A Hole in the Wall Leads to Quincy’s Family Steakhouse

by The Accidental Preservationist

You never know what you might find when you start taking apart your house…. Earlier this year, while working on the restoration of the dining room here at the Chancognie House, I found several pieces of newspaper stuffed in an old electrical switch in the wall. This was a common way to fill holes and gaps and I have clumps of old newspaper in nooks and crannies here, most of which have a date printed somewhere which is helpful in determining when the work was done.

The pages that I found in the dining room were part of the April 23, 1981, edition of The Evening Post (predecessor to the Charleston, SC Post & Courier) and in addition to news articles there were several advertisements. I posted stories of them on Instagram, one of which featured an ad for Quincy’s Steakhouse in North Charleston. I received a slew of replies with many people writing in with fond memories of the yeast rolls. So, I did a little research and discovered that while Quincy’s Steakhouse was once a thriving chain of restaurants in the southeast, it had fallen on hard times in the late 1990s.

Quincy’s was founded in 1970 by Alvin McCall, Jr., a native of Pelzer, SC and originally named Western Family Steak House. He sold the 9-restaurant chain in 1977 which peaked in 1990 with 212 restaurants around the southeast. A series of changes in ownership caused challenges for Quincy’s and by 1998 the chain had fewer than 100 restaurants. Mergers and financial issues combined with competition from other chains whittled down the number of restaurants even further and today there are just two left – one in Florence, SC and one in Monroe, NC. (The restaurant in Monroe was closed for several years after a fire and then during COVID shutdowns. It recently reopened, so when I was researching Quincy’s a few months ago, the restaurant in Florence was dubbed the last Quincy’s, but it seems that this is no longer the case.)

So, on a recent trip back from VA, I decided to make a detour to the Quincy’s Family Steakhouse in Florence, SC. I was clearly not the first person to come in just for the yeast rolls. When I asked if I could just order rolls to take out, the woman behind the register said, “Of course! All you have to do is ask.” She advised me to wait as a fresh batch was due out of the oven in a few minutes – just like the doughnut place (I assumed that she meant Krispy Kreme). Then she gave me instructions for optimal consumption – slice them in half and put the whipped honey spread inside while they are warm. I would advise against sharing the ingredients of the spread with your cardiologist, but when in Florence….

I ordered a dozen. I will not disclose how many made it back to Charleston, but as evidenced by the photo at the top of this post, at least five. Would I make a return trip to Quincy’s for the yeast rolls? Absolutely.