Virtual Gourmet

Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in "Notorious" (1946)

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IN THIS ISSUE

DINING OUT IN CHARLESTON
By John Mariani

NEW YORK CORNER
TWO CASUAL ITALIAN TRATTORIAS
By John Mariani

NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR
Wines I'm Drinking for Spring
By John Mariani

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DINING OUT IN CHARLESTON
By John Mariani

The Ninth Annual Charleston Wine + Food Festival was celebrated last month, and, as always, I was delighted to be asked to be a part of it, hosting, for the second year in a row, a Wine Tasting river cruise. As ever, the admirable focus at the Festival is on the cuisine of the South, and the wide majority of the chefs invited come from the region; unlike the 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. The "Heart of the Festival" is the tented Culinary Village (left), 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. Of course, I got to eat around town, including some new places opened since the last Festival, all showing the traditional depth and the continuing innovation of the city's cuisine. Charleston, in just a few years, has emerged as one of America's most enticing dining cities, and there's much more to come.

CYPRESS
167 E. Bay Street
843-727-0111
cypresscharleston.com

    Upon its opening in 2001, I pronounced Cypress to be one of America’s Best New Restaurants in Esquire; now, 13 years later, I can safely say it is one of America’s Very Best. Period. A decade ago Cypress represented a significant leap forward in design that shied away from the then typical Low Country genteel dining room look. The place was vast, with a great wall of wine behind glass, an open kitchen, and dramatic lighting. (The company that owns Cypress also runs the estimable Magnolias and Blossom.)
Today, Craig Deihl, Pennsylvania-born but Charleston-trained, is the chef, and he is toeing the line of sumptuous, modern Low Country cuisine, and, as a founding member of the Butcher’s Guild, has added to it an array of house-made charcuterie (left) that is positively daunting--80 varieties, a score of which are offered on any given evening--and they are some of the finest I’ve tasted anywhere in this country. (He’s done a Cypress cookbook and was chosen in 2010 as Chef of the Year by the Charleston chapter of the American Culinary Foundation.) The choices are amazing--andouille, apple cider salami, bologna, jerky, bratwurst, bresaola, and so many more, all with condiments and mustards and pickles on the platters, which range from $12 to $20.
    My wife would have happily gorged on the charcuterie and gone no further on the menu, but I’m glad we did, because the lobster bisque with shrimp and chervil ($10) was superb and a generous plate of chicken and dumplings ($26) was warming on a very rainy night, chock full of chicken and homey in the best way. So, too, was a side of peas and gold rice scented with saffron, cumin and bacon. Scallops were married to pork belly ($32) very honorably, enriched with caramelized onions, sweet potatoes, a luscious bacon jam and curried raisins.
    A duo of American lamb cuts ($36) with polenta, turnips, mustard, apples, radishes and celery seemed as much vegetarian as carnivorous. But for the bigger meat-eaters go for the superb grilled ribeye (right) for two at a very reasonable $56. (Ask them for the best aged ribeye they have; there is quite a difference.)
    Desserts are every bit as good here, from a chocolate crème caramel with raspberry coulis and Madeira reduction ($8) to a terrific buttermilk tart laced with bourbon and accompanied by an orange-tamarind puree Chantilly cream and citrus candies ($8).
    Cypress’s wine list is among the finest in the South, with hundreds of well-chosen bottles from every corner of the Earth.

Open for dinner nightly.

