If shrimp and grits are what come to thoughts when you consider meals in Charleston, my hunch is that you simply haven’t been all the way down to my neck of the woods currently. For the reason that late aughts, town has undergone a culinary renaissance propelled by a cohort of cooks, notably Sean Brock, who introduced the farm-to-table motion to new heights. Partly due to this burgeoning scene, Charleston’s tourism sector has grown exponentially lately, and town of simply over 150,000 residents now receives near 1 million vacationers yearly. (Some 35,000—together with a handful of SAVEUR staffers—descend on the Charleston Wine + Meals Pageant every year alone.)
However Charleson’s culinary evolution continues apace to the current. As of late, a brand new class of chef-driven eating places has cemented town as an evergreen meals vacation spot, drawing from the normal Lowcountry palate in addition to worldwide flavors and cooking strategies.
Charleston is a thriving centuries-old port, and its meals is grounded within the influences of enslaved folks from West Africa and past who largely constructed town from the bottom up, grew its crops, and labored and cooked right here. On this peninsula hugged by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, they creatively mixed spices and different foodstuffs that got here off the ships with the bounty of this place—corn, sport, shrimp, fish, crab, oysters—and established a singular delicacies on the intersection of many cultures.
The peninsula remains to be Charleston’s gastronomic epicenter, which suggests loads of the very best eating places are inside strolling distance from each other. Nevertheless, as town has grown, so has its culinary footprint, and now diners will be served—and served effectively—by spending a while west of the Ashley River, within the Park Circle neighborhood of North Charleston, and out on the Sea Islands.
Charleston’s eating places are marvelously numerous, and these days, you’re virtually as more likely to discover flounder cooked in miso-infused broth as you might be to get pleasure from it dredged in cornmeal and deep-fried. That is why this primer runs the gamut.
I hope the listing sparks your creativeness: This metropolis by the ocean is the place I dove headfirst into meals writing, and virtually twenty years later, I’m simply as enamored with Charleston’s restaurant scene as I used to be that first soft-shell crab season. My greatest piece of recommendation? Come hungry—having fun with all that Charleston has to supply takes time, reservations, and a voracious urge for food.
Sixteen years and counting, The Glass Onion continues to churn out pitch-perfect po’boys with flash-fried plump native shrimp served on a delicate but crusty roll. Past the sandwiches, there are in-season vegetable sides like native subject peas stewed with onions and contemporary herbs, that are nice to share alongside entrees together with pan-roasted Carolina trout and succulent pork chops. The diner-style eating room is straightforward but snug sufficient to linger for dessert, which can be a tart meringue pie sooner or later and buttermilk panna cotta the following.
At this Mediterranean restaurant subsequent to Colonial Lake, Chef Vinson Petrillo (of Restaurant at Zero George fame) reminds everyone why burrata turned so stylish within the first place: That is the good things, ultra-creamy with a light tang (and it doesn’t damage that there’s an choice to have it arrive gilded with caviar). Eggplant parmesan, effervescent from the oven, looks like a coat on a cool evening, however whatever the climate, I discover myself returning to the cool beef carpaccio with velvety slices of meat encasing an Asian-inspired herby salad.
After shifting to Charleston to open Le Farfalle, chef Michael Toscano related with native pig farmer Tank Jackson and shortly perfected his already distinctive porchetta. At this Charleston tackle an Italian American butcher store, attempt the flavorful, thinly sliced pork on a focaccia sandwich topped with salsa verde, or skip the swine and go for the eggplant scapece sandwich with arugula, sun-dried tomatoes, and ricotta. While you’ve gone onerous the evening earlier than, Da Toscano’s breakfast sandwiches—similar to porcini-rubbed prime rib topped with a sunny-side-up egg—at all times save the day.
There’s usually a line out the door to this restaurant on Higher King, and when Rodney’s in the home, a line to see him, too. Rodney Scott is without doubt one of the nice pitmasters of smoky whole-hog barbecue, which requires the power to carry butterflied pigs over glowing coals, the stamina to have a tendency it for a number of hours, and the persistence to know when it’s crisp sufficient to serve with zippy vinegar sauce. The sound system is at all times taking part in some basic pop or blues within the sun-filled eating room, and the music is even piped out to the car parking zone for patrons on the drive-through. Rodney’s is a uncommon style of country-style barbecue within the metropolis—pink cafeteria tray, pork skins, beans, collards, and all.
It looks like a comfortable ceremonial dinner at this Cannonborough neighborhood hang-out, the place seasonal bistro dishes are the draw. Just a few current standouts embrace escargot with tarragon and gruyère, gnocchetti with walnut arugula pesto, and bavette steak with candy onions from Wadmalaw Island. Bethany, the co-owner, is a wonderful host, serving wine, hugging clients, and deftly maneuvering the crush of diners. Settle in for aperitivi on the bar, then peruse the wine listing favoring low-intervention small producers.
There’s no cornbread in sight at this Filipino restaurant with a pleasing aspect yard patio—but as any native will inform you, Kultura has shortly grow to be a Charleston favourite since opening final 12 months. Substances sourced close by, like Peculiar Pig pork and quite a lot of greens, shine by means of in dishes like arroz caldo topped with smoked trout roe and tocino (twice-cooked pork ribs with banana ketchup and furikake rice krispies). It’s astonishing that the cooks can obtain such depth of taste and delightful plating utilizing little greater than an induction burner and a small oven. On Sundays, visitors belt out karaoke hits at brunch whereas sipping mimosas and halo-halo cocktails made with coconut, sake, and ube foam.
