My spouse and I visited the Jack Nicklaus Golden Bear Grill at Charleston International Airport (CHS) on
a Sunday morning in mid-November 2016. The restaurant opened in the fall of 2016
in the atrium/central hall area between Concourses A and B. The restaurant is
open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. The Fort Lauderdale Airport hosts a
second location of the Golden Bear Grill that opened in the summer of 2016.
(See our separate review.)
The idea for the restaurant owes its existence to golf’s
popularity in South Carolina; however, even non-golfers recognize the Jack
Nicklaus name and associate it with greatness in the sport. Nicklaus was the first
athlete to win an ESPY award (Excellence in Sports Performance Yearly presented
by ESPN), the first golfer to receive the Vince Lombardi Award of Excellence, the
first player to have a Grand Slam on both the regular and senior golf tours, and
the first American inducted into the Asia Pacific Golf Hall of Fame. Jack and
Barbara Nicklaus (the “Golden Bear”
and the “First Lady of Golf”) are philanthropists as well: proceeds from
the sale of bottled water in the restaurant benefit the Nicklaus Children’s Health Care Foundation. The restaurant also features an optional
rounding-up of your check/bill to donate the profits to the foundation.
The 1,200+ square foot space seats up to 80 guests in
several areas: at a bar, tables, or in a small lounge area that offers
comfortable leather chairs in pairs with small cocktail tables between them. Wood and stone provide a backdrop for
memorabilia that celebrates the life of Jack Nicklaus and his family, including 15 Nicklaus family photos
selected by Jack and Barbara to connect customers to their family.
The menu offers dishes from the Barbara Nicklaus recipe
collection, as well as other classic fare with a modern flair (such as
meatloaf, chicken salad, seafood, macaroni and cheese, and key lime pie). To
design the menu, Barbara collaborated
with a team of chefs using family recipes and dishes from her cookbook, Well
Done! In fact, the restaurant’s kitchen is named “Barbara’s Kitchen.”
We enjoyed our time at the Charleston Airport’s Jack
Nicklaus Grill, and we visited the Fort Lauderdale Airport’s outpost in early
January 2017 (see our separate review).
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