Charleston continues its remarkable surge as an American food city, and anyone doubting it should attend the annual Charleston Wine + Food Festival, which just concluded three weeks ago.  Now in its eighth year—and I have attended and hosted events most years—the focus is still on the cuisine of the South, and the wide majority of the chefs invited to the festival come from the region, although many come from all over the country, too.  Unlike the annual food and wine festivals in Aspen and Miami, which depend almost entirely on the same tired TV food and travel  show celebrities, Charleston celebrates new people each year, and they have a lot of great talent to choose from: this year the invitees included Art Smith of Art and Soul Restaurants, The Lee Bros., Ryan Smith,  Katie Button,  Sarah Simmons, John T. Edge, Barbara Lynch,  Nicholas Stefanelli, Tandy Wilson, and many others.
    The "Heart of the Festival" is the tented Culinary Village, where back-to-back demos, book signings, and music jams are held throughout each day. Testament to the success and popularity of the Festival is not just that it's grown, but that its various events sell out weeks in advance.  Next year I expect it to be bigger and better than ever. The 2014 event will be held Feb. 27 to March 2.
    Of course, I got to eat around town, including some impressive new places opened since the last Festival, all showing the traditional depth and the continuing innovation of the city's cuisine.

192 East Bay Street
843-723-3424
slightlynorthofbroad

 Of all the chefs working in Charleston today, none has a longer or more respected tenure than Frank Lee--and I mean a working chef who daily puts in his time on the line at the Maverick Southern Kitchens restaurants, of which Slightly North of Broad (SNOB) is now two decades old. Over those years, Lee (right) has become a master of Low Country Cuisine and has a thick binder of sources for the best foods available in any season. Along with veteran chef de cuisine Russ Moore, Lee has been turning out traditional and innovative Southern cooking with panache, in a dining room (with open kitchen) whose conviviality is part of the draw. SNOB is always packed with locals for whom it is a regular lunch or dinner place, and the tourists fill in every other chair.
    To show just how innovative Lee is these days, I asked him to cook up some of this new ideas. Without a moment's thought, he went back to the kitchen and dazzled me.  Many of these items are not on the day-to-day menu, but they do appear as specials.  I'll let Frank tell you what I ate:
        "We started you off with a version of our chilled shrimp salad, which were local McClellanville shrimp, tossed with a little avocado and black cherry tomatoes from our hydroponic grower, Kurios Farms.  That was all tossed in a dressing of olive oil, hard boiled egg, and lemon juice, with a single Bibb lettuce leaf.  We proceeded with a spicy shrimp broth, enriched with lemon grass, ginger, etc. to which we added minuscule slivers of our pork belly brined in smoke, from our pig grower, Keegan Farms, along with slivers of green beans, purple pearl onions, and a fennel bulb.  Following the soup course, you enjoyed a tuna carpaccio topped with Nantucket Bay scallops, which had been lightly dressed with fresh blood orange and a lovely California olive oil.  We then went to our daily special, which was a roast stuffed pork loin, over a sauté of crispy potatoes and Brussels sprouts, with a little fried chicken liver, caramelized onion gravy, and a tiny dot of reduced Port wine gastrique on the chicken liver.  We then gave you a samplings of sweet trinkets: a salty caramel with toasted hazelnut, a lemon bar, and a chocolate truffle rolled in pecans."
    It was a sumptuous but curiously light lunch, the tastes and textures in lovely equilibrium, lots of spice and bright acids throughout. Such dishes go very well with SNOB's regular menu, which contains dishes like Carolina flounder with spinach, local sweet potatoes, tomato currant jam, balsamic brown butter; shrimp and Timms Mill yellow grits with sausage, country ham,  tomatoes, green onions,  and garlic; roasted rack of lamb with Rack Anson Mills farro, roasted vegetables, and Cabernet-rosemary sauce;  and banana cream pie with a graham cracker crust and rum caramel.
    SNOB is a template for all the fine  restaurants that have followed in Charleston, and Lee is a chef's chef who still walks the walk.

Lunch, Mon.-Fri., dinner nightly. Appetizers $7-$14, main courses $18-$29.

