We meet again, Charleston! But this time I don't have an open fridge at my sister's house to raid, so must eat every single meal out! While Charleston is the town you want to be in if you're in such a predicament, I currently have no desire to eat out for a long time (by the time this posts, it'll be a different story).
Charleston PlaceWe were in town for my boyfriend's business conference, so while he worked during the day and ate out at Charleston's finest with colleagues at night, I dined, for the most part, alone (suits and hoodies don't mix well). I did get to mooch a room at Charleston Place, one of Charleston's finest hotels, though. Score!
After the distressing discovery upon arrival to town that I'd be at the brake shop the next day, we went to
Social, a wine bar downtown, for some wine and, for me, champagne to celebrate the suckitude. Social is very dark, so the pics of the two salads we had before I realized my camera was on the wrong setting (my camera broke at Xmas, too, to add insult to injury) are nothing but blackness. The salads were great, the boy's fish was good, but there's not much vegetarian in the entree department. I ordered the coconut onion ring, fried quail egg, and cheddar sliders and accompanying truffled yukon chips without the meat, and that's how our server, also a vegetarian, said she eats hers. I would recommend Social heat or toast their buns, instead of sending them out cold, but our server was so sweet and down to earth, and talked to us like we were alive and she was alive, that I loved it all. Bad service can ruin a meal, and, likewise, good service can elevate food.
Sweetwater Café is just across the street from Charleston Place, and since I din't have conference breakfast privileges, I popped over one morning for a side of grits and a side of fruit. The side of fruit was huge, and the side of grits was tiny! But together my bill was something like $5. Grits are white, but seasoned perfectly, and had nary a lump (you'd be kicked out of Charleston if your grits had lumps). The Sweetwater Café downtown has a slick diner vibe, while the Sweetwater location on James Island, which I've lunched at before, has a more rundown sandwich shop vibe. I've never been to the Summerville location.
The last time I ate at
Gaulart and Maliclet (a.k.a. Fast and French) was, I think, high school..maybe college. That should tell you something about the popularity of this French bistro run by
real French people. The bread is still soft french bread, but I blame that on the 80's, and, you know, it's actually kind of hard to eat a sandwich on tough bread. The interior is narrow, and if you consider yourself obese, you're going to be very embarrassed when you try, and probably fail, to squeeze past the diners at the bar. All of the seating at either the bar or the couple of large round tables in the back is communal. The owner will tell you where to sit when you walk in the door, making Fast and French the ideal place for solo diners to grab a quick lunch.
Order the lunch special of the day, and any drink, including a glass of wine, is free! While I didn't order the special, my open faced veggie croq' baguette with tomato, zucchini, and cheese and excellent chilled cucumber soup with a glass of house white was still under $10. Take that Parc!
After lunch, I strolled outside of the historic downtown area with all the mansions and their perfectly appointed Charleston gardens, and was delighted to find this Charleston garden kept in the Southern African American tradition of
swept yards. If you're interested in gardening or Southern African American traditions (who me?),
this is a great book on the subject.
After a taxi ride out to West Ashley to pick up my car from the brake shop, I figured I'd hit up one of my favorite Charleston eateries,
The Glass Onion, for a big bowl of their "ridiculously good" banana pudding. The Glass Onion's banana pudding is homemade and ridiculously good, but has a bit much whipped cream, albeit homemade whip cream, than I care for, but I usually don't make banana pudding with whipped cream on top. The Glass Onion is my cup of tea, though. If I were to open a place of my own (or stalk a lunch spot), the Glass Onion with all their low brow Southern comfort foods made with local ingredients in a casual atmosphere would be it. They might as well just slap my name across their sign. For more Glass Onion, see
this post.
I met up with a couple of friend for dinner at
FIG (Food Is Good). FIG has won many accolades with a changing menu of well executed dishes made with fresh, local ingredients. All you foodies will
love FIG. Now, the menu is not veggie friendly. At my visit there was only one vegetarian item other than a salad on their small menu, but the chef will gladly alter dishes if at all possible, or make you a veggie plate. Don't confuse a veggie plate with the sides of veggies listed on the menu -- they're all cooked in meat juices, and, apparently, excellent. I had the sweet onion tart (the one veggie dish) and the Sea Island egg ravioli (how'd they get an egg in the center without the yolk breaking?) which was easily made vegetarian with the omission of some pork product garnish.
We then moved over to Peninsula Grill for the biggest honkin' piece of
the best coconut cake you've ever had. We split it between three people, and it was plenty. Did I mention that it's good? One friend made us leave FIG specifically for this cake, the other friend confessed to buying an entire coconut cake ($100!) from Peninsula Grille for the holidays, and a couple came in while we were at the bar to order a slice of coconut cake to go.
