Charleston, South Carolina (limited to downtown)

We took a trip to Charleston last week, stayed downtown at my wife's dad's place. Went to various beaches during the day, came back downtown in the evening. We usually stay at Edisto so don't eat in Charleston much (my wife's hometown so I have eaten plenty in Charleston...) but this trip was different. Thought I'd share a bit.

First a disclaimer of sorts (since I've never posted a trip report here): I lean toward spicy in a pretty heavy way and equally against sweets, so my palette being biased as such, so will be my remarks. Adjust your seasonings as needed. And we only went places to which we could walk from our place near the water off East Bay Street—there were lots of other options via car but we decided to leave it parked. One other thing, I took most of these photos with my iPhone so I apologize if they’re not great (plus downsizing to 25kb is rough). My daughter would swoon if I pulled out a camera at the table….

OK, we pulled into town as planned in time for lunch at the Variety Store in the Marina. This is a sentimental favorite of mine so your results may vary but I like it. Good (not great) food, nice harbor view and the staff is always friendly (plus free parking). I had the fish taco special with jalapeno mayo sauce and the two tacos were so good that I forgot to pull my camera out before I ate them. Their sweet tea is enough to melt my teeth so I was sure to have plenty of that—jittery and needed to run a few miles when we walked out. I don’t recall what the fish was—white, lightly breaded and fried, formerly of the sea.
 
Our kids (9 and 12) split crab cakes and fried shrimp and my wife got the fried shrimp also. The crab cakes were a little doughy for my taste but still quite good. The fried shrimp were some of the best I've had (and I'm fairly critical). The shrimp were plump and fresh, the breading was light and they were cooked to a golden brown (I really don't like the beyond golden brown that indicates overcooked or old fry oil—or both). Our sides included red rice (has a nice little crunch to it and plenty of tomatoes), fries (OK, nothing special), onion rings (I'm not an onion ring eater) collards (A+), coleslaw (too creamy, drowning in mayo) but sadly no homemade chips—not sure how that happened, an oversight on my part. Off to a good start, we went out to Sullivan's for the day and ate in that night.
 

 
Back from Folly the next evening, we went to Jestine's Kitchen, which will be familiar to many of you.
 
The line moved fast and we were seated within ten minutes, not bad for a Tuesday night at 7:30.
 
Service was friendly and prompt and I opted for the standard fried chicken (didn’t really even look at the rest of the menu), green beans and macaroni & cheese. The chicken was just silly good, the green beans were canned but very much OK and if I had to quibble just a smidgen, I'd say the mac & cheese was just a little dry. I can't eat three pieces of fried chicken though so I ate the dark meat pieces and carried the gigantic breast piece home.
 
I had part of it for breakfast the next day and then for lunch at Isle of Palms—and this is possibly sacrilegious—I took the remaining meat off the bone, put it in a Ziploc with plenty of extra hot Texas Pete (recommended), shook it up and was in heaven. Jestine's hot chicken -- Charleston meets Nashville. Perfect!

But I digress.... My son had chicken also (they offered a children's portion, very kind of them but he turned them down—good man), fried okra and collards. The okra were perfect as were the collards. I like my collards not cooked down to mush and these still had plenty of bite to them. My daughter got meatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans. The meatloaf was baked and then grilled just a bit -- it was out of this world good. The mashed potatoes were just a bit dense but had great potato flavor—again, just a minor quibble. My wife ordered... a vegetable plate. I know—we can't take her anywhere. She got fried okra, collards and green beans and enjoyed it all very much. The okra was the star though.
 
For dessert, we shared the Coca Cola cake. See previous disclaimer—I don't like sweet food (and it is extremely rare that I'll have dessert and if I do, it's liquid, brown and is served neat). Now, watch my lips move: I ate it. I ate some more. I ate more. It was so good! Hands down the best cake I've ever had (and I have choked down some cake at the insistence of many a host). It was so moist it was almost liquid. Sweet but not so much that you couldn't taste the cake, My general rule of thumb—"If I can't put hot sauce on it, I don't want it"—needs a serious reconsideration after this cake. I am converted.

 

 
Kiawah (and the Angel Oak, 1,400 years old and truly amazing) the next day, then back to town and my daughter was to decide where we went for dinner. She's a bit of a chain restaurant lover (she’s 12 and it’s all about appearance and what’s popular, bless her heart) so I often cringe when she makes her choices. That said, I about fell over when she said, "Let's go back to Jestine's." That's my girl!
 