INDACO
526 King Street
843-727-1228
indacocharleston.com

        Charleston’s most prominent restaurateur, Steve Palmer, is at it again. As the developer of first-rate restaurants around town, his Indigo Road Hospitality Group has opened Oak Steakhouse, O-Ku, The Cocktail Club, The Macintosh, The Oak Table, and, this year, Indaco. Palmer has an uncanny sense of what the Charleston market is absolutely ripe for, and, since the Italian offerings around the city have been dismal--with the notable exception of Ken Vedrinksi’s tiny Trattoria Lucca--Indaco is a significant addition to the genre.
        It’s a long dining room set off upper King Street, and the place gets very loud as the evening progresses. (It's also much darker than the photo at left indicates.) Unlike so many Charleston restaurants, people keep coming in after 9 PM. A reservation in advance is highly recommended, since Indaco is unquestionably the city’s new hot spot.
        Exec chef Michael Perez (right), originally from Portland, Oregon, brings a good résumé to Indaco, which includes work at Scarpetta in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas, although his never (as yet) having set foot in Italy shows in a few dishes that are more elaborate than they should be.   Even so, a lavish antipasto of raw snapper ($14) was first rate, anointed with black olives, celery, radish, pickled mustard seeds, jalapeños, olive oil and lemon. So, too, very refreshing was a panzanella salad ($15) with burrata, spring onions, basil, arugula and Parmigiano.
    We tried too pizzas, one a classic Margherita ($16), which was fine, but an unusual octopus pizza ($17) with tomato, fontina, broccoli di rape and Calabrian chili was overwhelmed by salt and thus tasteless.
    Indaco’s pastas, as at most Italian restaurants, are what most people will want to order, including delicious agnolotti ($24) with beef short rib, pickled shallots, salsa verde and pecorino sprinkled on top. Pappardelle ($24) were treated to a pork sugo, herb-whipped ricotta, orange and pecorino, while black pepper tagliatelle ($22) was a variation on Roman carbonara, with pork, egg yolk, chives, and pecorino. Rather bland, however, was the risotto ($22), overcooked that evening, with grilled pork cheeks, Parmesan, chives and a balsamic vinegar.
    There are four secondi on the menu, though roasted tuna with coriander, fennel, pea shoots ad grapefruit had too much going on on the plate. The wine list, as any Palmer compiles, is very well selected and all Italian, with dozens of bottles under $50. Red wines may arrive too warm, however.
    Indaco is pumping on all cylinders right now and with a bit more finesse and a few less ingredients, it should evolve into a very good Italian trattoria before too long, especially after Chef Perez visits Italy later this year.

Indaco is open nightly for dinner.

THE GRANARY
624-L Long Point Road
Mt. Pleasant, SC
thegranarycharleston.com

        Cross over the sweeping Ravenel Bridge and pretty soon you’ll come to the quickly developing town of Mt. Pleasant, where, in the nondescript Belle Hall shopping center is a restaurant that might well be worth the drive, if only to see what chef-owner Brannon Florie is doing here.
        The overuse of the term “farm-to-table,” especially in Southern restaurants, rarely turns out to have much truth to the claim, but Florie is adamant about sourcing his produce, chicken, duck, eggs, lamb and pork from McClellanville’s Thornhill Farms, and he makes his own charcuterie, breads and pastries. set out on family-style plates.
        There is space for 75 people inside, including a chef’s table and communal bar table. The restaurant is friendly, casual, and very, very good. I really loved the duck confit with Charleston Gold rice, crowder peas (you rarely see these), kale (you see way too much of this), and a flavorful egg sunny side up. Pork belly is good thick bacon, not too salty, with stone ground grits--which make a big difference--another egg, pesto and pecorino. I might have been entirely happy with just the platter of beautiful heirloom tomatoes, watermelon radish, basil and goat’s cheese dressed with sherry vinaigrette.
        The main dishes I liked were an organic chicken with butternut squash, puckery preserved lemon, olives, onions, pickled cauliflower and cous cous, which strayed far from Low Country cookery, but Florie won me back with a truly wonderful, very tasty vermillion snapper with a carrot and curry puree, new potatoes, spinach and a brown butter orange vinaigrette. Acid is an important flavor brightener in Florie’s cooking.
        For dessert the way to go is with the simple almond cake gussied up with rich crème anglaise, Meyer lemon whipped cream, and an almond tuile.
        Some of Florie’s dishes would probably be improved if they were not quite so fussy with so many ingredients. But the flavors are true, honest and, for the most part, authentic, showing what can be done when the farm-to-table mantra really means something.

The Granary is open for dinner; lunch and brunch.

