If you're not looking for it you might drive right past Charleston's Café. Located off of Highway 17 in Mt. Pleasant, this little hole in the wall joint has joined my list of "Best Places to Eat When You've Got a Hangover." Though neither hungover nor in the mood for breakfast this visit I will definitely be returning to devour some of Charleston Café's breakfast fare. If my Crab Melt Panini was any indication as to the flavor wizardry occurring in the kitchen I am sure there will be nothing but pleasant surprises in the future.
The first bite into my Crab Melt Panini was like taking the Concorde to Flavor Town. Crab! Tangy goat cheese! Sweet roasted red bell peppers! Earthy wilted spinach! Warm, crusty Italian bread! Winning! "If this is a lunch special," I thought, "I can't imagine how great their tried and true regular menu fixtures are!"
I brought a man-sized appetite but couldn't finish but half of the monster melt. I have no doubt it will be equally magnificent for dinner, if I ever am hungry again.
Husk serves southern food made with local ingredients-- a concept with which, you, I am sure are familiar, but not the way executive chef Sean Brock does it. The menu changes regularly reflecting the seasons and produce availability (again, nothing new) and practically every item includes it's components place of origin. You won't be bored to find southern-fried chicken or fried green tomatoes on this menu like you will on so many others that claim to specialize in southern cuisine. Husk's menu is far more original as it pulls recipes and inspiration from your great-grandmother's table and seasons it with a hip perspective.
At first glance, the February 24 lunch menu made my deep-pit-of-the-stomach hunger only more intense. It was difficult to choose between the fried (homemade) bread and butter pickles with tarragon cream, pork rillette with pain de mie, pear butter and other accompaniments and Caper’s Inlet Blade Oysters with Husk muscadine vinegar and shaved fennel to start but my love of bivalves won me over.
The fine people at Husk (almost) understand when you start with a superlative product you don't need to gussy it up with fussy, competing flavors. The oysters, plump and pruriently juicy, slid nonchalantly from their pearlescent shell slides urged into my mouth by the accompanying muscadine vinegar, a nice foil to the oysters' refreshing oceanic saltiness. To that end, the shaved fennel must have been an afterthought. The texture of a raw oyster should not be meddled with. Even the subtle crunch of a small, translucent piece of shaved fennel detracts from the fabulous softness of a raw oyster. Luckily, the fennel was easy enough to remove.
For my second course, I selected the salad of Kurios Farm butter lettuces with shaved turnips and watermelon radishes tossed in a peanut vinaigrette. The salad was phenomenal. For the first time I understood why this type of lettuce includes butter in its name: from the moment my knife touched the spring green leaves they almost tore themselves as they were so tender. The beautiful pink of the watermelon radishes and the sharpness of the turnips provided visual interest and a palatable balance to the butter lettuce and the peanut vinaigrette. My one and only complaint is that a salad of this size was $10. The flavors were exceptional but the price was unacceptable.
Would I return to Husk? I suppose I will. In retrospect my biggest issue with the restaurant was it's pricing and not its offerings. To that end, if there's a long line at Husk, you won't find me in it.
The boyfriend and I both work in downtown Jacksonville (as of last Monday) which means we're finally able to take lunch together. As today is a special day, our one and a half year anniversary, I chose a restaurant I've heard so many great things about for lunch: Chew.
Though Chew is about 10 minutes from my office I am still unsure if the walk was worth it. I ordered the banh mi sandwich, boyfriend ordered the hot brown sandwich and we split the fried green tomatoes with gorgonzola fondue. The fried green tomatoes were good and boyfriend's hot brown sandwich was delicious. For those of you who do not know what a hot brown sandwich is you're missing out. My banh mi sandwich, on the other hand, was another story.
My banh mi sandwich arrived with a side salad dressed in a delightfully light and lemony vinaigrette. "This is gonna be good," I thought. One bite into the sandwich, and I was disappointed, firstly, with the pork was absolutely far too dry. Secondly? There was too much bread, not enough pickled vegetables and not enough chili lime dressing. I sent the banh mi sandwich back.
Round two of the banh mi sandwich was significantly better. The pork was crispy outside, tender, hot and succulent inside. While banh mi sandwich number two did not have more pickled vegetables than the first it did have more chili lime dressing, which helped to create a more flavorful sandwich overall.
Next time, I will not be ordering the banh mi sandwich, but I will be returning to Chew. All in all I am not quite sure I have made a decision as to whether or not Chew is as good as everyone else says it is.
