After raising five children and working for many other restaurant groups, Higher Ground Char House founder Chris Hamilton received the go ahead from his wife Myra that he could open up his own restaurant. They both agreed that the only way it could happen would be for God to provide. We also agreed that the name needed to be inspired and unique, and not just an ordinary name. It needed to be one that we felt God was giving us to call it. So we began our search, and found a restaurant nearby that was empty and not on the market. The owner had rented it out to several other restaurants, but all of them had failed. The restaurant did, however, have some restaurant equipment in it, but the equipment belonged to someone else. Truly, everything had to come together just right in order to make Higher Ground possible. We worked out a deal with the equipment and the landlord, then we set out to risk it all. The Hamilton family agreed that they would all work together to find the perfect name, and one that we all mutually agreed on. So we went through over 1,000 names over the course of about three months trying to find the perfect name for the restaurant. The week before we opened, we still didn’t have a name. When we were first receiving groceries, drivers would ask “What is the name of this place? I couldn’t find it!” So one day while Chris was driving into Columbia, listening to MHK Christian radio station, he decided to turn off the radio and just ask God for a name. By this time, we were desperate. And right when he finished praying, the old hymn “Higher Ground” came to mind. Our church used to sing it all the time! And then Chris thought, that’s perfect! We wanted the word “Ground” in there for “Ground Beef.” We wanted to let people know that we were using not just any ground beef, but the highest quality beef that we could get our hands on. It still sounded kind of like a coffee shop, so we added “Char House”, letting people know that we are a restaurant that Charbroils our food.
Chris called all the family members, and it was unanimous! Everyone agreed with the name, and the Higher Ground Char House was invented. A lot of the inspiration for the Restaurant came from one of Chris’s sons Austin. He went to school at UNC Charlotte, and every time Chris would visit, he and his son would go to cool restaurants. They both agreed that the restaurant should be ahead of it’s time rather than a typical Burger shack. Thus, the fun began! Instead of just making a burger, or a burger with cheese, we set out to discover how can you do burgers right! And not just one or two burgers, but a bunch of combinations! You should’ve been in the room when we were naming these burgers! It was so fun! For one of them, we rolled on the floor laughing.. you will have to figure out which one that was! The cool thing about Higher Ground is that it was blessed from the beginning. It took us about three weeks to get into the black and start showing a profit. We had a phenomenal staff! Eli Goodwin was our first employee and he did a great job of reaching out to his friends to help get us staffed with great folks. We often look back on the initial sales we had and what we had to do it with! It’s kind of mind blowing. Since those days we’ve had four different kitchen upgrades to handle the high volume. God has been good! No, God has been great!
At Higher Ground, our philosophy is being nice and genuine to people and creating food that’s worth getting off the couch and driving for. That being said, we hire based on a prospective employee’s character, not their skill sets. Skill sets can be taught, while nice can’t. So if you’re looking for a restaurant that truly appreciates you, with food that’s prepared by a bunch of foodies that want your meal to be the best that you’ve ever had, come on and give us a try!