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Top Chef contestant Shuai Wang does not think of himself as a competitive person. "I'm one of those people who thinks everyone deserves a trophy for participating," he says.

And yet, the Charleston chef did really well on the television cooking show - making it all the way to the finale.

"Prior to going on Top Chef, I felt very stuck," Wang says. He thought he'd peaked. But being in competition mode, learning from other chefs, he says, "it kind of just rejuvenated my creativity." In one episode, he cooked with ants that he'd foraged and gently toasted. They tasted like lemons, he said, "such a wonderful, zingy flavor."

When he's not off filming a reality show, Shuai Wang is usually in North Charleston, South Carolina, with his wife and business partner, Corrie Wang. The couple met working at a restaurant in New York City. They moved south 10 years ago and had a food truck before opening their first restaurant, Jackrabbit Filly, named after their zodiac signs, and then a second restaurant, King BBQ.

Catie Dull/NPR

Catie Dull/NPR

It opened a year and half ago in a building that was, at various times, an ad agency, a church and a lunch counter, says Shuai. It's a beautiful space, with lots of personal touches. A pair of lions standing guard out front and the tile ceiling were custom made and shipped from Beijing, where Shuai was born. Framed portraits of the couple's dogs line the hallway. Red Chinese tassels hang from the ceiling and the walls are painted jade green - for good fortune.

The Wangs call their menu "Chinatown BBQ made with southern smoke." It, too, is full of personal touches. Krab rangoon with buttermilk hush puppies and hot honey. Chinese BBQ egg rolls with habanero duck sauce. "I cook from nostalgia," Chef Wang says.

Catie Dull/NPR

Catie Dull/NPR

The first dish Shuai cooks for NPR rings that bell - crispy, smoked duck on top of noodles with bok choy.

"That's just my fondest memory of growing up in New York," he says, "my parents taking me to Flushing on the weekends, or late nights after work, going down to Chinatown."

Catie Dull/NPR

Catie Dull/NPR

Shuai Wang remembers that when he was a young boy in Beijing, Communist China was still handing out food rations. So his grandma, who helped raise him, had to stretch her portion of rice and allotment of lard to feed the family.

He likens it to how enslaved families in the South improvised using the scraps they were left with to make a meal.

"That's why I feel so connected with Southern food, right?" he says. "That's where collard greens came from. The field peas, the butter beans."

Wang immigrated to the United States when he was nine, where his mom took over the cooking. He calls her the "OG Top Chef." But he didn't find his own love of cooking until high school. "I had to take a culinary class in my last two years to make up credits for all the classes that I 'accidentally missed,'" he laughs.

Catie Dull/NPR

The next plate he makes - chili tofu, a take on mapo tofu - is an homage to Shuai and Corrie's relationship. "That's the first dish that Corrie and I shared on our first date," Shuai explains. "I immediately scooped it up and put it in my mouth, not thinking that it would be a million degrees. And I spat it right out onto my plate, and everywhere."

Corrie didn't leave, and that's how they knew it was meant to be. "We're both like, crying… everything's so spicy and hot," adds Corrie. "It was a great time."

Catie Dull/NPR

This version of chili tofu is done in a fancy, Hamburger Helper, Asian-Italian style, with soft tofu, a sweet, spicy, tangy chili sauce and local ground pork on a bed of pasta, topped with mozzarella cheese. Tofu and mozzarella sound a little funky? Somehow, it really works.

"I get crazy ideas," Shuai Wang says. "I have a million and one crazy ideas. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, you know?"

Catie Dull/NPR

Corrie Wang says she's seen a natural progression as they've developed the restaurants where Shuai is "just creating legit Chinese food" rather than making gimmicky dishes.

"I just realized I really just want to embrace myself and my culture and cook Chinese food," he says.

After his Top Chef stint, Shuai is taking all his crazy ideas, his heritage and a renewed spirit of adventure and creativity into the future. "I realized oh, I didn't peak," he says. "Chinese food has 500 years of history. I've explored very little of it."

The S.C. State Ports Authority is pushing back the opening of its new $400 million rail yard on the former Navy base until next year, partly because of global trade uncertainties.

The agency had planned to start moving containers from its Leatherman Terminal in North Charleston in July.

The projected date has been moved up to early 2026, SC Ports CEO Barbara Melvin said at a June 11 meeting of the Maritime Association of South Carolina.

"This is a business decision by us," she said afterward.

Melvin stressed that the SPA could meet its long-stated goal of unveiling the Navy Base Intermodal Facility next month, even though three of the six cranes and one of the two rail loops aren't ready.

