Christine and Karl Schaefer are opening Maisie’s Green Brae on July 4th. They’ve been building toward this moment for longer than they knew.
There is a building at 2150 Gold Hill Road that has been part of Tega Cay since 1977. A lot of people have passed through it. A lot of memories live in its walls. For the last few years, it has needed more love than it was getting.
Christine and Karl Schaefer are the people who showed up to give it that love.
Their restaurant, Maisie’s Green Brae, will hold its grand opening on July 4th — with a live band on the stage, a backyard full of neighbors, and a foxhound rescue named Maisie who will likely greet every single person who walks through the door as if she’s been waiting all day for them.
She has, in a way. That’s just who she is.
A Town Worth Protecting
Christine and Karl first visited Tega Cay in 2013, when close friends moved here. They fell in love with what they found: a town with a genuine “we’re all in this together” way of thinking, whether that meant being on the boat at the sandbar or getting a neighborhood project done.
They eventually moved here themselves. And like a lot of people who move to Tega Cay, they started to feel something they didn’t want to lose.
“Like most communities, to stay strong, we need a third place — not home, not work — where we can connect to each other, sit down, share a meal, share a moment. That’s what makes a thriving, happy community.”
The idea of building that place had been forming for years. Not long after moving to Tega Cay, they started musing with friends what kind of place they would open if they had the chance. They started working in earnest in early 2025 for the right place. When 2150 Gold Hill Road came available, they saw it immediately. From first look to signed lease: two weeks.
“The great big backyard, the brae — everything about it was what we needed for the vision to come alive,” Christine says. Karl and Christine have flipped more than one house together, and they have, as she puts it, a particular set of skills for bringing old buildings back to new life. They wanted to do that here. “Take a piece of this community’s history and leave it better than we found it.”
The Name, the Dog, the Heritage
A brae is a Scottish hillside. The name is not decorative.
Christine’s maiden name is Dawson — an offshoot of the Davidson clan in Scotland. Her father traced their family heritage back to the original Scottish settlers who came over after Mary, Queen of Scots was removed from the throne. Karl has Scottish roots as well. And the Carolinas themselves were significantly shaped by Scottish and Irish settlers, whose influence on the region’s culture and food runs deeper than most people realize.
The Scottish thread in Maisie’s Green Brae is real and earned. It’s in the name, in the word brae, in the menu. It doesn’t need to be performed.
Neither does Maisie.
The Schaefers adopted their one-eyed foxhound in 2025, after watching the Puppy Bowl. Her name — chosen by Christine’s son — means “little pearl” in Gaelic. She came home already blind in one eye. It doesn’t slow her down.
“She caught our hearts with her brave spirit, her silliness, her joyful way of just doing the simple things. Every single person she meets is her new friend.”
That, Christine says, is the spirit they wanted at the center of the restaurant.
The Food
The menu at Maisie’s Green Brae is built on a premise that Christine states plainly: Southern food already has Scottish influence in it. All they’ve done is bring that forward a little more.
Smoked brisket poutine in the shareables. Prime rib and roasted chicken as main entrées. Neeps and tatties — a Scottish turnip and potato mash — as a side. Strawberry rhubarb cobbler for dessert. A 30-tap bar with beer, wine, and craft cocktails. And, of course Scottish whisky.
For Christine, the cooking lineage goes back long before the restaurant. “For me, Southern cooking isn’t just about filling your belly,” she says. “After all the meals I’ve shared with my family at the table throughout the years — at my Aunt Kaye’s house, or my dad making biscuits and gravy — food was about putting love and care into everything you made and then sharing not just a meal, but a moment.”
Tega Cay residents have already had a chance to sample the Maisie’s kitchen ahead of the grand opening. On May 6th, Christine and Karl ran a lunch at Howell’s Designing Outdoors Better, and the line told the story before the first bite did.
My wife Susan and I were there. Susan went with the Shaved Prime Rib Sub, tender and rich, the kind of sandwich you keep thinking about the next day. I tried the Chicken Salad Croissant, fresh and bright, with the buttery pastry doing exactly what a good croissant should. Both were excellent, and if they are any indication of what’s coming on July 4th, Maisie’s Green Brae is going to be busy.
The Backyard
Half of Maisie’s Green Brae lives outside.
The space runs across multiple levels: a covered bar patio at the lower level, a brick stage patio in the middle where local bands perform, and an upper garden patio with raised planters and open grass beyond. There is a children’s play area — complete with a fairy garden — and a fenced yard for dogs.
Christine paints the picture plainly:
“You might enjoy a Friday evening sitting on our upper patio with a glass of Prosecco and a friend, looking out over the kids’ play area as little ones run around or pretend to be running a fairy market around the fairy garden. In the distance, your husband stands with his friends in the dog area enjoying a cold beer while the dogs run and get all their energy out. And as you sit and listen to the music, you can sigh and know that everyone is going to go to bed happy, well fed, and tired from a good day spent.”
Dogs are not an amenity at Maisie’s. They are part of the point. “Most people consider them a member of the family,” Christine says. “So how can you really enjoy a family dinner with neighbors without all of your family members with you?”
July 4th
The grand opening is July 4th, which also happens to be Tega Cay’s birthday. U-Phonik will perform on the stage. Reservations are not available yet — follow along at @maisiesgreenbrae on Facebook and Instagram, or at maisiesgreenbrae.com, for details as they come and updates on soft opening.
Christine’s vision for what this place becomes isn’t complicated. It’s a place where neighbors get to know each other and become friends. Where everyone remembers that every single one of their neighbors is a person worth knowing.
“When we gather together to share good food and good music, we have all created the Good Life together.”
The door opens July 4th. Maisie will be there.
Maisie’s Green Brae · 2150 Gold Hill Road · Tega Cay, South Carolina · maisiesgreenbrae.com · @maisiesgreenbrae
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