Heather Greene, founder and owner of Charleston’s Lillian’s, has been selected to participate in the inaugural Restaurant Academy, a national leadership development program created by the National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation in partnership with American Express and Resy.
Greene is part of a cohort of approximately 30 restaurant leaders from across the country participating in the six-month program, which combines an in-person convening, virtual learning, peer engagement and access to nationally recognized hospitality leaders. The inaugural program runs from September 2026 through March 2027.
For Greene, the recognition feels less like the beginning of something new and more like an opportunity to shine a brighter light on what she, executive chef Todd Garrigan and the Lillian’s team have already built in Charleston’s Westside.
“This opportunity has made me think a lot about our roots and what that word really means to us,” Greene said. “There are the roots of this place, the roots Todd and I and everyone on our team bring with us, and the literal roots of the food being grown around us. They all come together at Lillian’s. That is the story I’m proud to bring with me into the Restaurant Academy.”
Our Roots
When Greene created Lillian’s in the former Harold’s Cabin space, she saw herself as the next steward of a place with deep roots in Charleston’s Westside. The goal was not to erase what had been there before but to honor it while creating a neighborhood restaurant, market and gathering place that belonged to Charleston today.
Greene’s connection to food and agriculture reaches much further back.
Her grandparents were farmers and ranchers in Louisiana, giving her an early understanding of where food comes from and the work required to produce it. That history has shaped not only the way she thinks about food at Lillian’s but also the responsibility she believes restaurants have to the people who grow, raise, catch and make what ends up on their tables.
“I know firsthand how hard this work is and how difficult it can be for a small farmer or rancher to survive,” Greene said. “These are businesses and families dealing with the same rising costs we all are, from labor and equipment to fuel and transportation. When the cost of diesel goes up, that matters to the farmer getting food out of the field and to the rancher caring for livestock. Eventually, it touches all of us.”
For Greene, supporting local farmers and producers therefore has to mean more than listing their names on a menu.
“I think restaurants have an opportunity and a responsibility to be intentional about where we spend our dollars,” Greene said. “We can say we support local agriculture, but ultimately that support has to show up in what we buy, who we buy it from and the relationships we choose to sustain. Independent restaurants and independent producers need one another, and I think this is a particularly important time to make that commitment.”
Local From Coffee Through Dinner
At Lillian’s, that commitment is not confined to the dinner menu.
Local ingredients are used throughout the restaurant, from ingredients infused into syrups for the coffee program to the spirits, syrups and shrubs created behind the bar. They appear in Lillian’s pastry and dessert program and, most prominently, in the food created by Garrigan and the culinary team.
“Local isn’t a section of our menu,” Greene said. “It is part of how we think about the restaurant. If someone comes in for coffee in the morning, sits at the bar for a drink, orders dessert or comes for dinner, there are opportunities throughout that experience for us to support the people producing food and ingredients around us.”
Lillian’s works directly with area farms and purveyors, including Lowcountry Oyster Co., Kurios Farms, Gallop Farms, Lowcountry Creamery, Storey Farms, Bulls Bay Saltworks, Edisto Gold Honey, Hunter Cattle, Super Mushroom Bro. and White House Farms. The restaurant also sources through GrowFood Carolina, helping connect Lillian’s with additional small farms and producers throughout the region.
The goal is not simply to purchase locally but to allow those relationships and ingredients to influence what Lillian’s becomes.
Todd Garrigan: Roots From Texas to the Lowcountry
That philosophy comes to life in the kitchen through executive chef Todd Garrigan.
Garrigan has cooked professionally for more than 25 years, including the past 15 in the Lowcountry. He and Greene first worked together more than a decade ago, when Garrigan was the opening chef at Amen Street.
But Garrigan’s culinary roots began long before Charleston.
Growing up in Texas remains part of the perspective he brings to the kitchen at Lillian’s. His cooking draws from where he came from, more than a decade of living and cooking in the Lowcountry, traditional techniques, curiosity and the ingredients arriving at the restaurant from the people Lillian’s works with today.
