A former 7-Eleven on Wappoo Road in West Ashley is slated to become Deanna's Wine Bar, a 521 Wappoo Road project pairing a wine bar with a butcher counter for house-made charcuterie using pork from a Dorchester County hog farm. Co-owners Bert Sheffield and Douglas Hickerson expect it to open by the end of 2026, Sheffield said.
The new business will open at 521 Wappoo Road, replacing the convenience store that once stood on the site, according to the Post and Courier. Hickerson purchased the property in 2025 for $360,000 from Robert Montgomery, who had owned the site since 2016 and received approval to rezone it from office to commercial transitional in 2024, according to Charleston County land records cited in the report. Sheffield and Hickerson had previously been eyeing a different vacant property near Plantation Pharmacy off Savannah Highway before landing on the Wappoo Road spot.
The bar is named for Hickerson's mother, Deanna, according to the Post and Courier report.
A Split Concept Built Around Whole-Hog Butchery
Deanna's will operate as a split concept, housing both the wine bar and a companion butcher counter called Bert's Pig Shop. The shop will offer fresh meats from Peculiar Pig, described in the report as a fifth-generation Dorchester farm. Sheffield hopes to eventually expand Bert's Pig Shop to downtown restaurants as well.
Peculiar Pig is operated by Marvin C. Ross on 12 acres of ancestral land in upper Dorchester County, and other reporting has traced the operation to Ross's family land near the Edisto River, where he raises and rotates hogs on wooded lots, letting them graze and forage while supplementing their diet with heritage grains, according to the Charleston Wine + Food organization. Elsewhere, Peculiar Pig has been described as a family-owned heritage hog operation specializing in pasture-raised pork, whole hogs, primal cuts and sausages, per the South Carolina Department of Agriculture's agritourism listing.
The farm supplies pork to restaurants and sells directly to about 40 restaurants, many of which commit to buying whole hogs, according to separate Post and Courier reporting on Peculiar Pig's operations.
Chef Bert Sheffield's Path From Louisiana to Charleston
Sheffield was born in south Louisiana and moved to Atlanta in his 20s before working as an executive chef in Asheville, where he specialized in whole-animal butchery and food fermentation. He described the atmosphere he envisions for Deanna's as cozy, neighborhood, and dinner-party-like, per the Post and Courier report.
Sheffield has also kept an eye on the building's past. The new owners kept the original floor and painted green walkway as an homage to the former 7-Eleven, and Sheffield has posted a greeting sign for neighbors at the site. He has said he hopes someone with photos of the former convenience store will reach out to him.
Licensing Hurdles for On-Site Charcuterie
Hickerson said the business has a federal license from the South Carolina Department of Agriculture allowing it to make charcuterie on-premise, and that the license required a nearly 180-page hazard plan along with rigorous approval processes. He said the operation is licensed to make charcuterie on-site and that Deanna's may eventually sell its house-made charcuterie to other restaurants.
State regulators generally require permitting for food operations that prepare, process, package, serve or otherwise provide food directly to consumers. According to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, that permitting requirement under Regulation 61-25 covers retail food operations such as restaurants, delicatessens, snack bars and catering operations. Separately, the agency's consumer protection division notes it does not issue permits, licenses, certificates or registrations to home-based food production operators, and that certain non-potentially hazardous foods may fall outside its food-safety oversight, according to the South Carolina Department of Agriculture.
Zoning records for the Wappoo Road property show it sits amid General Business, John's Island Community and Diverse Residential zoning within the city, and Single-Family Residential zoning in the surrounding county area, with the parcel itself falling under the Dupont-Wappoo Area Overlay Zone, according to a City of Charleston planning agenda package.
How the neighborhood plan views local businesses
The City of Charleston’s adopted DuPont | Wappoo Community Plan covers an area generally bounded by Sam Rittenberg Boulevard, Wappoo Road and Savannah Highway. It recommends encouraging infill redevelopment by supporting local businesses and helping them find locations in West Ashley and navigate city and county permitting, according to the City of Charleston. The plan provides neighborhood planning context, but does not establish that Deanna's is part of a broader redevelopment trend.
A Wine List Built on Archive Dives and Affordable Pours
On the beverage side, Deanna's will lean on sommelier Andres Contreras, whose résumé includes stints at Rue de Jean, Coast Bar and Grill, and Costa. Contreras helped curate Rue de Jean's wine list of more than 300 bottles and was named to Zagat Charleston's Top 30 Under 30. In 2017, he was selected as the Charleston-based keynote speaker for the Wines of Chile campaign in the U.S.
Contreras reportedly held nearly 34 tastings and reviewed wine archives while building the list. The plan is to feature small European and domestic producers at affordable prices, with wine served alongside house-made charcuterie, sandwiches and boards. The owners believe it will be the only restaurant of its kind in South Carolina, according to the Post and Courier report.
