this is actually released as a podcast, I'm guessing it'll be open. So what's gonna happen out there?

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Okay, we have uh a bar seating of around 50 seats, bar stools. Uh we have multiple multiple TVs uh for the enjoyment. Uh we have a floating exterior dock where boats can pull up to uh on the face dock that's about 80 feet long. Uh and then we have a return dock where other people uh can uh dock their boat and come on up into uh the tiki bar. Uh we have outside seating uh all around at a normal height seating, uh ADA uh height seating, and we also have bar stools around the whole outside of the bars for viewing where you can sit and just watch the boats go by and enjoy a drink and just uh enjoy the nice breeze up on the intercoastal.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

So I'm gonna ask uh maybe a stupid question, but uh we're on the deck at Mako's. Is that going to have food service, uh restaurant service?

SPEAKER_00 2:52

It will be it will have food service sooner or later. Uh we're working on a uh a phase two that uh to the venue. Uh right now, uh anyone who is hungry can make reservations from there and come on up into the Mako's restaurant and sit on the outside deck overlooking the tiki bar.

SPEAKER_01 3:10

So we should, Jennifer. We've eaten here a few times, but we haven't.

SPEAKER_02 3:13

I think we're gonna get to have some lunch here today, too. Well, we're having lunch.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, it's lunchtime. Uh Steve, tell me about the Mako. What tell me about the restaurant concept and what's served here, and I'm just guessing there might be fresh seafood.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Uh yes, well, uh our uh our motto for Mako's is fine dining and flip flubs. So people come in shorts, flip flubs, enjoy the the deck, enjoy the the atmosphere. Uh we have our our number one dish which which is our jerk mahi, uh, which by far is one of the best dishes on our menu. Um on top of that, we have a steak offering, and of course, we have our shrimp offering with shrimp and grits and shrimp scampi. Wonderful. Uh and our bayou buttered shrimp, uh, which is one of our uh number one appetizers.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Ooh, buttered shrimp.

SPEAKER_02 4:04

Ooh, yum.

SPEAKER_01 4:04

I even like saying it, buttered shrimp. Well, Steve, what's your background? How did you come to be here? Uh I got stuck. Okay. Uh good place to be stuck.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

I invested in the building uh back in 2020. I had tenants, I just wanted to be a landlord and uh improved the uh buildings for the existing landlords or uh existing operators, and what happened was the one operator uh kind of destroyed the building, and our our tenant downstairs, who was a lovely lady running the fish business, uh passed away unexpectedly with cancer. So I found myself with them, empty building, motivated uh two girls. Uh one was running the tiki business and the other one was uh in culinary school and said, Dad, let's open. So I said, You tear it apart, I'll rebuild it. And uh they tore it apart. Uh, the two girls did, and uh I came back in and uh basically had to jack up the floor, rebuild the whole inside, outside, uh, and basically re-ralign the deck to make sure it was level.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

So so tell me about the the seafood and sourcing the seafood. You know, we're we're I mean we're sitting here on the waterway.

SPEAKER_02 5:22

We're watching a boat dock right now, y'all. This is fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah, I love it. And that's the boat that is working to replenish the uh Myrtle Beach uh Grand Strand beaches at this moment. Oh, really? Yes. So they are pumping sand back up on the beach, and this is their their drop-off point uh and their pickup point.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

How cool.

SPEAKER_00 5:41

This is where they get all their food, they get their personnel, they get all their great needs. Uh, because then once they go out on that dredge boat, they're out there for about seven days. Oh, so they've been out and now they're just coming in. They're just probably picking up some uh supplies. That's all they're doing. Oh, I love it. Wow. So tell me about your seafood. Like where So uh we we get our seafood from uh one of our main suppliers, which is uh performance food and inland seafood, which is a uh uh a major uh seafood purveyor. Um Paul, our rep from uh Performance is fantastic. Um he's by far the best I've ever seen in the industry. Always there, always there, willing to help. Um anything we need, he jumps on and uh he makes sure our inventories are good.

SPEAKER_02 6:28

And I'm sure it's all you know, depending on the variety of fish, but if it's if it's considered a local South Carolina offshore fish, we have it's it's local. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

They're but basically uh buying the fish from all our local fishermen.

SPEAKER_01 6:44

Yeah, off the boats.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Off the boats, and then uh they pack it and clean it and send it back to us prepared, ready to go.

