Livelihood Café

There’s something refreshingly simple about Livelihood Café, West Ashley’s newest breakfast and lunch hotspot. Inside this cozy little eatery, located at 1337 Ashley River Road, you won’t find a humongous menu full of hundreds of different options. The owners of Livelihood Café know what they do and they do it well. Scratch-made Southern classics prepared using time-tested recipes and the little dash of love that you can only get at a mom and pop restaurant.
Livelihood is the ultimate mom and pop joint. The husband and wife team of John Sigler and Rigel Graham, live in West Ashley and are also parents of a seven-year-old son. Officially opening the doors in September, Sigler and Graham have created a family-friendly restaurant in the heart of their community that serves other West Ashley families just like theirs.
“We compiled a menu that is made up of our favorite things,” says Graham. And everything on the menu is made in-house, even the sauces and the dressings.
In addition to your standard breakfast fare, Livelihood’s breakfast-all-day menu offers several omelet options, a few biscuit sandwich choices, steak and eggs, and Salmon and Grits, a twist on the Southern classic.
Livelihood’s lunch menu includes three types of soups, a handful of salads — from wedge to kale, hand-pattied beef and black bean burgers, as well as a variety of sandwiches ranging from the popular Buttermilk fried Chicken Sandwich and the Carolina Barbecue sandwich to a Cheesesteak Hoagie and the Lowcountry Crab Cake Po Boy, which is made with fresh crabs that they buy at Captain Don’s Seafood in West Ashley. Although Sigler is allergic to shellfish, he knows that his wife, a McClellanville native, would not have it any other way.
Veering slightly from their Southern roots, lunch menu is rounded out with four different quesadilla options. There’s also a kid-friendly menu and a rotating dessert menu. Livelihood offers daily specials too and plans to soon be serving dinner on Thrusdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. Ghaham says that the dinner menu will be similar to Livelihood’s lunch menu but with some heartier dishes and more seafood options.
Opening a restaurant had long been a dream for Sigler and Graham. About three years ago they bought the Ashley River Road property, which has been everything from a print shop, a florist, a lawyer’s office and once was even the home to Charleston’s Tibetan Dharma Center. Hoping there was some good karma left in the building, Sigler and Graham began renovating the property and have converted the small space into a cozy restaurant with nine tables and a chef-friendly kitchen.
While Sigler, who has worked in several Charleston restaurants in various capacities, handles most of the cooking duties, Graham stays busy at the front of the house tending to the customers needs. But don’t be surprised to see Sigler come out from the kitchen to talk to customers about the food or about their day.
Nearly two decades ago, the couple worked at the Seewee Restaurant in Awendaw. Graham says the success of Seewee has been an inspiration to them as they watched the small family-owned restaurant become one of the most popular Lowcountry cooking destinations in the state. She also says that many of the recipes and preparations that Livelihood uses were learned at Seewee, where they have withstood the test of time and have literally been passed down from several generations.
Like their former workplace, Livelihood has an appreciation for true Lowcountry food and for providing quality service and a good meal for a fair price.
Livelihood Café is located at 1337 Ashley River Road. They are open Monday-Saturday from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m. For more information, call 212-5042 or visit them on Facebook.