Johnson Creek Tavern accused of rodent infestation after recent grease fire
By Delayna Earley
The Island News
Johnson Creek Tavern, a restaurant on Harbor Island in between St. Helena Island and Hunting Island State Park, has come under fire recently following a post made to social media claiming that the restaurant is unsanitary and infested with rodents.
The owner, Jay T. Lloyd, says that is not the case and as of press time on Tuesday, March 12, the restaurant still carries its A rating from the Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC), which he’s had since August 2022.
Johnson Creek Tavern had to close at the end of February due to a fire in the kitchen. They have been closed since, but Lloyd said that he hopes to have the restaurant fully open for service by the end of the week.
The fire was a small grease fire, according to Lloyd, but since it was put out with a fire extinguisher, he had to follow special clean-up precautions and procedures before the restaurant could be re-opened. Lloyd contacted Servpro to come in and conduct the clean-up from the fire.
The company began the contracted clean-up last week, and according to Tim Green, business development manager and fire restoration specialist with Servpro, the company hired two temps out of Savannah to help with the job.
One of those temps was a man named Lavon Lewis, Sr., who says he grew up on St. Helena Island, but is currently living in Savannah, Ga., and working as a pastor at Living Hope Worship Center, Inc.
Lewis, upon arrival at the restaurant, took photos of the kitchen and storage areas in the back of the restaurant and posted them to Facebook to, as he said, warn the community of what was there.
In the photos, the equipment that had been involved in the fire was pictured along with a photo depicting a mouse that had been trapped on a glue trap.
There was also a photo of a wall that appeared “dirty” according to Lewis.
“I wanted to let people know what was there,” Lewis said.
The initial post on social media gained some traction fast, according to Lewis, and was shared several hundred times.
Lloyd said the post was brought to his attention by an employee and he went into the kitchen area to find out who had made the post and why.
Green said that Servpro speaks with everyone that they hire, even temps, about the importance of discretion when conducing a clean-up.
“Often, people call us to come and help when a tragedy has happened,” Green said. “Sometimes they have lost a loved one, experienced an accident, flooding or fire. Regardless, it is sensitive, and we tell our employees to treat it that way.”
Green also said that the photos in question did not tell the whole story of the situation, as it was to be expected that the restaurant would need extensive cleaning following a fire.
Lloyd said that they do not typically have a rodent problem because he contracts two separate extermination companies to prevent them from being an issue, but in the wake of the fire, doors were left open on several occasions that allowed the rodents to become a temporary issue.
Green, whose family owns Chocolate Tree in downtown Beaufort, has been part of the restaurant world, both working in it and cleaning it, for more than 40 years. He said that pests and rodents are a typical problem, especially in those restaurants that are in older buildings that are closer to the water.
He also told this to Lewis after he was fired from the job for posting the photos, but Lewis said that he does not believe that rodents in a restaurant is typical and continued to say he feels like it is his duty to protect the community by sharing the photos.
Lewis reposted the photos when he got home that evening, despite telling Green that he had deleted them.
As for Johnson Creek Tavern, they have another inspection with DHEC before they can re-open to make sure that they have properly cleaned up from the fire, and Lloyd said he has no doubt that they will pass and keep their A rating.
Delayna Earley, who joined The Island News in 2022, formerly worked as a photojournalist for The Island Packet/The Beaufort Gazette, as well as newspapers in Indiana and Virginia. She can be reached at delayna.theislandnews@gmail.com.