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Do you have a favorite? What's your favorite? Uh halibut by far. Really?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Yes, we have halibut now on our new menu uh all the time. Um we have uh a um Parmesan crusted halibut. Oh yeah. Uh and then we also have a uh halibut uh wrapped in perjut, which is very good. Um but that is by far my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 7:12

But the shrimp's local though, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:14

Our our shrimp comes uh all the shrimp comes from performance.

SPEAKER_02 7:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

So we we stick with one purveyor, we're we're not out there trying to source locally uh off of a vote or anything. Okay. Um we want to make sure everything's safe and awful. It's consistent, it's safe, and it's been uh regulated by the the per you know by the government. Right. So uh how long have you been here? Uh this we're coming up on our second full year, May 24th.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

So kind of a blue crab festival is uh you haven't done 30 of those. No. This will be kind of a new experience for you.

SPEAKER_00 7:52

Yeah, this is our third one.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

Uh we did it just before we opened. Yep. Uh and then we uh the the following year we did it, um, and this would be our third. Uh and it just gets crazier and crazier every year. Last year.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Yeah, that translation means better and better. Yeah, yeah. Well I know for you it's it's it's nonstop crazy.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

It's you know, you're taking a normal restaurant with that you seat uh, you know, 125 to 175 people uh a night, and then you blow it up to three or four hundred, and it just it's crazy. It really is.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

But the it's still good. I mean yes, and we we have Steve was out here picking crabs for me last year. It was really good.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

No, but but but but the point is that you know oftentimes people think of the blue crab as let me wander down there and do arts and crafts. But people come and they're coming to eat.

SPEAKER_00 8:43

Our seafood. Uh we have uh uh snow crab legs, we'll have blue crab legs, we have dungeness crab legs, which uh is uh I believe that we're the only ones that have them.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Yes, you are. That's the first time I ever had it was here at Durham Blue Crab.

SPEAKER_01 8:59

And you mentioned before, so you're you're gonna take reservations. It's not a walk in and hope I get a seat.

SPEAKER_00 9:03

No, uh a crab fest, there is no reservation. It's first. Walk in and hope you can get a seat. Yeah. Yeah. Uh we'll have seating out uh on our front patio. We'll also have seating out on our tiki bar. Um so we'll have enough seating.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

But of course, I mean, if I come up and I said, and you say, I'm sorry there's a wait, it'll, you know, we'll we'll text you or call you, then I go wander around the festival. Correct.

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Correct. Uh but mo most of the time people just walk in and out during a festival. They grab a seat, they want to sit uh overlooking the water.

SPEAKER_02 9:33

You actually have a raw bar outside.

SPEAKER_00 9:36

Uh on the front.

SPEAKER_02 9:37

Out front.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Out front is a complete steam station where we steam all shrimp, crab legs, uh we have fresh oysters uh out there. Uh we have uh steam clams, so it's pretty much a uh a full seafood offering uh out on the front deck. People come, they they uh order what they would like, and then we either deliver to their seat or they they walk away with it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

I mean I I could see, and I know you don't allow this, or you will try not to allow that. I could see myself in that corner right there and spend all day working on a couple of beers and watching the world go by, but you're gonna turn people over.

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Yeah, well I know, I know. I know with with the new tiki bar though, uh around the rail seats, uh, we're gonna have uh about a hundred seats out there along that rail where people can all come and just sit and watch the world go by and enjoy their life.

SPEAKER_01 10:31

Now, for people that are not familiar intimately with Little River, and I mean a lot of people are, but a lot of people are not down here.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

We are at 4492 Waterfront F. Uh we are smacked out between the two casino boats, which is what people uh you know recognize when they come down to the waterfront. Yeah, of course they see the big signs for the casino. Uh we're right in the middle of them. So we're basically dead center of Little River Waterfront.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

And there's so many great restaurants. How does it feel to be a part of this community of these these restaurants, this waterfront? Because this is such a unique place. I mean, there's no place else like this.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

Right. And we're uh getting along, working together as a community to make sure we can make this place better.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:21

Everyone references, you know, like the marshwalk. Uh, we're gonna try our damnedest to try to make that happen down here.

SPEAKER_01 11:28

Different animal. Yeah, yeah, and I this has got uh uh an old school charm.