Three Little Birds is a breakfast and lunch spot with veggie options that sits as an island in a strip mall parking lot
behind the Earth Fare in West Ashley. My grilled squash and zucchini and too sweet bbq tempeh melt were just fine, but nothing earth shattering. Three Little Birds seems like a great place to grab lunch with your mom while out shopping, and the place was filled with just such people.
Tired of dining out alone, I grabbed pad Thai to go from
Basil, a fancy Thai restaurant that's immensely popular with the locals. Just like Savannah, Charleston was a virtual ghost town in the month of January, so many popular restaurants sat almost empty, but not Basil; they were packed! The noodles are thinner than the usual flat rice noodles you get at most places, and they let you specify spiciness (mild, medium, hot, or Thai hot). I went with medium, and it was much spicier than most pad Thai's. A touch more tang, and I would have been in love. Good stuff, but expensive.
The boy actually joined me for breakfast the next day, and we went into
Diana's (now Toast?) after ogling the menu and a passing couple blurted out to us that their biscuits are awesome. The biscuits were awesome -- some of the softest I've ever had. The plate of eggs and cheddar, grits and cheddar, and biscuit is actually the boy's. I just had a bowl of grits (not picture worthy), and, again they were white with nary a lump, but these needed to be seasoned at the table. There's a wide range of shrimp-this, and shrimp-that on the menu to be had, but we went basic.
For lunch I met up with Krista Beth, a reader of my blog that lives in Charleston (hi, Krista Beth!). Blog readers are some of the nicest people, and interesting, too. Krista Beth fosters rescued Pugs, and came
this close to being on last season's
Project Runway. I'm hoping she tries out again.
We met up at
EVO (Extra Virgin Oven), a pizzaria in North Charleston's Park Circle area that speciallizes in simple, wood-fired pizzas using local, fresh ingredients. People in Charleston are digging on EVO, and it came recommend by Krista Beth and my sister. I ordered a small 8-inch pizza from the menu with pistachio pesto, goat cheese, créme fraiche, mozzarella, parmagiano-reggiano, and sea salt. The pizza's crust was thinnish and perfectly crispy, and the creme fraiche smothering the salty pesto and cheese base was quite different than any other pizza I've ever had. Go early, the place fills up!
Butter bean lovin' boy ate this bowl of butter bean salad from the pizzeria
Monza. Order these beans tossed with lemon, olive oil, and herbs plain or with your choice of tuna or shrimp. I picked quite a few beans from around the shrimp, and they were good. One could easily plate 1/5 of what was in this bowl on a large plate, charge the same price, but move it to a fancy restaurant, and totally be legit.
I find it funny that Serious Eats just (when I wrote this post, not when it actually posted) wrote
a post praising
Mellow Mushroom, a pizza chain primarily in the Southeast that got it's start in Atlanta in the 70's, after I just ate there for the first time since the early 1990's. I had an extremely bad experience with a cheese pizza from a Mellow Mushroom in Atlanta, and have never been back. But Krista Beth recommended their avocado sandwich over our lunch at EVO, and I figured I should maybe drop by MM to give them another go after almost more than fifteen years.
I skipped the pizzas and the recommended avocado sandwich, and went with their tempeh hoagie, a warm sandwich with marinated tempeh, feta, grilled mushrooms, onions, peppers, pesto mayo, and sprouts on the side. Pretty good! I'd ask for extra pesto mayo next time. They've got a nice veggie sandwich selection with five on their menu: capri (mozzarella, tomato, basil); avocado; portabello and cheese; tofu; and tempeh. And, of course, there are the pizzas and salads.
For my last meal in town I decided to arrive in style -- in an AstroTurf covered stretch Cadillac! That's right bitches! No, not really. This fine mobile just happened to be sitting outside my dining destination, and I had to snap a pic.
Inside the coral pink facade of
Alluette's Café you'll find a casual, but quaint, "holistic soul food" joint serving up fresh, local seafood, meats, and produce, but without any pork products anywhere. What this means is that Alluette's is vegan and vegetarian friendly (no hamhock in vegetables), and they even post largly on their blackboard that vegans are welcome (vegan cheese!). This is not a meat-and-three, but a cafe serving Southern food. And Alluette, the woman, is just as nice as could be (so is that guy in the picture). She'll come out and chat with you a bit before and after she gets cooking.
I ordered the collard green sandwich and subbed a side of potato salad for french fries. Yep, collard green sandwich! Alluette asked me if I had ever heard of such a thing and I said
no. I asked her the same, and she said
no. We both agreed that it works, though. The sauteed greens and onions with a slice of cheese and fresh tomato makes for a drippy, but excellent sandwich. The mayo-based potato salad is a Southern picnic/holiday/reunion/funeral staple, and is right on.
I was informed that Alluette's is opening a new dinner spot on Calhoun St. soon (think I got that right), but will also be keeping their current location. Oh, and they said to hurry on back!
And then I was off to Wilmington/Philly with an undocumented, but awesome stop at
Waffle House some where in between here and there.
