Recipe for Love

Written By: Marlene Osteen | Issue: 2021/09 – September

Shelby Hightower, Steve Palmer and Madison

Steve Palmer had vowed never to marry again and to never have children. 

He had tried marriage years earlier – it had been short and hadn’t gone too well.  And in the 20 years since, he’d been busy advancing his career. 

From a job working as the General Manager at an eponymous Charleston restaurant, he had gone on, in 2009, to founding the Indigo Road Hospitality Group.  

Today the company that he oversees employs more than a 1,000 people across its 24 business locations– including in Highlands, the Skyline lodge, and Oak Steakhouse.  

Along the way, he wrote his best-selling book, Say Grace, and in 2016 created Ben’s Friends – a national non-profit organization dedicated to helping restaurateurs find their path to sobriety.   

Yet forever lurking in Palmer’s memory was a 2012 encounter during the Charleston Food & Wine Festival at Founders Hall.  

Looking up from his bowl of Sean Brock’s squirrel soup, he noticed Shelby Hightower smiling at him. 

“It was one of those moments when everything stopped, and I remember going, ‘wow, she’s beautiful.’” 

Shelby knew of and admired Steve’s accomplishments and recalls thinking, “he was amazing.”  

But they were both in other relationships at the time and not looking for romance. Steve was told that Shelby was the mother of an adorable 2-year-old girl, Madison. For the next five years, they stayed in touch as friends, meeting up occasionally at food and wine events – Shelby drawn to them working in retail management for designer Billy Reid and subsequently at Blackberry Farm.

Steve was vacationing alone in California in 2017; when walking the beach, he received a social media message from Shelby. He replied, “You look really pretty.”  

When Shelly responded, “Too bad you have a girlfriend,” he told her that it was no longer the case, and Shelby retorted with, “When are you taking me out to dinner?  

Steve, as he said, “came running,” and within a month, the couple had their first date in Knoxville.  

Nine months later, he asked her to move to Atlanta where he was opening restaurants, and the following year to live with him in Charleston. 

As Steve told me, “Her beauty is obvious, but it’s her kindness that really touches me. She sees the best in me and is always so supportive. That’s new in my life.”

Shelby, who always believed that no one was ever good enough for her daughter, had waited until July 2018 to introduce Madison to Steve.  They were at Shelby’s parents’ lake house near Blackberry Farm singing show tunes when Madison unexpectedly scurried onto Steve’s lap.  “It was one of the true moments of joy in my whole life,” Steve said. “I could feel my heart swelling.”

In April 2019, at the Gramercy Tavern in New York City, the culinary team delivered a miniature wedding cake bearing a ring, and Steve proposed.  When they married in Charleston on September 28, 2019, the vows they exchanged included Madison.  It’s clear that Shelby and Steve are undeniably smitten with each other, and the joy and magic they have discovered in finding each other “at the right time, when we were ready.”

“I couldn’t be more thrilled to meet my partner when I did, the timing was right, and I am grateful for that every day,” Shelby remarked.  

Steve echoes her sentiment, “To meet your dream girl later in life is very sweet.”