She estimated the development is 80 percent completed.

"But as we approached the end of the project some things happened," Melvin said Wednesday.

The most pressing issue is the economic uncertainty stemming from President Donald Trump's ongoing trade war, which has put the global shipping industry on edge.

That includes the SPA. Melvin said the ports authority, like numerous private companies, has struggled to forecast its business outlook for its July 1 fiscal year.

"Uncertainty is not good for business," she said.

Against that backdrop, the SPA decided the time isn't right to open its $400 million investment.

"We don't want to do that right now because there are already cost-structure questions about tariffs and other things that supply-chain people are dealing with," Melvin said. "So there are good times in business to make moves like this and bad times. I think there's enough strain on ... the supply chain to say, 'Let's figure out what's going on before we introduce a new product.'"

Palmetto Railways, part of the S.C. Commerce Department, began planning for the 118-acre project more than 15 years ago. The SPA took it over in 2021.

Melvin said the state-backed investment will fill a huge competitive void for the maritime agency, which runs the only major East Coast port that doesn't offer cargo shippers rail service near its docks.

Two other issues factored into the delay.

They include the SPA's decision last year to allow union workers to operate the cranes at all of its terminals for the first time in its history after losing a high-profile labor dispute. That's created contractual wrinkles about the use of remote technology at the rail site. A committee is working to iron them out, Melvin said.

"It's not a hardship. It's just an added step we didn't really anticipate when this facility was planned long ago," she said.

Also, the SPA needs more time to train the crane operators to learn to handle equipment that's brand new to the port.

The rail yard will be served by two major railroads, CSX Corp. and Norfolk Southern. They did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Melvin said the two rail companies and state lawmakers are aware of the delay. She plans to discuss the decision at the SPA's board meeting next week.

"I think in times like this, doing it right, with a lot more reliability and certainty, is more important than ... forcing the opening on a date when we now have all these additional factors we didn't know were going to exist," she said.

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Roper St. Francis is beginning construction on a more than 1 billion project bringing a brand-new hospital to North Charleston by 2029 to replace its current downtown Charleston campus.

The hospital will be located off of Mall Drive behind the North Charleston City Hall. The campus is 27 acres and will feature a full-service 24-hour emergency department, operating rooms, inpatient units, a medical office building housing outpatient and specialty services and a vegetated green belt connecting facilities across the campus.

“To be able to continue the 170-year-old legacy that is Roper Hospital is an incredible thing,” Regional President for Roper St. Francis, Troy Powell, said.

The build is set to be completed in early 2029 and will create 3,600 construction jobs during the work.

“We’re here to celebrate more than steel and concrete, although there is a lot of it. We’re here because Roper St. Francis Healthcare is expanding our footprint to the center of our metropolitan area, bringing care, compassion and cutting-edge medicine even closer to the people we serve,” Roper St. Francis President & CEO Joseph DeLeon says.

DeLeon expects staff to transition into the building in early 2029 and run simulations to get used to the facility layout. He says it should be a smooth transition since they were instrumental in helping design the interiors through hundreds of workshops to hear from staff what layouts benefit them and patients best.

Medical staff got a chance to get a first look at the future medical campus back in December 2024.

Mid-2025 marks the start of construction on what the Roper St. Francis team says will be a major healthcare facility upgrade and leave a long legacy.

The move to North Charleston is a step in the Roper St. Francis Healthcare 2030 Strategic Plan to broaden access to quality care by expanding the health system’s footprint in the Lowcountry.

“We’re creating history today. Roper St. Francis has been around for a very long time, it’s taken care of so many people in the community. I know when we put this building in, it’s going to be the same for years and years, well past when I’m around,” DeLeon says.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

DORCHESTER COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC) - A man arrested in connection to the hit-and-run death of a Lowcountry musician and employee of the City of Goose Creek has been denied bond.

Terrell Darrel Crawford, 37, of North Charleston, who is charged with hit-and-run involving death and driving under suspension, appeared in court Friday morning for a bond hearing.

At that hearing, Judge Tara Frost granted Crawford a $647.50 personal recognizance bond for the charge of driving under suspension, but denied bond for the charge of hit-and-run involving death.

Crawford is accused of striking and killing Kelly Farmer, 46. He was found dead on Dorchester Road after being hit while walking in the area of Tabby Lane just before 7 a.m. back on April 13.

Family members remember Farmer as a “kind, gentle and loving” person.

In court Friday, Farmer’s sister-in-law Creta Tobey gave a testimony.

