Time Flies When You’re Having Fun

It took a few tries for a restaurant to finally stick at 1660 Savannah Highway, but when Derek Harris and Brian Lawson plunked down d.d. Peckers’ Wing Shack, the building’s curse was broken. Now Derek and Brian and the extended Pecker family are about to host their 10-year anniversary.
On Sunday, May 1, the restaurant will celebrate big time with something they’re calling the Rockabilly Birthday BBQ Bash. Along with barbecue and Peckers’ famous wings local act The Defilers are slated to play the parking lot at 2 p.m., and The Truckstop Preachers out of Charlotte will take the stage at 4 p.m. Everyone is invited.
Harris and Lawson (who are brothers-in-law) started d.d. Peckers’ Wing Shack with a very simple plan: create a restaurant that feels like a house party. “If you throw a party at your house, you want everything to be perfect,” Harris says. “You want the food to be perfect, you want the atmosphere to be perfect, you want everyone to have a good time. That’s what we try to do here everyday. And if someone does not have a great experience, we want to fix that in whatever way possible.”
More often than not, you will find Harris and/or Lawson on the restaurant floor mixing it up with guests. And if they’re not there, they have staff in-house that has been there for years. The warmth one feels from the staff is genuine, even if it is handed down as an order from the restaurant’s owners. “I have high expectations. I lead by example,” Harris says. “I try hire professionals. People who have been in the business, they know what they’re doing, they come here to work, not to party.”
Harris is especially proud of the menu, and of course, the wings, which he loves to philosophize about. “We don’t pre-cook wings. It’s going to take 20 minutes to get wings on the table. You can go to a place that can have wings on the table in six minutes, but they had already cooked them and just warmed up and sauced. When anybody comes in, you’re coming into my living room,” Harris says. “Brian and I are hosting a party everyday, every moment. Just like if you have people over to your house. Are you going to serve food that you’re not proud of? No!”
A 10-year slog in a restaurant town like Charleston wasn’t always easy. Harris says it took two years and one day from opening before he felt like the restaurant was going to survive. “There was a time when we were in trouble,” he says. “We were scared. We were terrified. And we just ignored it because we didn’t know what else we could do. Some people come in with an idea of their restaurant, then it doesn’t immediately make money and they start changing it. I stayed fast: wings, burgers, cheese steaks. We do brunch. And it doesn’t have flowers on it, but you know what? It’s a damn good brunch. It’s a damn good wing. It’s a damn good cheesesteak. It’s a damn good burger.”
Harris says their dedication to perfecting the basics and not wavering when times were tough is the real secret to d.d. Peckers’ success. “You know, Charleston’s a tough town. Because there are great, creative people doing great stuff,” he says. “I’m not taking away from that, that’s why I live here. But I can’t do that. That’s why I can’t become a Gamecock or Clemson bar, because that’s not me.”
d.d. Peckers’ Rockabilly Birthday BBQ Bash starts when the restaurant opens at 11 a.m. For more information, check out their Facebook page at facebook.com/ddpeckers.sc.