We’ve already professed our love for this spot swimming in fairytale European allure, however the lasting enchantment of Chez Nous is the way it connects the diner with the seasons—six menu objects at a time. On a current go to, there was crispy fish with peas and sofrito, shaved carrot and golden beet salad spooned over creamy mozzarella, and berries in vanilla cream for dessert—all served in an unhurried, well-choreographed procession. At Chez Nous, the candlelight glows, the Previous World wine listing flows, and there’s at all times a brand new season to rejoice.
This Pakistani avenue meals mecca subsequent to a movie show is the Mount Nice sister restaurant of Ma’am Saab. Its partitions pop with Pakistani avenue posters, and Bollywood music blasts from the audio system. Masala fries, sprinkled with the home chile-spice mix, come topped with onions, cilantro, and spicy ketchup; they’re a strong starter to munch on whereas deciding between mains like beef kabab with inexperienced chutney and tamarind or the paneer tikka masala combo with vegetable korma. For dessert, don’t miss the normal kulfi (pistachio, rose, and cinnamon) ice cream.
Although FIG lately celebrated its twentieth anniversary, reservations are as onerous to return by as ever (so e-book forward!). Favorites just like the gnocchi and tomato tartine are at all times in seasonal rotation, however there’s at all times one thing new to attempt in dishes like broiled Steamboat oysters with inexperienced garlic (which go nice with Cruse Wine’s glowing rosé), beets with house-made cottage cheese, and sautéed snowy grouper served in a pool of artichoke dashi with peas and asparagus. After-dinner cocktails such because the “café de Carmen”—espresso, Hoodoo chicory, Giffard Banane du Brésil, and Cynar—make an exquisite pairing for desserts like wealthy Carolina Gold rice pudding topped with native blueberries.
Bintü Atelier is one in every of Charleston’s first African eating places. Tucked in a home in Eastside with an old school kitchen retailer connected, the institution cranks out beautiful mains similar to goat with melon seed and pumpkin; mafe, a groundnut stew with hen; and fried soft-shell crab served over shito spicy crab rice. To clean all of it down, there are contemporary house-made juices from pineapple to ginger to soursop. This can be a family-run operation (you possibly can usually spot chef Bintou N’Daw Younger on the range by means of the display door), which provides to the nice and cozy, homey really feel.
From wood-roasted clams to seasonal greens, the OD (because it’s affectionately known as) is all about shareable French, Italian and Spanish plates. Begin with oysters from the uncooked bar, a flatbread with butterbean puree, or Frogmore chowder with shrimp and sausage, then transfer on to a veal cutlet over creamy grits or the Capanelle made with seasonal fish, inexperienced olives, calabrian chili, and breadcrumbs. Ensure to save lots of room for a gelato sampler from Beardcat’s downstairs, which makes use of native and seasonal components starting from strawberries to Counter Tradition espresso. The OD is the uncommon restaurant that’s nice for romantic dates, household celebrations, and every thing in between.
Braving the lengthy line right here is a part of the pilgrimage, and everyone’s in it collectively: development staff, churchgoers, the lawyer from these TV adverts, and now you. Bertha’s is about greater than the silky okra soup, creamy mac and cheese, inexperienced beans like my granny’s, and fried pork chops (my go-to order ever since one of many house owners gave me the up-down and mentioned, “You seem like it is perhaps a pork chop day”). With its mural of Bertha herself and tables of impatient kids ready for his or her dad and mom in line, Bertha’s is group throughout the steam desk.
Cooks right here work hand in hand every day with native fishermen to deliver patrons the very best Lowcountry seafood conceivable. You may luck out with a snapper ceviche with avocado and cucumber on one go to, whereas the following, it is perhaps fried soft-shell crab nachos. The eating room bathed in various blues, the wine listing with loads of lights and white, and the ever-helpful employees make this Cannonborough neighborhood standby really feel like a celebration—with out getting in the midst of yours. Insider tip: The caviar sandwiches on potato rolls are among the best Charleston restaurant experiences on the peninsula.
Lowland Tavern is the sort of place native cooks flock to once they’re not on the road: It’s cozy but decadent, due to the art-saturated partitions and ornate Nineteenth-century fireplaces, and the menu is deceptively easy but stuffed with delicate culinary flexes. Take the Tavern burger and fries, as an illustration, impressed by James Beard Award-winning chef Jason Stanhope’s favourite burgers at Peter Luger Steak Home and Minetta Tavern in New York: It’s bathed in creamy cognac sauce and comes on a pillowy, sesame-flecked bun that absorbs simply sufficient of the juices in order that they don’t dribble down your chin. After I’m within the temper for one thing lighter, I spring for the celery salad with dates, walnuts, and mint.
The patio right here on a summer time evening is Park Circle (North Charleston’s hip neighborhood) at its best. The cocktails—maybe a carafe of the sake-based If You’re a Chook, I’m a Chook—and easy-to-drink Lambrusco, chenin blanc, and rosé make for a lot of gregarious rounds, and the dim sum brunch of dumplings, congee, and an enormous ol’ piece of chocolate chip banana bread is so widespread it’s usually standing-room solely. Irrespective of the event, no less than one order of Sichuan scorching karaage, drizzled with home “filly sauce” and served with candy pickles, is a should.