RUTLEDGE CAB. CO.
1300 Rutledge Avenue
843-720-1440
rutledgecabco.com

 Almost as long as Frank Lee has been cooking in Charleston, so has the redoubtable Robert Carter, whose years at the genteel Peninsula Grill gave the city its finest dining room.  Two years ago he left to open his own place, Carter's Kitchen, across the bridge in Mt. Pleasant, which was more casual but showed the range and depth of the man's talent for bringing up the flavors of Southern cuisine. (It was one of my 20 Best New Restaurants of 2012 in Esquire.)
    Now, he's gone downscale with a big, brash, welcoming splash at the Rutledge Cab Company, whose name was taken whole from a previous tenant. The door is made of faux alligator, the lot outside has bike racks, the patio is a great place for a cocktail, and inside the booths are roomy, the bar scene jamming, and the artwork--like the taxi cab to the left--is terrific.
    The menu is big and offers something for everyone, and I trust Carter (far right) will cut it down when he sees what works best.  Right now the menu has a lot of well-rendered bar food, four flatbreads, four salads, nine sandwiches, burgers (five of them), grilled dishes, including five kabobs, sides and desserts, not to mention some really delicious milkshakes as thick as lava.
    There's a generous platter of charcuterie (below) with cheeses, potted meats, country ham, even fried bologna--a steal at $12--and the French onion soup is sweet with plenty of long-caramelized onions, though the rye bread did little for the soup.  There's even a cheddar cheese and beer fondue with smoked sausage, soft pretzels, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and apple to dip. It can easily served four as an app.
    The flatbreads are heartily mounted with ingredients like roasted potato and blue cheese of BBQ shrimp with goat's cheese, cilantro and pickled onions. The corned beef in the Reuben at Rutledge doesn't rank with the best in NYC (northerners do some things better than in the South!), but the roasted lamb sandwich with Harvarti cheese took on some real zing from pickled cabbage, on a warm toasted hoagie roll. The eight-ounce burgers take on a whole array of ingredients, including tempura fried poblanos and a savory smoked onion aïoli. The beef is house ground and perfectly cooked.
    From the grill menu we had lamb kabobs with mint pesto; a nice slab of swordfish with herbed wild rice and tomato ginger relish; and BBQ glazed smoked ham chop with garlic spinach and peach relish, which rated among our group of five people as the best of the evening. French fries go with everything here, and that's a good thing.
     I've already remarked on the chocolate milkshake, but there is also a red velvet cake that might be a new signature for Carter. Southern pecan pie was, admirably, mostly pecans and not too sweet.  There's also a chocolate fondue available.
     Rutledge Cab Company fits into its neighborhood snugly and with good feelings.  Located just outside of downtown, it's an easy cab ride for visitors to Charleston.  For locals, it's a cheery addition full of generosity of spirit and good eats.  It's a square meal for a square deal.

The Ordinary
544 King Street
843-414-7060
eattheordinary.com

    Charleston--and the national food media--has been waiting for Mike Lata to open a new restaurant, since his first one, Fig, has long been among the most praised in the country and is always packed.  Lata (below) took his time and now The Ordinary is his big new place right on King Street, located in what had been a bank building, with all the historic lineaments and decorous touches left intact, from the beautiful 16-foot Palladian arched windows to the back-lit skylight. 
Local artist Becca Barnet fabricated shadowbox installations with preserved marine life, and the lighting is simply perfect to let everyone see each other in the large room with mezzanine and to add conviviality to the space. There is a six-seat marble raw bar, and the floor  and bar are made from reclaimed wood. Without any sense of showiness, the entire design comes together as an immediate model of good contemporary taste.
    That goes for the menu, too, which is deliberately composed so that the guest can take in and desire everything on it, starting with the array of oysters each night, along with the shellfish platters ($65-$125) lavished with peel and eat shrimp, clams, lobsters, and other shellfish.  There is a cold section that includes a finely grained smoke trout pate with brown bread; a delectable skate wing and potato terrine with rémoulade sauce; "porchetta" tonnato with lemon and olive oil; and hot starters, including a clam cake with coriander and crème fraîche, and braised, nicely mild, uni with a Yukon puree, mustard and lemon.  You can readily tell that Lata does not want to mess up his ingredients with too many others, so that the primary star shines on the palate.
    Among the main courses are grilled Spanish mackerel, wahoo with steak fries, and my favorite that night, triggerfish--a species you rarely see on menus--done as a crisp schnitzel, with a simple brown butter vinaigrette.
    For dessert don't miss the Carolina gold rice pudding--as homey a dish in the South as it is everywhere else--and a crisp apple-almond tart.
    The wine list teems with unexpected rarities, most under $60, all chosen with care, and there is also a category for sherry, cider, and Madeiras. And the cocktails here are made impeccably, always with fresh fruit juices and the best spirits.
    The Ordinary's name is belied by everything from décor to service, from food to drink, here.  It took Lata awhile to get it right. In the end, he got it very very right.

The Ordinary is open for dinner Tues.-Sun.; Appetizers $$10-$25, main courses $24-$27.