 
My wife ordered fried catfish with fried green tomatoes, ridiculously good black-eyed peas and the stewed cabbage special that she loved (but I wasn't crazy about).

 
 
Short of looking a bit alien (a fried fish with huge eyes?), the catfish was excellent (light, tasty, nice chunky flakes) and the fried green tomatoes were sublime. The tomatoes were just the right slice, not too thick, not too thin (pet peeve) and the breading was perfect.

Taking a closer look at the menu, I ordered the pimento cheese stuffed pork chop—there was no way to resist—mac & cheese (see, I liked it!) and collards.
 

 
Actually, I ordered the "pimento cheese stuffed pork chops," a very minor difference on the menu board but might have changed my mind.
 

 
Might have.... What I envisioned was a double thick pork chop with a slit cut in it for the pimento cheese. What I got (and what the menu said) were two single thickness pork chops with pimento cheese in the middle. I don't normally order (or prepare) single thickness pork chops because they tend to be dry (and in the case of when I prepare them, misshapen hockey pucks). I will bite on a double thick pork chop though, and apparently got distracted by the pimento cheese (big fan when done right). So my somewhat-mistake but I will tell you that the flavor of the pork chops was smoky and distinctive with just a hint of black pepper but not much else to conceal the flavor of the meat. The pimento cheese was very good, had a nice bite to it and plenty of peppers. But.... the pork chops were a bit dry (somewhat alleviated by the creamy cheese), the cheese was a bit too liquid after sitting between the hot chops and tended to just squeeze out when sliced, and the chops were plated with the bottom chop’s bone on my right and the top chop bone on my left. When cutting into a non-bone end, I encountered bone underneath, making the carving process a bit challenging. So, that's a lot of nit picking, I'd say... especially since I really enjoyed it! Bottom line, it's all about flavor and the rest can play second fiddle. This was an excellent and memorable meal.

Onward—my son ordered fried whiting and sides that I do not recall. The whiting was flavorful and the pecan crust was the perfect touch. My daughter went for fried shrimp, red rice and green beans. All quite good but I'll sheepishly say that the fried shrimp and red rice might have been better at the Variety Store. She didn't agree with me on either and especially liked the red rice. We closed things out with an order of the peach and blueberry cobbler (one item, two fruits in it) and the banana cream pie. Again, I tried both and was really taken in by the cobbler. Big chunks of peaches and the tart blueberries were the perfect foil. The pie was too sweet for my taste (even my new and improved taste…) but it was everyone’s favorite but mine. There was even an inquiry about another slice but frugal dad nixed that and off into the balmy night we went.
 

 
Fast forward to another day at the beach and we came back to town in the mood for something just a little spicy. I had assumed that we would end up at Juanita Greenburg's Nacho Royale (for no reason other than proximity and the name was intriguing) but after reading the reviews online, we stayed away.  We eventually opted for Yo Burrito, which I'm going to chalk up as a mistake.
 
On the positive side, the atmosphere was open and inviting, the staff were very friendly and it was a good place to people watch (my daughter's favorite pastime). The food, however, was unremarkable. I ordered the carnitas tacos (I love carnitas) so perhaps that should have been red flag #1, don't order tacos in a burrito place. And while I do think the menu made some reference to carnitas being akin to barbecue, these were the worst carnitas ever. Or the worst barbecue ever. Or somewhere in between…. In any case, flavorless, appeared to have been steamed to a pasty white hue and truly were not appetizing at all. On top of that, no chips, just a basket with two tacos in it. In fact, had we not ordered queso (standard, nothing special but not bad) for the table, we would not have had any chips at all. Come on, you have to give us chips...! I see now that the menu includes "Bottomless chips and salsa -- a must!" but that seems pretty standard at no charge elsewhere. Enough chip griping though, here's the real killer to my tasteless tacos: they fell apart. Groan. Seriously, if you can't make a taco that doesn't fall apart, don't make a taco.
 
Similarly, my daughter's burrito grenaded in her hands. Bottom fell out into her basket (did I mention no chips in the basket..?). My son got a single taco that ended up being three bites so I ordered another which took 10 minutes to be delivered. And my wife reported that her tomatillo chicken burrito was bland but at least it didn't fall apart. It wasn't the worst meal ever but Yo Burrito has seen the last of me. I also thought it was overpriced despite $1 and $2 beer options.

