Category: South Carolina

Rating: N/R (Not Rated)SandwichSouth CarolinaUnited States

Butcher & Bee – Charleston, South Carolina

Gil Garduno4:02 PM

I’m not a sandwich store that only sells turkey sandwiches. I sell a lot of different things. ~Lady Gaga You might expect that a restaurant selected for inclusion on a list of “The 21 Best Sandwich Shops in America” would have a signature sandwich, its chef d’oeuvre. Pittsburgh’s Primanti Brothers, for example, is known for its pastrami and cheese sandwich. The Darwin Cafe in San Francisco is famous for its roast beef sandwich. Every sandwich shop on the list exalting the best sandwiches from sea to shining sea has its magnus opus, a masterpiece for which it is best known. All but one, that is. The sandwich recommended at the very first sandwich shop on the list is “whatever’s available.” It speaks volumes about that sandwich shop. The Butcher & Bee is unlike any stereotype or template of any sandwich shop you’ve ever frequented. It doesn’t subscribe to boring and homogeneous conventions such as serving the same things day after day. From the exterior, it’s relatively humdrum, unadorned by neon spangled signage, flash or panache. Its most telling feature may be the lines of people snaking out the door. Step inside and even Better Homes and Gardens would be challenged…

PizzaRating: N/R (Not Rated)South CarolinaUnited States

EVO – North Charleston, South Carolina

Gil Garduno9:01 AM

America is a pizza obsessed nation. Ninety-three percent of us consume at least one slice of pizza per month and collectively, we each eat some 46 slices of pizza per year. According to Pizza Magazine Quarterly, the pizza industry’s number one business magazine and web site, there are nearly 70,000 pizzerias in the United States (or about as many pizzerias as Santa Fe, New Mexico has residents) to sate our love of pizza. Almost two-thirds (or about 46,000) of those pizzerias are independently owned and operated. With such a large number of pizzerias serving the pizza loving public, creating a list anointing the best pizza or any number of best pizzas in the country is an audacious endeavor (just try picking the definitive pizza in the Duke City). Even defining the criteria for designating the best pizza is a plucky proposition considering the tremendous differences in style between purveyors of the sacrosanct pie. In September, 2012, The Daily Meal recruited an august panel au courant with all things pizza and asked them to compile a list of the best pizzas across the fruited plain. After much deliberation and trimming, five spots were allotted to each of seven regions. Because the…

Closed in 2014Gone But Not ForgottenSoul FoodSouth CarolinaSouthern

Gullah Cuisine – Mount Pleasant, South Carolina (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno6:47 PM

No culinary tour of South Carolina’s Lowcountry would be complete without sampling Gullah cuisine at least once. In the Lowcountry, Gullah represents several things: people, culture and language. As a people, the Gullah represent a distinctive group of African Americans living along the island chains and coastal plains which parallel the South Carolina and Georgia coast. The Gullah people are directly descended from the thousands of slaves who labored on the rice plantations in the moist, semitropical country bordering the South Carolina and Georgia coastline. Because of their relative isolation, the Gullah have managed to preserve their dialect and culture more completely than virtually any other group in the country. Where Gullah culture is most in evidence is in the foods of the region. Gullah cuisine reflects the rich bounty of the islands: crabs, shrimp, fish, oysters as well as vegetables (greens, corn and tomatoes). Rice is omnipresent, served at nearly every meal. You can’t really say you’ve experienced Lowcountry cuisine unless you’ve had Gullah cuisine. It’s often been said that necessity is the mother of invention. Because the original Gullahs had very few cookware provisions, many of the dishes they prepared were cooked in one large pot. Fish, poultry…