CHARLESTON GRILL
Charleston Place
224 King Street
843-577-4522
charlestongrill.com

    The Charleston Grill has always been the city's big deal dining room, with a heritage of great chefs that have included Louis Osteen and Robert Waggoner. Now, the Grill has its first woman in the kitchen, and the management's decision not to dumb down the splendid, polished grandeur of the dining room and bar is matched by its support of Alabama-born Chef Michelle Weaver in her dedication to all the finer points of fine dining.
    After schooling at the New England Culinary Institute, Weaver moved to New Orleans to work, then to Nashville, where she worked for Waggoner at The Wild Boar restaurant, traveling with him to The Charleston Grill in 1997; so she has unique experience with the kitchen and service here. The service, by the way, is overseen by one of the real pros of the industry, Mickey  Bakst, whose knowledge of every aspect of hospitality, food and wine makes him a formidable maître d' in the truest sense.
    The menu is divided, somewhat awkwardly, into four categories of culinary style, though you can choose among any of them to make your meal. The Southern dishes are contemporary interpretations of regional favorites; the Pure menu items are simple dishes inspired by the clean, light flavors of the ingredients; the Lush dishes come from the French tradition of extravagance; and the Cosmopolitan  dishes are exotic and imaginative.  That shows Weaver's range, which, largely, she delivers on.
    I won't bother to note which dishes I had came from what category, for I ordered from all of them:  sweetbread piccata was crispy indeed, graced with capers, artichokes, the nice touch of bacon, and bracing lemon.  Seared foie gras was superb, accompanied by apples, bourbon-cider sauce, and delightful gingerbread.  Happily, I enjoyed once again the signature crab cake here--very plump with all lump meat--with shrimp,and a lime-tomato vinaigrette.
    A Colorado rack of lamb could not have been juicier or more flavorful, served with a rich potato puree, the scent of thyme emulsion and lamb jus, while the hearty Southern style showed through in Frogmore stew, with crab, shrimp, clams, potatoes, corn, and andouille, a dish whose ancestry dates to St. Helena Island, SC. 
    I also ordered Thai fish, which I suspected might not be up to all else I was served, but Weaver came through with a perfectly cooked fish with grilled pineapple, cherry, tomatoes, and a basil salad, which just begged to be accompanied by kimchi fried rice, which I gobbled up down to the last grain.
    Three desserts, by pastry chef Emily Cookson, showed very well, especially the sweet potato gnocchi, an unexpected surprise, with dulce de leche, brown butter, golden raisins, and pumpkin seeds.
    It was so good to be back in that beautiful dining room, entertained by an excellent jazz group and sipping a 1977 Boal Madeira with my dessert.  At a time when  genteel Southern dining has given way to trendiness and little but the basics, the Charleston Grill holds its banner high and with pride that comes from a generation of great chefs.

Charleston Grill is open for dinner nightly.  Appetizers $12-$19, main courses $27-$59. Six-course tasting menu $90, with wines $60-$120.

   

186 Coming Street
843- 637 - 3722
twoboroughslarder.com

    I'll make no real judgment about Two Boroughs Larder because I ate there on a day when the communal table was taken over by attendees at the Charleston Wine + Food Festival, and the owner was nice enough to give me a corner table and serve me the day's set menu.  But so many people asked me about the place, having gotten considerable press, that I feel a preliminary report is required.
    Basically it's an out-of-the-way storefront next to an old seafood house.  The interior resembles more that of a grocery store, with pots and pans, towels and beers, and distressed wood, than a restaurant; the kitchen is off to one side, where Pennsylvania-raised Chef Josh Keeler works the stoves while his wife Heather takes care of customers. The name refers to the building's location between Elliotborough and Cannonborough and it does resemble an open larder.
    Despite a meal in which everyone got the same dishes, there were long waits between them.  We began with some first-rate sourdough bread with sea salt, which came in handy while waiting for the lamb bacon with mole sauce and fromage blanc--a pleasant breakfast or brunch dish, though the seasoning was slight and the mole needed snap.  So, too, simple salt and pepper would have much improved some lackluster rabbit loin and confit with a fried egg and Ansel Mills oats.  For dessert there was a sticky bun with Benton's bacon (bacon twice in one three-course meal?), bitter chocolate and carrot, which was good if not stunning.
    The Keelers are obviously cooking with dedication and good ingredients, and media attention should bring them more business.  If so, I trust they will develop the acumen to make all go smoothly and efficiently in and out of the kitchen.  I'll go back for dinner some time and see what time has done for a place that needs to turn quaintness into a real culinary experience.

The restaurant is open Tues.-Sat., from 10 AM until 10 PM. Average dinner price, about $30.

NEW YORK CORNER
by John  Mariani

THE MODERN
9 West 53rd Street
212-333-1220
themodernnyc.com
  

❖❖❖