by Ebony L. Morman 

Chefs Anthony Legatie and Hunter Newton always hoped that their Rock Hill-based food truck, Cibi! Cibi!, would lead to a brick and mortar restaurant. First, however, they knew they needed a loyal customer base willing to support them. To earn that, they spent more than four years on the truck serving everything from smash burgers and chicken sandwiches to jasmine rice bowls and burritos. They prioritized flavor, knowing that would keep people coming back. 

When they opened Elk Ave Tavern back in July, they kept the same approach. The 75-seat restaurant has a cozy, tavern feel, thanks to an oversized brick wall that separates the 10-seat bar and the dining room, and the old family photos and heirlooms adorning the walls. The ambiance is prime for everything from an enjoyable family outing to a date night that begins with cocktails. Future plans include a patio that will add at least 20 additional seats. 

“We wanted to have a nice neighborhood restaurant,” Newton says. “A lot of the places you see opening up in Charlotte, or bigger cities, are all owned by big restaurant groups. They open what you would think are going to be cool spots, but a lot of the heart is kind of lost. What separates us from those places is the fact that we’re both here, really giving our all every day, and making sure that we’re being true to ourselves, as well as what we think the customer wants and deserves.” 

When the owners started Cibi Cibi! in 2018, they experimented with menu items that weren’t practical for a small space with limited storage, Newton says. 

Now that they’re in a restaurant setting, the chefs can experiment more often. With a larger kitchen, they have the freedom to create a broader menu, and the chance to explore classic restaurant dishes that are recognizable to a diverse set of diners, like steak dishes. 

The ribeye dinner is what most people want out of a steak, Legatie says. It’s a 16-ounce ribeye with sweet potato purée, chargrilled asparagus, fried onions, blue cheese, and compound butter. It’s popular among guests, too. So is the lamb burger, which includes a blend of ground lamb and beef, and the disco fries: fries topped with stout braised beef, mozzarella, stout gravy, pickled onion, parm, and malt vinegar mayo.

“What makes the menu special is that we try to accomplish a balance of flavors,” Legatie says. “Whether it’s richness, acidity, salty, or spicy, there’s an attention to detail to all of the items, down to the bread we sourced for all of our sandwiches, which comes from a bakery in Gaffney, South Carolina.” 

One of the duo’s goals is to make sure diners who visit the restaurant after seeing food online are satisfied, so they pay close attention to each dish that comes out of the kitchen, Newton says. Their aim is to make tasty food, so they don’t hold back on spice or acidity. 

As children, both men had an affinity for food, and as they grew older, they worked in different restaurants and fell even more in love with cooking. The two met while working at Local Dish in Fort Mill, which is where Newton learned how the front-of-the-house and the back-of-the-house operate. 

“There’s only so far you can go, both creatively and financially, when you’re working under somebody else,” Newton says. “Anthony had already had the idea of starting a food truck, and the brewery that opened across the street needed one, so we just kind of ran with the idea.” 

They operated at Amor Artis Brewing in Fort Mill for a year. Then, they spent three years at Slow Play Brewing in Rock Hill before opening the restaurant. 

“When we started the truck, it was kind of an easy way to get into being business owners because the overhead was so much lower and it didn’t require as much startup capital,” Newton says. “But, our goal was always to find a brick-and-mortar location.” 

Now at the restaurant, Newton oversees marketing, while Legatie’s in charge of restaurant operations. Kitchen responsibilities are shared, and they rely on their two front-of-the-house managers to oversee their respective areas.  

One thing that the owners note is that they’re not stereotypical chefs. Oftentimes, people already have an idea of what a chef looks like or how they behave, and this is especially true with the rise of popular TV shows such as The Bear, Newton says. 

“While there are people like that out there, that’s not in our nature at all,” he says. “We’re not pretentious about food, we don’t wear chef coats, and we try not to be too serious and overbearing about food. We just like to have a good time.” 

And having a great time doing something they love is just as important to them as capitalizing each moment that presents itself with this new venture. 

“We’ve had this opportunity through meeting each other and just trying to make something happen,” Newton says. “Now, we’ve created our own space where we’re free to do mostly what we want within certain constraints, and we still get to have a family life outside of it.”