Beatrice Wigfall remembers watching the 1940s-era naval debarkation building on Concord Street transform into Charleston restaurant Fleet Landing in the early 2000s. She applied when it opened in 2004. Wigfall, who moved from New York to Charleston in 1991 with her husband, remembers her first day.
It looked like many others would over the next two decades at the waterfront restaurant. As pantry and prep cook, Wigfall would prepare her station after arriving for a shift. She would cut chicken and flank steak for one of the restaurant's signature salads.
She would fry shallots and candied pecans and make the raspberry sauce for key lime pie. The staff at Fleet Landing hosted a retirement party for Beatrice Wigfall on her last day at the Charleston restaurant. She would say hello to Jim Epper and Deljuan Murphy, who worked with her from that first day in 2004 until her last service on June 1, 2024.
As the years went on, Wigfall would set new standards for back-of-house operations at the Lowcountry seafood restaurant. She would train line cooks like Shannon Stigall, who has since climbed the ranks to become Fleet Landing’s executive sous chef. “I cried all day,” said Stigall, whose family drove to Charleston from North Carolina for “Mrs.
B’s” last day. “She didn’t realize how much she impacted and affected everyone’s lives.” Al Middleton, Fleet Landing’s back-of-house manager, called Wigfall the “mother of the kitchen.
” She would show cooks tricks for m.