A bacon cheeseburger plate. Lettuce, tomato, grilled onions. French fries. Sweet tea. It’s an order I’ve been placing since 2005, when I was a freshman.
Last year, I met Holly Denman ’76 while recruiting in Portland, Ore. We talked about many things, but the first question she asked, “Is the Hungry Lion still there?”
“Yes, ma’am,” I told her, “but today, we call it Jack’s Cafe.”
Jack Sewell started flipping burgers at 41 George Street just over 40 years ago, and, on October 31, Jack turned on the grill for the last time.
Eating at Jack’s is as much a tradition on campus as our graduates who don their white each May. Ask students or alumni their order and they can recite it from memory. It’s a diner that fed the College’s masses, and all by the hands of one man. On early mornings you could find students squeezing in last-minute studying between bites of breakfast. For lunch, everyone knew it was the cheapest good meal in town, the perfect amount of grease to cure what ails you. And it was never made for profit; these meals were crafted out of love for the job and the people he served.
After all these years, retirement is well-deserved for one of the hardest working people I’ve ever known.
Years ago, Jack was given a small plaque thanking him for his years of service to our collegiate family. So again, Jack, on behalf of the entire College of Charleston community, thank you for the many years of gastronomic pleasure.
– M. Seaton Brown ’09
Brown is a senior admissions counselor for the College and novice coach for the College’s crew team.
Editor’s Note: Jack’s Cafe has reopened in the same location under new ownership.