“I’m denied the opportunity to see Kelly every day,” Tobey said. “I can’t see his smile. I can’t hear his voice. I can’t hear the music that he plays. And I certainly can’t smell his wonderful cooking anymore.”

Sgt. T.G. Methvin with the South Carolina Highway Patrol also spoke in support of the family. He says Crawford made attempts to hide the vehicle involved in this incident during the investigation.

“He also did admit that he knew what he hit that morning,” Methvin said. “So, he knows what he did.”

Frost says Crawford just finished his probationary period for a prior charge of first-degree assault and battery. She says she believes he is a flight risk and a danger to the community.

Crawford appeared mostly stoic over the video feed, but appeared like he was getting a bit more emotional as the judge read out his bond conditions.

“I apologize to the family,” Crawford said. “There was no intentions of me to do that… At the same time, I have never been through this before. So, I’m kind of scared. Anybody would be scared. Like I said, I apologize.”

Crawford’s bond conditions include not leaving the state without court approval, not having contact with the victim’s family and to appear at all court hearings.

Kelly Farmer’s sister Kathryn Farmer says the judge’s ruling shows a bit of light at the end of a tunnel.

“Relieved a little bit,” Farmer said. “Still very emotional. I know we have a long road ahead of us. But I’m glad that justice is finally starting to be served for my brother.”

South Carolina Highway Patrol arrested Crawford Thursday. He was booked into the L.C. Knight Detention Center, where he will now remain until at least his court hearings next month.

Now, Kelly Farmer’s family must fulfill his final wish of planting his ashes in a bulb that will eventually grow into a tree, while remembering their ultimate goal.

“Our justice system continues to do what it’s supposed to do and find justice for my brother in whatever form they deem,” Farmer said.

At the time of Farmer’s death, the City of Goose Creek released a statement:

South Carolina Highway Patrol arrested Crawford Thursday. He was booked into the L.C. Knight Detention Center, where he will now remain.

Crawford’s charges will be discussed at two separate hearings. The driving under suspension charge will be heard on July 10 at the Summerville Courthouse. The hit-and-run charge will be heard July 22 at the courthouse in St. George.

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CLEARWATER, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Churchill Stateside Group, LLC (“CSG”), a real estate and renewable energy financial services company, is pleased to announce the commitment of a $4,528,000 permanent loan for Cooper Crest Apartments, a 101-unit new construction affordable family housing community located in North Charleston, South Carolina.

The financing, provided through Churchill Mortgage Investment LLC (“CMI”), will support the development of this modern apartment community with a 16-year term and 35-year amortization. The community will feature a mix of one-, two-, three-, and four-bedroom apartments, all income-restricted between 20% and 70% of the Area Median Income (AMI), offering high-quality, affordable living options for families in the region.

Construction of the Cooper Crest Apartments is scheduled for completion in 2026.

Dan Duda, Executive Vice President, National Director of Originations & Acquisitions for CSG, commented, “It’s a privilege to support this impactful project that addresses the critical demand for affordable family housing in the Charleston area. Our forward-committed permanent loan structure continues to offer unique value to our developer partners, helping them lock in long-term financing certainty with favorable terms. Thank you to our development partners for allowing CSG to be part of the financing.”

Keith Gloeckl, Chief Executive Officer of CSG, added, “We’re proud to play a part in expanding access to affordable housing through Cooper Crest Apartments. At Churchill, we remain committed to financing developments that strengthen communities and improve quality of life for families nationwide.”

Churchill Stateside Group continues to be a leader in affordable housing finance, dedicated to advancing strong, inclusive communities through creative, client-focused capital solutions.

Looking for creative financing solutions for your next affordable housing project?

Visit us at CSGfirst.com or reach out to our production team at [email protected].

About Churchill Stateside Group

Churchill Stateside Group and its wholly owned affiliates (CSG) serve the affordable housing and commercial renewable energy industries. CSG sponsors tax credit equity investment funds for institutional investors and provides a variety of construction, permanent, and bond financing solutions. With over $6.5 Billion of assets under management, CSG has long-standing and successful investment relationships with numerous corporate investors. The company's investor and developer clients benefit from our experienced staff, prominent and proactive senior leadership, and attractive debt and equity platforms. The company, through its subsidiary Churchill Mortgage Investment LLC (CMI), is an approved USDA Rural Development and HUD/FHA MAP and LEAN lender and Ginnie Mae Issuer, seller, and servicer.

Contacts

Carter Daignault (727) 233-0614 [email protected]

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