For five generations, the surname Simmons has been synonymous with the town of Mount Pleasant. From 1916 to 1920 and then again from 1921-1928, Yonge Simmons served as mayor. Simmons Street at Moultrie Plaza and Yonge Street in the Old Village are both named after him.
In the 1940s, Yonge’s son Hugh and his wife Ella opened a grocery store called Simmons Brothers Grocery on Sullivan’s Island. Hugh also owned a vacant property, known today as Simmons Point, where he built a dock for local shrimp boats to deliver fresh catch that he bought and sold. That dock, according to their grandson Bubba, is where Simmons Seafood was established in 1947.
When Mount Pleasant saw its first growth spurt in the 1950s, Hugh and Ella recognized the need for expansion. They added a retail shop, the Simmons Seafood Market, to the front of their fish house.
By 1972, the business had continued to develop along with the town and the Simmons added a new building to house their retail, wholesale and catering business. That same year, their sons Billy Simmons and Hugh “Red” Simmons Jr. came on board with the family’s enterprise. Billy took the helm of the Ben Sawyer Boulevard store and Red focused on servicing the shrimp trade over at his facility on Shem Creek.
When Billy’s son Bubba started working with the company in 1983, he carried on the Simmons tradition of expansion, opening a second store on the Isle of Palms in 1993. He said, “From the time I was 10 years old, I always loved going to work with my dad. Every year I looked forward to summers when we would go out on the boat to fish after work.”
In 1984, Bubba took over the retail aspect of the business. Since then, he has also introduced Charleston to an inventive catering style and organized a fleet of boats for harvesting oysters.
“The most rewarding part of the job has been interacting with the customers and hearing their stories,” Bubba said. “Every day is different and that’s what I love. When you do something long enough, it becomes routine. So, I like trying new ideas to keep things fresh. That’s why I think each generation needs to do more by contributing innovative ideas.”
He continued, “For example, everybody laughed at me and thought I was crazy when I made key lime pies to sell in a seafood market. But when those pies sold out right away, we knew we were on to something. Now we have calls coming in all the time from couples requesting key lime pie instead of cake for their weddings on the beach.”
As tradition would have it, in 2018 Bubba’s son Will stepped in to take over the daily operations. His daughter Kate joined Will in 2020. They’ve been successfully running the business ever since. The Simmons’ legacy as a fixture of Mount Pleasant continues.
To learn more about what this family business offers, visit simmonsseafood.com.
By Sarah Rose
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