We crashed the waves at Folly again all the next day and came back hungry and thinking pizza. We had walked past Andolini's on the way to Jestine's and it looked good (important) and smelled good (even more important) so we decided to give it a shot. Remembering that if I can't say something nice, I shouldn't say anything at all, here goes: the Fat Tire was cold. Full stop. Well actually, it was my kind of pizza place on the inside, pretty gritty, held a lot of promise but just didn't deliver. My confidence level was not boosted when I asked why all the servers were wearing Juanita Greenburg's Nacho Royale t-shirts and was told, same family owner—not a good sign.
 
Anyway, we started with a Greek salad and an Italian salad. The Greek salad was actually pretty good so maybe I'm being too hard on this place. The Italian salad was nothing short of bizarre. At first I thought it was a plate of noodles but the noodles turned out to be thickly grated mozzarella and plenty of it. Hard to even find the salad and this went mostly uneaten. It looked basically like a bowl of intestinal worms—nice!

On the pizza side, we often split two whole pies but lugging pizza home in the cooler the next day wasn't sounding good so we opted for slices. I got a Greek slice (tomatoes, onions, banana peppers, black olives, feta cheese) and a slice of Edie’s Favorite (garlic, meatballs, mushrooms, onions, jalapeños). Both were very bland (look at the ingredients—how is this possible?), to the point that even pulled off and tasted individually, the jalapenos were entirely tasteless. My wife got a slice of Vegetarian (garlic, tomatoes, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, green & black olives) and as you might guess, it was even more tasteless than mine. My son got a pepperoni slice (as did my daughter) and a meatball slice and both kids were underwhelmed (and to the degree that kids can, they know pizza).
 
Ordering slices may have been part of the problem. Basically we got slices of cheese pizza of an undetermined age (read: really old) with ingredients sprinkled on top and then blasted in the oven. The vegetables cringed and turned to mush and the meats crisped, browned and then dried into a powdery version of their former selves. Perhaps this doesn't happen on a whole pie but I'm guessing that the tasteless aspect would remain. Mix this in with too loud, techno-grunge music and you have a recipe for a headache. Again though—the beer was cold!
 

OK, two mediocre meals in a row (I hate missing a meal and I truly loathe an unsatisfying meal) and we were ready for a sure thing before we headed back to Asheville, so we packed up the next day and had lunch at the Variety Store on the way out of town. We had actually planned on doing this regardless but the two prior meals put some pressure on the Variety Store.
 
I was initially disappointed that they sat us in the bar where the blinds were closed so we couldn't see the harbor but this was remedied quickly by our server (without being asked) and all was right in the world again. My wife ordered the she crab soup and shared with me. Nothing better than finding a small shell piece in a bowl of crab soup—the real deal for sure. The soup was rich and slightly sweet and frankly, just right.
 
Everything was going great until I made another mistake.... My inclination was to go with an old favorite, the Bear Island Specialty or a plate of fried oysters, but I got distracted by the fried flounder special and then further distracted by memories of spicy food in Jamaica when I saw it was served with a "Jamaican relish." Relish. Sweet. Think. Think. Didn't happen though and the relish wasn't on the side and it was really sweet and completely ruined my otherwise exquisite piece of fried fish. And yes, my love affair with all things sweet seems to have been short lived or possibly only related to Jestine’s. My bad on the ordering though but I made the best of it. The red rice was great as were the hush puppies and I had a nice view of the boats outside so I have little to complain about other than my own stupidity.

My son and daughter again split the fried shrimp (once again, very fresh, perfectly cooked, couldn't have been better) and the crab cakes. These crab cakes were especially good, not doughy at all, heavy on the fresh crabmeat, much better than day one. My wife got the shrimp salad salad and thoroughly enjoyed it. I prefer my shrimp without all the adornment but as she had the fried shrimp on day one, I think she wanted some variety. Great lunch, very relaxing and we piled into the car and headed north, me at the wheel, everyone else dreaming of more road food.

As a side note, one of our sentimental favorites, Old Towne Grill & Seafood, a place you either love or hate, had burned down a few weeks before and was, of course, closed.
 

 
We look forward to Old Towne rising from the ashes and until then, will make do with our Old Towne spices and chicken on the grill.
That's my story, thanks for tuning in.

Special thanks to mar52 and Nancypalooza for helping me to be able to submit this report.

TJK

Great report and photos! Thanks for sharing them with us and thank you for being persistent in your efforts to post photos! They turned out great! 

Well I had no idea you were posting my favorite place; I'm the big Jestine's partisan here, so I'm delighted to make your acquaintance.  Don't be dissin your wife--I've been known to bust out the vegetable plate at Jestine's more than once myself.  :)  I go back and forth between the pecan whiting and the chicken for mains and I agree the mac and cheese can be dry occasionally.  Next time try the banana pudding or the pineapple bread pudding.

