What's Worth a Stop Around the Socastee Swing Bridge Right Now

Most Grand Strand food coverage points east toward the ocean. Socastee's best eating is doing the opposite. Over the last eighteen months, the strongest openings have clustered within a half-mile of a 1935 truss bridge that still swings by hand-timed schedule, and the neighborhood's calendar is starting to arrange itself around that same crossing. If you live here, this is the map you actually use.

The bridge is the clock

Everything on this list sits within walking or golf-cart distance of the Socastee Swing Bridge, and the bridge itself is worth understanding before you plan your evening. It's one of only 10 swing bridges in the state, built in 1935, and it pivots by demand at quarter-to and quarter-past the hour. A full swing takes about twelve minutes from the moment the gates drop, and on a typical Father's Day weekend, the Socastee bridge opens nearly 20 times each day.

Translation for a resident: if you're heading to dinner on the Peachtree Road side and the gates are already down, you have time to park, walk over, and watch the whole thing turn completely perpendicular to the road before your table is ready. That's not a tourist tip. That's how you time a Friday.

Dockside Dawgs took over the oldest building at the crossing

The biggest change in the last year is that the two historic buildings on the Peachtree side aren't empty anymore. Chris and Brianna Throckmorton opened Dockside Dawgs at the historic Cooper House and T.B. Cooper General Store property, located at 4211 Peachtree Road in Socastee, near the Intracoastal Waterway. The buildings are a century-old landmark, encompassing the Cooper House (circa 1908) and T.B. Cooper General Store (circa 1905), and is part of the Socastee Historic District recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. The store still has the original post office counter inside from when in 1908, Thomas Cooper served as postmaster. The post office counter remains.

The menu leans short-order and Southern: fresh biscuits, BLTs, hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ, ice cream, and future blue-plate specials like chicken bog and meatloaf. Chris Throckmorton, who lives in the neighborhood, put the geography plainly when the Heritage Festival was setting up around his front door in March: the restaurant recently opened just across the Socastee swing bridge, in the midst of where the festival will take place. "We're in the spotlight now," Throckmorton said.

The Cooper House and store sat quiet for years. The fact that a Socastee family reopened them for short-order comfort food, and not as another wedding-only venue, is the single biggest change to how the crossing feels day-to-day.

The Dick Pond corridor got a late-night option

A little over a mile inland from the bridge, the fast-food row on Dick Pond Road picked up something new on July 1, 2026. Del Taco, the nation's second-largest Mexican quick service restaurant chain by number of units, has opened its doors in Socastee, South Carolina. Located at 4570 Dick Pond Rd., this new location is the very first Del Taco in the Myrtle Beach area.

The hours are the interesting part for anyone who works nights or lives in Forestbrook and hates driving toward 17 after 10 p.m. The Socastee location will close at 1:00 a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and stay open until 3:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday to satisfy those late-night cravings. There isn't much else within a golf-cart ride serving hot food that late.

The places that were already the answer

Newness isn't the whole story. A handful of Socastee restaurants have been carrying the neighborhood for years, and they're still where most residents end up on a normal Tuesday. Here's how they sort out:

A note on The Chicken Joint that's easy to miss: The Chicken Joint didn't start in a restaurant. It's run by a father and son team. Before the brick-and-mortar, before the line out the door, they were proving the concept at Lakewood Campground, hand-breading every order and watching people come back for more. That campground pedigree is more Socastee than any marketing copy would put on a menu.

Socastee Station's identity is worth stating in one line too. It's a beloved local gem in Myrtle Beach, celebrated for its exceptional dining experience and warm hospitality, blending a cozy, old-school bar vibe with a welcoming community feel. That's the room. The Carolina Cajun wings and chicken bog balls are the order.

Two weekends that reset the neighborhood

Socastee has two annual events that pull the whole community to the bridge, and if you live here it's worth knowing the shape of both.

April: the Heritage Festival. The 2026 edition was the community's 17th annual Heritage Festival. Centered around the historic swing bridge, the daylong event boasted live music, food trucks and more than 250 vendors with arts and crafts and homemade creations. The proceeds have a specific home: the annual function benefits the Sarvis House, one of the area's oldest homes and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Scale-wise, the 2025 festival welcomed over 10,000 attendees, 250 local vendors and more than 30 generous sponsors.

If you want to see how this actually works on the ground, Duane Farmer from the Heritage Foundation described the arc simply: "Originally it was just a small festival. Then, they decided, 'let's shut down the road and see how many vendors we can get,' and each year it's added and added."

November: Mythical & Medieval Fest. The less-publicized second event is on Socastee Boulevard. Come November, Mythical & Medieval Fest transforms RH Acres on Socastee Boulevard into a world of jousting and medieval combat, complete with a fairy forest, an artisans village, and a fire show. Proceeds benefit Caleb's Dragonfly Dreams, a nonprofit that serves children living in Horry County shelters and group homes. If you have kids at Socastee-area schools, this one usually beats any drive to a bigger event closer to the beach.

One more thing worth building an afternoon around

Not a restaurant, but adjacent enough that it belongs on a resident's map. Just a short drive away, Freewoods Farm is worth building an afternoon around. It is the only African American living farm museum in the country. Across 40 acres, it recreates life on a small family farm between 1865 and 1900, with a farmhouse, blacksmith shed, smokehouse, livestock, and crops still worked the old way, by mule and plow. Pair it with lunch at Dockside Dawgs on the way back and you have a legitimate Saturday.

The pattern under all of it

Look at the openings together and there's a thesis worth saying out loud: the newest food in Socastee isn't chasing traffic from Highway 17. Dockside Dawgs bet on a National Register property nobody had figured out how to reuse. Del Taco planted the first Myrtle Beach location on Dick Pond, not on 17 or on Coastal Grand's edge. The Chicken Joint started at a campground and stayed in a Food Lion strip near the high school. The gravity of the neighborhood is still the bridge and the streets around it, and the businesses that understood that are the ones opening now.

If you already live here, you knew half of this. The other half is why the tab is still open.

Ready to see what's for sale in the streets around the swing bridge, or curious what your Socastee home would sell for in today's market? Coastal Beach Homes is a husband-and-wife team who work these neighborhoods every week, and we're happy to talk whenever you are. Take a look at our Socastee neighborhood page or request a home valuation when you're ready. Start Your Coastal Home Search.