Below you will find bios for a few of our lead staff:
Jean Cribb
Owner – semi retired – Jean started The Chesapeake House with her husband Ed Cribb in March of 1971. Jean started her restaurant career at Lee’s Inlet Kitchen in Murrells Inlet and quickly learned she had a knack for it. So, when she and Ed built The Chesapeake House on a lonely two-lane stretch of road between Myrtle Beach and North Myrtle Beach, people thought they had lost their minds and were getting ready to lose whatever they had in their wallets as well. Turns out maybe they were on to something and almost immediately the crowds started to come around for the homemade fish stew, in-house baked goods like their cinnamon rolls and hushpuppies, but the real draw was the top notch seafood.
Uncle Bill
Bill Chestnut worked at The Chesapeake House as a busboy the very first day we opened. He became the kitchen manager when Ed started Drunken Jacks and took his partners and long time friends Al Hitchcock and Theodore Russell to Murrells Inlet. Uncle Bill is Jeans brother, who oversees everything in the kitchen from purchasing to creating new menu items. Bill has trimmed hundreds of thousands of pounds of local flounder and made enough of our world famous fish stew to fill the lake behind the restaurant. Having family in the kitchen every night ensures that things are being done as they should be, and we believe you can feel & taste the difference.
Buddy Cribb
Buddy’s restaurant career started at The Chesapeake House around the age of around ten, mostly when someone didn’t make it to work, he would get a call and come pitch in. He would bus tables, wash pots and even cook. Since that accidental start he has done everything in the business. After college he worked in the family restaurants from Murrells Inlet to North Myrtle Beach, even having a corporate stint in Augusta, Ga. But returned to the Chesapeake House when Uncle Johnny and Aunt Margo (Jean’s sister) decided to retire from the business in 2005. Since then Buddy has been at the helm, and business has never been better. After 45 years he believes they are getting the kinks worked out.