Hey, if you go to Edisto and like fried shrimp, have you ever been to Whaley's?  They're my current fave in the state.

The whole state incidentally is a pizza wash; if we have good pizza I haven't found it.  I'm sorry about your couple of bad experiences.  I know we have a Yo Burrito in Columbia but I've never been there.  Between our beloved Mexican-run Mexican joints and lunch stops at Moe's I don't really need to wander.
 
OLD TOWNE?  NOOOOOOO!  I hadn't heard.  That's the place on King with the chickens in the window, right?  I hope they rebuild fast.

Great report TJK, and beautiful pictures!

TJK,
 
  Welcome to the Roadfood Trip Reporters Guild !! Your first entry is indeed a masterpiece. I especially like your prose-style. No apologies necessary as you called the game as it happened ! Excellent Approach !!
 
The Glee Club will be doing it's annual get-together next February (President's Day Weekend) in the Greater Charleston Area. We hope you will plan to head back over that way for the festivities. Tell the kids our Scotties are always searching for new friends to beg scraps from, so bring the kids !! We haven't put together a menu-agenda yet, but will consider some of the places you gave positive reports on when we create the final list !
 
Thanks again for a fine report !

Thanks again for your help.

I like everything about Whaley's but the prices (which I know are typical for the beach). We generally eat what we catch for dinner but do sometimes bike down to the Sea Cow for breakfast. Po Pig for a lunch on the beach. We do a good bit of business at Pink's and generally stop for lunch at Duke's on the way in our out.

It's interesting that you say that about SC and pizza. I can't recall ever having a good pie in the state. Probably one somewhere though (which is to say, someone tell me where).

Old Towne. http://www.postandcourier...ideos/2009/jul/07/846/

It was pleasure and I'll try to get better about posting (and not just reading) reports.

TJK

Thank you, Mayor Al. Writing is one of the way I make a living so it's fun for me.

Send me the February details when you have them. Sounds like fun.

TJK

The Presidents Day weekend thing has met over that weekend for the past 6 years. Singing has absolutely nothing to do with the agenda for the weekend...Except that often Wandering Jews (Dale's) whining voice has been mistaken for a dog in heat...so appropriate reactions from our Scotties has happened.  We usually have an extended weekend...those of us with time available will begin Wed or Thursday of that week, while the "Worker Bees" will come in for the Friday evening and weekend gatherings.  We try to strike a balance of free-time for exploration individually and in small groups, and then gather for Friday Dinner, Saturday three meals, and Sunday Breakfast/Brunch before heading our own directions.

  We have enjoyed meeting in West Tennessee, and then Memphis  (twice), Owensboro,KY, Austin,TX (area), and Mobile AL.  The group ranges from the original 6 guys to as many as 47. We average a couple of dozen at most of the get-togethers.  It is a pretty fun group that spans several generations with a wide choice of interests when we meet !

I will add you to the 'maybe' list and keep you aware of the plan!

I've had pizza (the Village Idiot here for example) that I gladly go back and get again, but when you compare it to pizza we make at home or some of the CT/NJ pies they cover here?  No comparison.

We went to Whaley's and the Sea Cow in February and wrote them up in one of buffetbuster's excellent trip reports: http://www.roadfood.com/Forums/Weekend-in-the-Low-Country-m414319-p3.aspx  Now I understand that the Po Pig folks do the food at the condo restaurant where my friend lives, and that food is really reasonable and really good.  Po Pigs didn't last in Columbia and I never heard good things about it--don't know whether that was just a second location that didn't work or what.

Nice report.  Thank you for sharing.

I recall that report now because I have never seen home fries like those at the Sea Cow. Looks like they needed another 15 minutes with the heat.

That Whaley's location has been many things. I remember buying bait and a paper there when our kids were really little. There was lumber there for a while. Then mostly closed. Last time I was over there was for the crowning of the Tomato Queen. That was fun.

And you have solved the pizza in South Carolina mystery.

"On the way home we blindly picked Dimitrios', a pizza/pasta/but-really-Greek joint in Walterboro and split a pie and a Greek salad and they were both excellent. We'll try that spot again."

Driven by it innumerable times, will have to stop.

TJK

I'll have to scout out when President's Day weekend occurs -- not on the list of officially sanctioned days off here. Sounds like fun though!

TJK

TJK

Charleston is one of my favorite roadfood towns.
I haven't been to Jestine's in 10 years. When I did go, I was underwhelmed, however I didn't have the fried chicken. I plan to re-visit Charleston this February and your photos convinced me to return to Jestine's and give it another shot.

