By Becky Billingsley

Monday, Jan. 16, 2012, Pawleys Island - Chef Louis Osteen is returning to Pawleys Island for his third restaurant stint in the area as executive chef at Sanford's Southern Fried Smokehouse.

The chef has been busy since leaving the coastal community of Pawleys Island a little more than three years ago.

Chef Osteen, who received a Best Chef Southeast James Beard Award in 2004, closed his Pawleys Island restaurant called Louis’s at Pawleys and The Fish Camp Bar in Sept. 2008, and then closed his Las Vegas restaurant called Louis’s Las Vegas in December 2008. His next position was in Florida as executive chef at South Seas Island Resort in Captiva, Fla., for one year from 2008-2009. He moved to Lake Rabun Hotel Restaurant in Lakemont, Ga., in June 2009, and was there a little more than a year.

In July 2010 Chef Osteen become a corporate executive chef for Hospitality Development Group in Nashville where he did work at several of the group's restaurants including Fish & Co. Restaurant and Raw Bar. Fish & Co was located at the group's former Miro District restaurant, and then it moved in January 2011 to the location of the group's Blind Pig No. 55, which closed. Today only Fish & Co. and Watermark are still in business, and Osteen left Hospitality Development Group in Oct. 2011.

The same month Osteen left Hospitality Development Group, according to an article at NashvilleScene.com, the chef hosted a Celebrity Chef Tour Dinner at Watermark Restaurant benefiting the James Beard Foundation.

In 2011 Osteen launched WLO Restaurant Services in Nashville, a business described on the chef's linkedin.com profile as "Providing expertise in all restaurant areas, menu development, food cost control, marketing and operational issues."

But before Chef Osteen has Louis's at Pawleys, he had another Pawleys Island restaurant in the same location. He opened his first restaurant in 1980: the Pawleys Island Inn at the Pawleys Island Hammock Shops. That site was also the home of Louis's at Pawleys and the Fish Camp Bar. Nosh restaurant is currently in that location.

In 1989 Chef Osteen moved on from Pawleys Island to Charleston, where for more than a decade he was executive chef at Charleston Grill, and then opened his own Charleston restaurant called Louis's Bar and Restaurant, which closed in 2001.

The chef is known for being a Lowcountry cuisine revivalist, or progressive interpreter of new Southern cuisine, and in 1999 his cookbook, "Louis Osteen's Charleston Cuisine: Recipes from a Lowcountry Chef," was published by Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill.

Sanford's Southern Fried Smokehouse in Pawleys Island is one of the area's best sources for smoked meats that create the character of many delicious dishes.

The restaurant's deluxe smoker is courtesy of Dwayne Christen and Rodney Long. They own the Sanford's and the building it's in at the Mingo retail center, and they also own PoBoys Discount, which is a restaurant equipment store in Georgetown. Sanford's is their original concept.

Sanford's Southern Fried Smokehouse is at 251 Willbrook Blvd. in Pawleys Island, and the phone number is (843) 237-5400. It opens for business at 11 a.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. The exact date when Chef Osteen will take over duties at Sanford's has not yet been announced.