The business on Wentworth Street was part gourmet food store and part Jewish deli.
Part Jewish deli and part grocery, Harold’s Cabin (pictured here in 1954) long served as a Lowcountry culinary staple. Harold Jacobs inherited his parents’ mercantile store on the corner of President and Congress in the ’40s. In 1954, he and his wife, Lillian, moved the business to Wentworth Street, transforming it into a restaurant catering to Charleston’s centuries-old Jewish community and a downtown Gentile crowd looking to purchase specialty items, such as smoked oysters and imported cheese. Patrons could shop at the deli and gourmet food store, then head upstairs for a traditional Kosher dinner. The business closed in 1964 after partnering with Piggly Wiggly supermarkets, which sold a few Harold’s specialties, including the decadent Savouré spread, made of cream cheese blended with spring onions and poppy seeds. In 2016, RiverDogs F&B director John Schumacher opened a new Harold’s Cabin restaurant in the original location. The menu offers a nod to the Jacobs with the Harold & Lillian, a smoked salmon and latke dish with a portion of the proceeds benefitting local Jewish foundations.