I'd say give it another shot.

Food is subjective. People are subjective. We all have great nights and we all have bad nights. That said, I think it's possible to discern when a restaurant is good at its core, even on an off night.

Part of the allure for me is context. I just happen to like the place and that may not all be connected to food. The human palette is a complex mechanism.

My father-in-law (whose taste in food is impeccable if upscale and generally not in my price range) chided us for going, saying it was "touristy." As is most of Charleston, these days.... He groaned but conceded the point.

Back to the food, I don't think I mentioned that I actually thought the chicken was better cold the next day. Perhaps because it was isolated from the rest of the food, granted, but a little aging may have done it some good. Hold a little back for the next day and let me know if you agree.

TJK

I generally think all fried chicken and macaroni and cheese is better cold the next day, but then I also feel that way about pizza.  I think that just makes me a lazy bastard who doesn't want to bother to reheat food before I stick it in my gaping maw.  :)

We ate at the Mellow Mushroom in downtown Charleston last month and it is good pizza. Not the best I've ever had but really good. All of the Mellow Mushroom's seem to be consistently good. We've eaten at the ones in Blowing Rock, Charleston and Greensboro. Great salads, excellent meatballs, cold beer.

I had a funny experience at Mellow Mushroom a few weeks back. Their location in Asheville is close to my office so by default, I eat there sometimes. Again, just a matter of taste but I have never had a good meal there. My taste in pizza tends toward thin crust, Brooklyn style and they are pretty well as far from that as possible. Again though, if you like it, you like it and plenty of people do.

Anyway, some friends asked us to meet them there on a Friday evening and I groaned and said OK. I don't know how it came up but after we ordered I declared, "I really don't like this place. Have never had a good meal here." The look on my friends' faces was at once shock and bemusement  -- and of course they wanted to know, then why do we come here? Because the meal can be as much about the food as it is about the people. Sometimes these intersect in a great way, sometimes you get one or the other. Worth it in any case.

TJK

I've eaten at the Mellow Mushroom in Asheville too--not bad, but like you said, not great either.  My faves in Asheville are still Tupelo Honey, the Early Girl and of course, the Moose.

Thanks for the wonderful trip report!  This Los Angelino is visiting Charleston in October, and I'd already made plans to visit Jestine's.  Very, very glad to know it's worth the trip (and I absolutely WILL have the fried chicken)>

My wife's family gets together every year in Folly Beach.
I can't wait  to get into Charleston to eat at Jestine's. I've never had a bad meal there and I've said it many times to who ever will listen... "I would go there just for the tea!"

another favorite, but not in Charleston, is over the bridge in Mt. Pleasant. GULLAH CUISINE.  Great pork chops!!!

by the way, nice report

Nancypalooza

I've had pizza (the Village Idiot here for example) that I gladly go back and get again, but when you compare it to pizza we make at home or some of the CT/NJ pies they cover here?  No comparison.

Nancy, now come on, don't diss the whole state!  There's at least a hundred pizza joints in Columbia, so there's got to be at least a couple of keepers.  And no, I'd never compare them to Tri-State pies because there is no comparison -- and if there were, it'd be unfair.  There used to be some good ones in Charleston, though: Sharky's (RIP) on King Street, which is now a deli, I believe.  There was another in the Market called Papillon (long gone) that had fabulous wheat crusts and premium toppings.  And still another up on King Street between George and Calhoun (a sit-down/take-out Italian joint, also gone) that had phenomenal calzones.  But all that's ancient history...  Chris

On the other hand I would not go on an extended search for "Shrimp n Grits" in Noank, CN either!!

While not quite a purist as WJ is, I must admit I tend to stick to regionals when we are traveling (at least most of the time!)

BRAVO!  BRAVO!!!

You sure you haven't done this before?  

It's been many years since I was there, but I now want to return to Charleston.  What great eating!

Guess I can throw away my camera and get a phone like yours. Great pictures!  Only thing missing is the She Crab Soup and Liver Pudding!

No, seriously, *the whole state* sucks in terms of pizza.  Suuuuuucks.  You notice all the places you mentioned are gone?  Here we make do with Village Idiot and Dano's.  I even tried a new place this last Saturday--they meant well and the service was great but the pizza was not good.  People don't know how to bake them here.  Hell, I didn't know until I started reading Davydd's ongoing pizza making thread.    You know when I greatly prefer my pathetic little concotions:



to anything anybody can drive over to my house, it's bad.