SPEAKER_02 11:34

And we're gonna maintain that, but we do we are working with Ori County to uh help us with some improvements, infrastructure improvements, as well as other things. The restaurant owners and business owners have been great. We've already um got two new um events, holiday events that we're planning. We did Patriots Day last year and the Waterfront Winterland. We're gonna have Little River water fright nights for Halloween this year, and we've got some other things. Yeah, haunted house and all kinds of stuff. But we're working together to have more and more holiday-themed events and more and more events down here so that we can show off Little River.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

We did just uh had a very, very uh great um food truck festival. I saw that that was absolutely took off. No one could imagine the amount of people that came down for that event. It was beautiful weather and uh it went off great. It and that was just the first annual. Yeah. So I can see that happening again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:35

Steve, are you a boater? Uh you go out there fishing, or you just like being on the waterfront?

SPEAKER_00 12:41

No, I ran a uh charter boat for uh about 20 years out of out of Ocean City, Maryland. I gotcha. So uh I still have a boat up in Ocean City, Maryland that does charter fishing. Uh and uh yes, I've been on the water my whole life.

SPEAKER_01 12:55

So you're in a perfect place. So you know you know seafood and you know the restaurants.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

And my uh my son that's out there working right now, he's off the boat, but he's uh a merchant marine officer uh on a uh oil tanker for 75 days at a time. So uh yeah, so he's been on the waters a whole life. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is great. Caught his first tuna at six years old.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

So Jennifer, run down the details of the boot crab dates and hours and where do I get tickets and how is this for?

SPEAKER_02 13:24

Oh, we are May 16th and 17th. It's always the third weekend in May or the weekend after Mother's Day for a little reference. Um we run from t 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday. We have 287 vendors this year, so there's gonna be a lot of variety of shopping available. Of course, all of our waterfront restaurants will be serving on the street as well as in their dining rooms. We have additional food vendors that'll be coming in for the festival as well. All kinds of blue crabs and seafood delights, but we'll have your festival food favorites for those of you that aren't seafood lovers. Um Entertainment, three acts on the main stage both Saturday and Sunday. This year we're featuring the um really, really popular headliner, Scythian, is coming in on Sunday afternoon. It's gonna be amazing. We've upgraded our VIP area at the main stage, so those of you that want to have a little bit of uh panache to your visit can uh get VIP tickets. Um let's see, kids. I think uh we've got just about something for everyone.

SPEAKER_01 14:35

You sure do.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Uh and and parking is not a problem because we have satellite parking lots with a motor coach shuttle that'll bring you right to the front gate. Free, free shuttle, free, free parking, free shuttle. Now, if someone in their front lawn is gonna charge you to park, we can't control that. But we do have plenty of options available. You can go to blue crabfestival.org and click on the parking tab, and it'll give you all the options. You will still have the uh sea scream or water taxi running from um the marina off of uh uh highway 90, harbor view harbor something marina. It's on the website, y'all. And um, oh I know we now have handicap parking that will be at the United Bank on 17th and Baker. We have an ADA compliant vehicle that will transport you to the festival. So those of you that have um handicapped family members that are maybe in a wheelchair or walker or whatever, you can park at the bank and we'll run you down here.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Well, that is absolutely spectacular.

SPEAKER_00 15:39

Steve, uh website, people want to take a look at a menu and that what uh vis uh visit us on Facebook uh Mako's Marina Bar and Grill. And Mako's has got a K.

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Like the Mako Shark.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Like the Mako Shark. Okay. And uh our uh new name uh which is being changed with our new uh menu is Mako's on the water. Oh I like it. Mako's on the water away from the bar and grill stigma of that type of food where we're really not that.

SPEAKER_01 16:06

Yeah. Uh it's a nice restaurant.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

And then we have the shark bar at Mako's, which is opening uh next week.

SPEAKER_01 16:14

Though maybe by the time this is posted, it'll actually be open.

SPEAKER_00 16:16

And we'll be open. We'll believe it. Uh definitely for the Crab Fest. Uh and uh we're everyone's in Little River's looking forward to it. Uh we we took a very dilapidated dock and made it into an absolute beautiful structure.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Oh my god, y'all, you should see it. It looks like a boardwalk.

SPEAKER_01 16:33

And I think we're gonna have to let Steve get back to it.

SPEAKER_02 16:35

Oh golly, we can eat lunch.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

I think we will. Okay. There you go. You got Steve Martin, and we can make it water. Makos on the water. Jennifer.

SPEAKER_02 16:47

We're talking treasures.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

We'll see you next time.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

Absolutely.