Restaurant Review: Eileen's

Having never been to Summerville and being completely in the dark as far as their dining scene is concerned, I chose to follow the advice of my Patch.com column readers and try Eileen’s. Thank you for your recommendations. 

The Atmosphere

Eileen’s is an intimate, dimly lit restaurant. With only 28 seats by my estimation, it’s ideal for a romantic date night or breaking bread with close friends over a dinner that lasts for hours. The darkly painted booths, napkins and accents only add to Eileen’s languorous atmosphere.

The Service

Perhaps it was the drop in temperature, but I have a hunch that our less-than-warm reception was the fact that the combined ages in our party was lower than that of the other patrons. Aside from our initial greeting, the service at Eileen’s was, well, down tempo. We weren’t ignored, but we were the last on the wait staff’s list of tables to check on. Then again, I believe this simply how things work here. Eileen’s wants you to stay and spend a good amount of time breaking bread and drinking wine. 

The Food

As a special on Wednesday nights, Eileen’s offers five courses, three of which include wine pairings, for $30. The courses are pulled from Eileen’s Mediterranean-inspired menu. Not quite hungry enough for five courses, we opted for starters and entrées.

As a side note, I must applaud the barkeep at Eileen’s. I have never been served a lime so large or freshly cut anywhere. It makes all the difference in a gin and tonic.

Never one to turn down organ meat of any kind, I couldn’t pass up the Sautéed Chicken Livers with Prosciutto and Caramelized Onions ($8) as starter. The plate of chicken livers arrived and my jaw dropped; there were at least five petite chicken livers.

Liver, if overcooked, changes from supple earthiness to grainy, gray matter. There should be someresistance but liver should ultimately succumb to the pressure of your fork. There’s someone in the kitchen at Eileen’s who loves liver just as much as I do and knows how to cook it just right. The accompanying prosciutto was intended for bacon-like crispiness but unfortunately didn’t reach that point. The caramelized onions, a nice twist on the traditional liver and onions combination, were great. I only wish there had been more of them. My only complaint had to do with the red wine sauce thickly pooled at the bottom of the plate. It tasted faintly of wine but most reminiscent of a Chinese take-out restaurant’s “brown sauce.”

As an entrée, I ordered a half portion of the Orechiette with Peas and Proscuitto ($8) in cream sauce. I absolutely love that Eileen’s offers full and half portions of their pasta entrées at dinner. The small pieces of orechiette pasta were cooked to toothsome perfection. Shaped like small little shallow bowls, the orrechiette scooped up the dish’s light cream sauce. The way the ham tasted didn’t make me believe it was actually prosciutto—no matter, everything was quite good nonetheless. 

The Verdict

Eileen’s is a good place for dinner. The Mediterranean and predominantly Italian-inspired menu does play it safe, but it isn’t boring. As such, Eileen’s offers dishes to please every palate while still bringing the residents of Summerville back for more. It’s a restaurant made for conversation, whether between a group of friends or just the two of you.

Have you been to Eileen's? What did you order? Have you tried their five courses and wine pairing menu on Wednesday nights?

Minestrone Soup

I wish you could have smelled the kitchen yesterday while this pot of gold was simmering away on the stove. My mom has been feeling a little under the weather, so I made some comforting and delicious, albeit nontraditional, minestrone soup. I substituted some traditional vegetables for ones I had in the fridge I wanted to use up (like savoy cabbage for zucchini). Even though it's Florida in July, this soup was too good to pass up. I based this recipe off of the one from the original The Best Recipe.


Minestrone Soup


- 1 28 oz can of whole peeled tomatoes, chopped
- 1 15 oz can of cannelini beans (also called Great Northern Beans)
- 3 cups shredded savoy cabbage
- 2-3 medium carrots, chopped
- 2 medium celery stalks
- 1 freezer bag of green peas
- 2 small white onions
- 2 small white potatoes (or whatever potato you want)
- 2 pieces of Parmesano Reggiano cheese rinds
- 9 cups of water 
- 2 sprigs of tarragon
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- 1 clove of garlic
- sea salt
- black pepper
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil


The key to a successful minestrone is that you chop everything to roughly the same size so everything cooks uniformly. Otherwise you will end up with mushy onions and undercooked potatoes. Chop your vegetables into cute little cubes and the broth will make love to them and infuse itself into their cells. In short you'll end up with an amazing soup you'll want to make love to. The second crucial aspect of minestrone is the parmesan reggiano cheese rinds. They add a certain sweetness and je ne sais quoi that absolutely is essential to the depth of flavor that makes this soup as good as I am telling you it is.


Directions


1. Chop all of your vegetables uniformly) and shred the cabbage.

2. Mince the tarragon, rosemary, and garlic. Mix with a little bit of sea salt and the olive oil to make a rough pesto.

3. Open the can of tomatoes, roughly chop. 


4. Open the can of cannelini beans and rinse (to make sure you're in control of the salt level).


5. Place vegetables, tomatoes, beans, and parmesan rinds in large soup pot. Cover the vegetables with about 2 inches of water.


6. Add pesto. Simmer away for about an hour. Add salt and pepper to taste.

A Love Story and Ravioli Primitivo

I have come to the conclusion that each plant in my garden has it's own personality. I reached this conclusion yesterday, when, like every morning, I began my day in my garden. I like to come downstairs before everyone is awake, begin making coffee, and venturing outside to greet the day with a few green friends. Yesterday I realized that there was a love story "blooming" right before me...

The cucumber is married to the cayenne pepper. This is a fact. How do I know this? They are always touching leaves! This is a phenomenon I've noticed amongst a few of my plants; they all have companions. However, these two plants are all about the PDA! The cucumber is definitely the wife in this relationship. Aside from the fact that the cucumber is "curvier", the cayenne pepper is much more... erect. When I bought the two of them as baby plants, I planted them together and have kept them side by side. As they've grown, I've noticed that they've literally grown together, as in they've grown towards one another. Plants are helio-autotrophs. Photosynthesis allows them to combine carbon dioxide and water to make sugar. As the sun is necessary for this process to occur, plants, specifically their leaves, follow the sun's rays. Much like a sunbather follows the sun to get the most even tan. Well Miss Cucumber and Mr. Cayenne do that, but some of their leaves reach out towards another. I know this sounds crazy, but two of my plants love each other!

In other news, yesterday was quite a culinary adventure for yours truly. I tried again to make homemade fresh from scratch egg pasta. This time, it was edible! I did a bit of research and found a recipe that called for all-purpose flour and olive oil. I found that the olive oil acted as a solvent and a lubricant. The dough was not as sticky and the kneading went considerably smoother. I made the dough old-school style (aka by hand without the aid of a food processor or a dough hook in a KitchenAid) and even rolled it out by hand. You want an upper body workout? Roll out egg pasta to 1/16" and tell me if your back is sore the next day. 

I used my fresh pasta to make veal ravioli. It was decent, but next time a pasta machine is absolutely in order. None of the raviolis were the same size or shape, so mother named them "Ravioli Primitivo." Next time I'm not making meat ravioli, I think vegetables and pasta go together much, much better than meat. Well, we'll see what the day holds!