“Todd’s roots are part of the food, just like mine are part of why I care so deeply about agriculture,” Greene said. “He brings Texas with him. He brings 15 years of cooking in the Lowcountry. Our team members bring their own histories and experiences. Then we are all here together in this particular place, cooking with what the people around us are growing, raising, catching and making. To me, that is what makes food interesting.”
Rather than asking the ingredients to fit a predetermined idea, Greene and Garrigan want Lillian’s to respond to what is happening around it.
“What are our farmers growing? What are our fishermen catching? What are our ranchers raising? What are our producers making?” Greene said. “The food begins with them.”
Dinner as an Expression of Place
While that philosophy extends throughout Lillian’s, dinner has become one of its clearest culinary expressions.
Lillian’s dinner menu is organized around Fins, Roots, Feathers and Hooves, giving Garrigan and his culinary team room to work with the ingredients coming through the restaurant’s doors while drawing on technique, experience and their own creativity.
“We want dinner to feel like Lillian’s and nowhere else,” Greene said. “I want someone to sit down and experience Todd’s point of view, our team’s creativity, the ingredients coming from the people we work with and something about this particular place.”
That next expression will arrive Oct. 1, when Lillian’s launches its new dinner menu.
The evening before, on Sept. 30, Greene, Garrigan and the culinary team will host a ticketed menu preview dinner, giving guests the first opportunity to experience the new dishes and hear more of the stories behind the ingredients and people who inspired them.
But as Lillian’s culinary identity becomes more defined, Greene is equally committed to preserving what the restaurant has always been intended to be: a neighborhood place.
“We’re a neighborhood restaurant,” Greene said. “I want someone who lives down the street to walk over on a Wednesday night, sit at the bar, have a glass of wine and something wonderful to eat, and feel completely at home. At the same time, I want the food to be interesting enough that someone chooses Lillian’s when they’re excited about going out to dinner.”
For Greene, there is no contradiction between the two.
“We can take the food seriously without taking ourselves too seriously.”
Restaurant Academy gives Greene an opportunity to bring that philosophy into a national conversation.
The program is organized around the realities of operating an independent restaurant, including building and retaining teams, strengthening the guest experience and improving financial fluency. Participants will engage in peer learning and sessions with hospitality leaders from around the country.
The inaugural program also gives participants access to industry leaders, including James Beard Award-winning chefs Mashama Bailey, Gregory Gourdet and Nok Suntaranon, along with sommelier and restaurateur Victoria James.
Greene plans to enter those conversations as both a student and an advocate for the values that already define Lillian’s.
“I absolutely want to learn,” Greene said. “To be in a room with people who have built extraordinary restaurants and with other independent restaurant owners from around the country is an incredible opportunity. But I also know what I’m bringing into that room. I’m bringing Lillian’s. I’m bringing Charleston. I’m bringing our team and the people who produce our food.”
In particular, Greene hopes the experience gives her a larger platform to talk about the interdependence of independent restaurants and independent food producers.
“The restaurant doesn’t begin when an ingredient arrives at our back door,” Greene said. “There is a farmer who planted something, a rancher who raised something, a fisherman who went out on the water or a producer who made something before it ever reached us. Their survival matters to our survival. I want to use this opportunity to tell more of that story.”
Although Greene is the person selected for Restaurant Academy, she views the recognition as belonging to the people who have built Lillian’s alongside her.
“I may be the one sitting in the room, but I wouldn’t be there without the people who show up every day and make Lillian’s what it is,” Greene said. “Todd, Tim, Allison, AJ, Amelia, Ben and our entire team are part of this. So are the farmers, ranchers, fishermen, producers and guests who believe in what we’re doing.”
For Greene, the opportunity is not about transforming Lillian’s into something else.
It is about recognizing what has already taken root.
“This isn’t about taking Lillian’s somewhere else,” Greene said. “It’s about putting our roots down deeper right here.”