HOMINY GRILL
207 Rutledge Street
843-947-0930
.hominygrill.com

        I consider it as much a sorry omission to miss eating at least one meal at Hominy Grill as to go to Venice and not drop into Harry’s Bar. For both are icons, for very different reasons: one is an international watering hole famous for its bellinis and carpaccio; the other is a down-home eatery equally famous for its catfish Creole and shrimp bog. Guess which is which?
     Located, since 1996, in a pink and white shotgun house dating to 1897, recently appended with another dining room, Hominy Grill is bright, with antique tin ceilings and slow-moving fans, wooden floors, captain’s chairs, and windows that let in the Low Country sun. You could not wish for a more amiable, friendly staff, which is crucial to keep the long lines of waiting guests at bay in the hot South Carolina sun.
    Chef-owner Robert Stehling cooks up all the old dishes, like soft shell crabs with baked cheese grits, a curried chicken dish called country captain, pork with Creole sauce, and, if you come for breakfast, scrambled eggs, buttermilk pancakes and country ham. None of which will cost you very much: nothing tops $20, and those prices haven’t really inched up in years.
    The morning we were there for brunch, one of the staff had made some “pop tarts,” absolutely delicious short pastries filled with fruit paste, perfect fare with the good hot coffee they serve here. There are salads and sandwiches here all day, and always a lavish vegetable plate. Specials are on a blackboard.
    You just can't go wrong with anything. I chose a Sunday special--fried chicken breast on a huge crumbly biscuit with pan milk gravy. They call it the Nasty Biscuit (right), and it’s meant as legit high praise. My wife had a mushroom and egg torta full of vegetables all at the right texture. We polished off a single slice of buttermilk pie and wanted more.
    But there was a plane to catch and we went home, knowing that next time we’re back, Hominy Grill will still be there and so will we.

Open for lunch Mon.-Fri., for brunch Sat. & Sun., and for dinner Mon.-Sat.

EDMUND’S OAST

1081 Morrison Drive
843-727-1145
edmundsoast.com/

        According to their website, “Edmund Egan was an English-born brewer who came to Charleston in the 1760s and started producing beer soon after. He had great success and donated large amounts of money to the American Revolution, earning him the name `The Rebel Brewer.’. Oast is an old European term for a kiln used in the drying of hops. Together the two make the name.”
    So, this new gastropub pays homage to the traditions of Southern breweries while offering a wide array of small plates with which to enjoy those brews. Owners Scott Shor and Rich Carley are transplanted New Yorkers who first met in college, afterwards going their separate ways in business before moving to Charleston, where they decided to open the state’s first all craft beer store--The Charleston Beer Exchange--as a hobby, which, as hobbies often do, turned into something much grander, this enormous, 130-seat interior (in good weather that number will appreciate substantially) with an arched, wood beam ceiling and a magnificent wall of craft brews on draft.
        But be forewarned: this is one of the most crashingly, dizzyingly loud restaurants anywhere, and conversation is nearly impossible when the room is full. Piped-in music sure doesn't help.
        Chef Andy Henderson, a Charleston native, was sous-chef at Chef Mike Lata’s influential FIG restaurant in town, traveled widely and returned to take the helm here at EO. The menu is largely small plates, including bar snacks--the cornbread ($4) is terrific--a selection of charcuterie ($12-$20), braised lamb meatballs with apricots and cider mint ($11), a bacon-egg-cheeseburger ($16), and desserts that include pistachio cookies with rose water and vanilla crème fraîche ($3).
        Time will tell if EO has legs; right now everybody wants to be there, be seen, drink some excellent fresh draft beers, and nosh. If it gets a bit tamer in the future, it will be much more appealing to more people.

Open nightly for dinner; brunch on Sat. & Sun.

A NOTE ON SOUTH CAROLINA GUN LAWS: In last week's Virtual Gourmet I reported on the appalling probability that Georgia will pass legislation allowing concealed weapons with permits in bars and restaurants. It should be noted that in February, South Carolina passed the same kind of law, with the proviso that the gun owner does not drink alcohol in the establishment. Good luck with that! Restaurateurs and bar owners may post their own ban on guns, which puts them in a very difficult position. As the NY Times reported this week, when one bar owner in Clemson did so, "he was slammed with so many online attacks and harassing phone calls that he changed his number and started asking the police to open his mail."