Rating: N/R (Not Rated)Soul FoodSouth CarolinaSouthernUnited States

Magnolias – Charleston, South Carolina

Gil Garduno6:42 PM

Some four million visitors flock to Charleston, South Carolina every year. Charleston is the beguiling Southern charmer, a siren which lures guests with its storied history, artistic communities, architectural styles (which range from antebellum to art-deco), pristine beaches (on ninety miles of coastline) and, of course, incomparable Lowcountry cuisine. Known as the “Holy City” because of the prevalence of churches on the city skyline, the sub-sobriquet “foodies’ heaven” is fitting; however, as songster Steve Miller reminds us in his hit tune Jet Liner, “You know you got to go through hell before you get to heaven.” A great number of Charleston’s very best restaurants are clustered around the historic district, an area several times larger and much more crowded than the Santa Fe Plaza. Getting there is akin to being on a parade route, one with dozens of stop lights. Arriving is only half the challenge. Finding an empty parking spot is comparable to finding a car with working eight-track player. You’ll drive around in circles for a while before finally wandering further out. When you finally locate that elusive parking spot, you now have to traipse that much further on uneven cobblestone walkways to the restaurant while heat and…

AmericanRating: N/R (Not Rated)South CarolinaSouthernUnited States

Poe’s Tavern – Sullivan Island, South Carolina

Gil Garduno11:15 PM

Had Edgar Allan Poe, the legendary writer of tales of mystery and the macabre, been born in modern times, he would likely have been recruited by the notorious National Security Agency (NSA), not to spy on Americans, but to work in its cryptography department. While Poe didn’t invent cryptography, he certainly popularized it in his short story The Gold Bug, the most popular and most widely read of Poe’s works during his lifetime. In the story, he used a substitution cypher to reveal the location of treasure buried by the infamous pirate Captain Kidd, estimated by the narrator to be worth a million and a half dollars. The setting of The Gold Bug is Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina where Poe had been stationed for thirteen months while serving in the Army. Described as “a laid-back, sun-splashed playground for residents of the Lowcountry,” Sullivan’s Island had a significant impact on Poe’s life, providing the setting for at least three of his stories. It’s only fitting therefor that Sullivan’s Island is home to a very popular eatery and imbibery named for the enigmatic writer. As you cross over the white picket fence onto the restaurant’s patio, look down and you’ll see an…

BreakfastBrunchClosed in 2019Gone But Not ForgottenRating: OutstandingSouth CarolinaSouthernUnited States

Hominy Grill – Charleston, South Carolina (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno8:49 PM

In May, 2011, Frommer’s Budget Travel magazine invited some of the most prolific culinary bloggers across the country (including yours truly) to a culinary “throw-down” of sorts. We were asked to provide a fun and humorous argument as to why our particular regional cuisine reigns supreme. Why, for example, is New Mexican food better than Cajun food in the Louisiana Bayou, barbecue in Texas or Pittsburgh’s old world cuisine? We were asked to put on our best used car salesperson hat and sell our region hard. It certainly wasn’t difficult to sell the incomparable cuisine of my beloved Land of Enchantment. In fact–and this won’t surprise any of my readers–the biggest challenge was the magazine’s imposed limit of 500 words. For me that’s sometimes just an intro. At the risk of immodesty, my feature on New Mexico’s “chile country” provided the most persuasive arguments though that may not have been the case had a blogger representing Lowcountry cuisine been invited to the throw-down. Far be it for me to back down from a challenge so just what is it about Lowcountry cuisine that leads me to believe it might have an advantage–maybe even several advantages–over New Mexican cuisine. For one,…

BarbecueRating: N/R (Not Rated)South CarolinaUnited States

Melvin’s Legendary Bar-B-Q – Mount Pleasant, South Carolina

Gil Garduno8:01 PM

In a 2007 pageant, Miss South Carolina Teen became a YouTube sensation after butchering the answer to a question about U.S. geography. Within three days, the video clip had attracted nearly 3.5 million views. The befuddling question she was asked was “Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the United States on a world map. Why do you think this is?” Her now famous response: “I personally believe the U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some, uh…people out there in our nation don’t have maps, and, uh, I believe that our education like such as South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and…I believe that they should, our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., err, uh, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our…” When I told family and friends about my plans to vacation in Charleston, South Carolina, some of their responses may have validated Miss South Carolina’s contention that U.S. Americans don’t have maps…”Where’s South Carolina?” “Why would you visit South Carolina?” Other friends who know me very…