Nothing says the end-of-the-year holidays like the traditions of family gatherings, big meals and the alcoholic beverages that accompany them.
The Post and Courier Food section since August has been checking in weekly with four downtown Charleston restaurants coping with the coronavirus pandemic and recovering from restrictions designed to contain it. Here's the latest installment.
The Post and Courier Food section since August has been checking in weekly with four downtown Charleston restaurants coping with the coronavirus pandemic and recovering from restrictions designed to contain it. Here's the latest installment.
I can’t shake the critic’s instinct that it’s silly to endorse a dish which might not be available tomorrow. I kind of miss taking chances, though. In other words: No promises. But here are my greatest hits from the first week of the dining ban.
Euro Foods is new to Old Towne Road, but not to West Ashley. It previously had a 13-year run on Ashley River Road, where it operated exclusively as a grocery store. Now the space bearing the Euro Foods name is split almost exactly in half, with a brightly lit retail section to the right and a counter-service café to the left.
Since launching the South Carolina Chef Ambassador program, the state has put approximately $360,000 into the culinary initiative. Less clear, at least according to data provided by sponsors S.C. Department of Agriculture and S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism, is what eaters here and elsewhere have gotten out of it.
Community Table is decidedly not fine dining: The servers are dressed in blue jeans, and James Taylor keeps cropping up on the background music mix.
Prior to 2020, each restaurant was theoretically eligible for 15 stars, since it was graded in three separate categories: Food, service and atmosphere. But no longer.
What really characterizes the food in this alluringly gold-walled lounge is not the ingredients which the Wangs puts into it, but the feeling you get out of it.
Malagon is making exceptional food, but its owners don’t want you or me to know it.
For the most part, the food at Tradd's in downtown Charleston is just mildly bad.
It’s a critic’s job to accurately describe a restaurant so potential patrons can knowledgeably decide if they want to go there. Readers can do as they choose with the accompanying opinions.
The massive Folly Beach restaurant, which measures three dining rooms and 6,500 square feet in all, has good intentions that spawn nothing but disappointment.
Melfi’s is the third restaurant that Brooks Reitz and Tim Mink have opened on the short strand of Upper King Street bounded by Congress and Sumter streets
I can’t shake the critic’s instinct that it’s silly to endorse a dish which might not be available tomorrow. I kind of miss taking chances, though. In other words: No promises. But here are my greatest hits from the first week of the dining ban.
Answering readers' food questions
My guess is you’re more concerned by reports that restaurant workers are facing record levels of food insecurity, as well as an uncertain financial forecast (and thank you for heeding that concern at a time when the need for all charitable giving is so great.) Fortunately, several organizations share your priorities.
Q: It is my understanding that in calculating the tip, the amount to be used is based on the pre-tax total. Staff does not need to be tipped for taxes collected, especially in high tax areas (New York, Charleston, San Francisco). What, in your opinion, is correct?
Q: Where can I find authentic Peking duck in Charleston area? I asked Red Orchid if they could do special order and was told, “No, too time consuming to be profitable.”
Charleston's newest restaurants
Ty’s Roadside Coastal Kitchen celebrates the impromptu trip out of town and hopes to establish itself in Mount Pleasant as the kind of neighborhood joint that makes folks think twice about moving on.
The latest eating place from The Indigo Road Hospitality Group, The Daniel Island Market & Eatery emphasizes coffee, tea and juice, plus pastries, sandwiches and dessert.
The former owner of Duvall Catering & Events developed the facility to support incorporeal restaurants, as well as food trucks, independent bakers, small-scale caterers and artisan food producers.
Raul Sanchez says the format “will allow me to introduce dishes that I haven’t been able to make in the past, including family recipes that are 200 to 300 years old; dishes that I really haven’t had time to make within the confines of a standard restaurant.”
Bussin’ School
A monthly reader recipe contest
He’s the housekeeper’s favorite Mike. He’ll plan the meal with you, cook the gourmet meal, allow you to socialize with friends and family and cleans up after himself -- sometimes leaving it cleaner than it was before. That’s Mike Macri, owner of #mymikecooks, of Murrells Inlet.
When these beans were served in Linda Page’s childhood home, it meant her parents were trying to save money. Now the dish signals one kind of special occasion: Page says she always makes it when she finds hambones on sale at The Honeybaked Ham Company store.
Frederick Goulding’s crab cake recipe is one of four competing in The Post and Courier Food section’s contest for a category crown. Over the course of a year, the newspaper will publish four reader-supplied recipes for each of 12 iconic Lowcountry dishes.
Bob Payne’s crab cake recipe is one of four competing in The Post and Courier Food section’s contest for a category crown. Over the course of a year, the newspaper will publish four reader-supplied recipes for each of 12 iconic Lowcountry dishes.
R. Alex Hild’s crab cake recipe is one of four competing in The Post and Courier Food section’s contest for a category crown. Over the course of a year, the newspaper will publish four reader-supplied recipes for each of 12 iconic Lowcountry dishes.
You’ve been served
Who’s right in this situation? Should restaurant owners be held responsible for mitigating natural phenomena beyond their control? Or should restaurant patrons accept that sunlight, heat and insects sometimes figure into dining out in South Carolina?
Should restaurants restrict kids' menus to elementary-school aged children? Or does any minor dining with his or her mother have the right to order the chicken nuggets?
The Post and Courier Food section weekly features a complaint that first surfaced online, along with testimonies from the patron and restaurateur. You, the readers, are the jury. Join us in our Facebook group to weigh in on whether the customer is indeed right, or if the case should be resolved in the restaurant’s favor.
The Post and Courier Food section weekly features a complaint that first surfaced online, along with testimonies from the patron and restaurateur. You, the readers, are the jury. Join us in our Facebook group to weigh in on whether the customer is indeed right, or if the case should be resolved in the restaurant’s favor. Let’s enter the courtroom.
Spotlighting artisan food producers
Exploring what locals eat throughout a day
"I usually have a glass of red wine with dinner, a square of 72 percent dark chocolate for dessert and a big glass of water before heading off to bed."
This is part of The Post and Courier’s Daily Digest series, in which one of our food reporters asks a local to describe a day of eating in detail.
"After jumping into Friday work mode, I went to Coastal Coffee Roasters in Summerville and got a mocha with an extra shot and a strawberry cream cheese muffin. Their baked goods are such a guilty pleasure of mine."
More Food
If a bill under consideration this week by the S.C. Senate Agriculture Subcommittee succeeds, South Carolinians would be allowed to sell homemade foods such as pickled peaches and sweet potato pie.
For some, working from home has meant trading commute time for home meal planning. For others, it's meant piling up Dorito crumbs on the couch between phone calls and emails.
As the legal battle for cannabis in South Carolina wages on, one strain of THC has state approval and can now be found in a vending machine at Fatty's Beer Works.