The curvy couch came to the coast on Friday morning. Fox & Friends set up at Lucy Buffett’s Lulu’s at Barefoot Landing, where co-host Steve Doocy worked a crowd dressed head to toe in red, white and blue for a live broadcast that turned a waterfront restaurant into a national stage [On-site reporting, 2026]. For Horry County residents, the visit was equal parts celebration and reflection — a morning that put North Myrtle Beach in front of millions of viewers even as the woman who built the restaurant talked openly about stepping away from it.
Why North Myrtle Beach Made the Map
The stop was not a one-off. Lulu’s was a planned leg of the Fox & Friends road trip, a cross-country tour built around an RV giveaway in which one viewer will win the “Freedom Traveler” recreational vehicle the show has been driving from town to town [Hollywood Reporter, 2026]. The tour rolled through Texas, Kansas, Florida and Georgia before reaching North Myrtle Beach on June 5, with a final stop set for the Jersey Shore on June 12 and the RV awarded live on July 3 [Hollywood Reporter, 2026]. Leading the coverage was Doocy, the program’s founding co-host since 1998, who shifted last year into a “coast-to-coast” role based in Florida so he could broadcast from communities that rarely get network airtime [Newsweek, 2025]. North Myrtle Beach, a tourism engine that often plays second fiddle to its larger neighbor to the south, fit that mission squarely.
That national attention matters more than a single morning of television suggests, which leads to the bigger story of the venue itself.
A Homegrown Stage With Buffett Roots
Lulu’s is not an accident of geography. The restaurant opened at Barefoot Landing as the anchor of Dockside Village, a walkable waterfront dining district developed by Burroughs & Chapin along the Intracoastal Waterway [Burroughs & Chapin, 2017]. It was Lucy Buffett’s third location — following Gulf Shores, Alabama, and Destin, Florida — and arrived as a roughly 20,000-square-foot, 400-seat destination featuring live music, a sandy beach, a ropes course and an arcade, with the promise of more than 200 local jobs [Burroughs & Chapin, 2017]. Buffett, an author, entrepreneur and sister of the late musician Jimmy Buffett who calls herself “Crazy Sista,” built the brand from a single dream into a regional draw [Burroughs & Chapin, 2017]. As she told the crowd Friday, cooking is what started it all — and North Myrtle Beach, where she came at the invitation of Burroughs & Chapin, is a place she has come to love [On-site reporting, 2026].
The warmth of that origin story, though, sat alongside a candid message about the future.
Passing the Torch
Buffett used the spotlight to share something many in the crowd may not have expected: she is ready to pass the torch. She spoke about hoping to hand the operation to others, to build a smaller and more sustainable environment, and ultimately to retire [On-site reporting, 2026]. Her reasoning will resonate with anyone who has run a small business on the Grand Strand. The restaurant industry has always been a grind, she said, and a space this large is especially hard to sustain in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped dining habits and labor costs [On-site reporting, 2026].
That observation reflects a broader, well-documented strain on big-format, experience-driven restaurants nationwide, where the economics of filling hundreds of seats year-round have grown tougher. Her parting line carried the weight of decades in the business: be careful what you dream [On-site reporting, 2026]. Coming from someone whose dream became a coastal institution, the remark landed as both gratitude and gentle warning.
If the message was bittersweet, the room around her was anything but subdued.
A Community in the Crowd
The broadcast drew a distinctly local turnout. North Myrtle Beach Mayor Jay Baldwin and city Councilwomen Jeri McCumbee and Melissa Wober were on hand, alongside Chamber of Commerce representatives and Horry County Councilwoman Jenna Dukes — a North Myrtle Beach pharmacist who represents District 1 and once served on the area’s Chamber board [On-site reporting, 2026; Post and Courier, 2022]. The sea of patriotic colors, the packed tables and the visible turnout from elected leaders underscored how much a national television appearance still means to a beach community that depends on visitors finding their way north of Myrtle Beach proper.
A Spotlight at a Turning Point
The morning captured North Myrtle Beach at an interesting crossroads: a homegrown landmark basking in national attention at the very moment its founder signals she is ready to move on. For local residents and business owners, the broadcast was a free advertisement for the area’s appeal heading into summer — and a reminder that even beloved institutions evolve. Whether Lulu’s eventually changes hands or shrinks its footprint, Friday’s red, white and blue send-off showed a community proud to show off its waterfront, and grateful for the dream that helped put it on the map.
Further Reading
- “Fox & Friends RV Road Trip Contest Kicks Off Over the Summer,” The Hollywood Reporter, April 2026: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/fox-friends-rv-contest-road-trip-1236560157/
- “Where is Steve Doocy? Fox & Friends Co-Host to Implement Schedule Change,” Newsweek, 2025: https://www.newsweek.com/where-steve-doocy-retiring-fox-friends-florida-schedule-2069681
- “Barefoot Landing to Undergo Multi-Year Transformation Anchored by New Waterfront Dining Village,” Burroughs & Chapin, 2017: https://www.burroughsandchapinleasing.com/new/barefoot-landing-undergo-multi-year-transformation-anchored-new-waterfront-dining-village/
- “Lucy Buffett’s Lulu’s Spearheading a New Dining District at Barefoot Landing,” North Beach Resort, 2017: https://www.northbeachrentals.com/news/lucy-buffetts-lulus-spearheading-a-new-dining-district-at-barefoot-landing/
- “New council members get down to business in fast-growing Horry County,” The Post and Courier, 2022: https://www.postandcourier.com/myrtle-beach/new-council-members-get-down-to-business-in-fast-growing-horry-county/article_5aa99410-7d45-11ed-a739-ab2e0a78b8ed.html
