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
Yumi Dong, whose father recently opened Old Li’s on Savannah Highway, said Lao Li wanted to bring Min cuisine to Charleston because he couldn’t find any local examples of food from his native Fujian Province.
At The Kingstide, the menu emphasizes seafood.
In coming weeks, Mixson Burgers & Brew owner Shontea Jones Taylor plans to “add little twists,” such as Taco Tuesdays, weekend brunch and Soul Food Sundays.
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.
Spotlighting artisan food producers
Exploring what locals eat throughout a day
"I ended the night with a glass of red wine, for the antioxidants, of course."
As always, there was a crowd, but Chick-fil-A has a system so it’s never a long wait.
Spread some Nutella on those little waffles, and Stroop! There it is!
More Food
The consequences of widespread anosmia are likely to be sweeping. If the problem persists, restaurants and food producers will be forced to answer a question that would have sounded preposterous in 2019:
What happens when the nation’s most enthusiastic eaters switch to a diet of cereal and onion sandwiches?
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.
April is here, which means in South Carolina, we're entering soft-shell crab season.