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NEW YORK CORNER
By John Mariani

TWO CASUAL MIDTOWN ITALIAN TRATTORIAS
By John Mariani

All the talk about how dining out has become more casual obviously ignores the fact that the overwhelming majority of restaurants are casual, not least--and especially in New York--the venerable Italian trattorias, distinct from high-end Italian ristoranti with Frette linens and Ginori china. At the former, they perfected long ago the art of “dolce far niente,” that is, the sweetness of doing nothing, achieved through a lot of hard work. The irony is that not too long ago, pizzerias were quite distinct from trattorias and ristoranti, until pizza went from being snack food to a gourmet item. Today even high-end Italian restaurants serve the now exalted pies.

One of the best of the trattoria + pizzeria genre has been around for a long time--Naples 45, in the MetLife Building atop Grand Central Terminal. Back in 1963 this space was called Trattoria--then a very unfamiliar term to Americans, and the restaurant was a vast, colorful, very stylish space serving highly authentic Italian fare (I still recall its lasagne alla bolognese as the best in the U.S.). But it didn’t serve pizza.

Decades later Trattoria was recast as Naples 45 (left), the name referring to the city where pizza was invented back in the 19th century and to the number of the street outside the restaurant’s glass wall. A great deal of research was done to obtain the perfect flour, tomatoes, mozzarella, even water with the same mineral content as the water in Naples, and the result was a glorious pizza (above), which it remains to this day. Shaped like the Circus Maximus, the pizzas are impeccably crisp, the right thickness and steamy with fine ingredients. They start, in size, at $16.95 and go up to very large ones at $35.50.

Indeed, I would contend that it was putting such great pizza on the menu at Naples 45 that gave the O.K. to other Italian restaurateurs fearful of adding such a humble item to their menus. These days there’s hardly an Italian restaurant in New York, or anywhere else for that matter, that doesn’t serve pizza.

Chef Stephen Rosenbluth also turns out fine Italian food that begins with crisp calamari with a spicy tomato sauce ($12) and crumbly arancini rice balls stuffed with mozzarella and served with a tomato ragù ($10). The pastas, which come in enormous portions, include a lasagna bolognese ($19) that comes pretty close to the one I so loved when this was Trattoria, and there’s heft and heartiness in the spaghetti chitarra with pecorino and coarse black pepper mixed with runny egg for a creamy finish ($18). The fat tubes called paccheri ($19.50) take on an admirable Neapolitan-style meat sauce.

If you’ve still room, the striped bass is poached with clams, tomatoes, capers, garlic, and oregano ($26), and the crisply breaded chicken cutlet milanese is piled high with tomatoes, arugula and a sharp red onion salad ($26).

Prices on everything at Naples 45 are extremely reasonable and you’re likely to take something home. They also offer a four-course dinner at $32.

Now that spring is struggling to arrive, they’ll soon be opening up the patio tables with their bright blue umbrellas. Come early: those tables go fast at lunchtime.

Naples 45 is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner Mon.-Fri.

A brand new trattoria, with the forthright name Mozzarella & Vino, has opened on the former site of Il Gattopardo (now moved slightly east), across from the Museum of Modern Art. Gianfranco and Paula Sorrentino, who also run the superb ristorante The Leopard across from Lincoln Center, have here fashioned a long bar and two dining areas, with a skylight in the back, for truly casual eating based on the glories of imported buffalo mozzarella and Italian charcuterie (above)--salami, salumi, fine hams--and a few antipasto.

The mozzarella comes in several lovely shapes and varieties, all creamy white and moist, and for $16 you can have a tasting of provola and burrata. There is smoked mozzarella, eggplant-stuffed mozzarella, basil-scented mozzarella, and much more. The meats range from various prosciuttos to bresaola, Speck, mortadella, and rare culatello--all from the finest producers. For lunch, the panini sandwiches are a first rate idea with a glass of wine at the bar.

You should also consider the items from the friggitoria list--fried dishes, including rice ball arancini, fat panzarotti pasta filled with potato, mozzarella and salami, and golden fried zucchini.

There are only a couple of pastas here--a vegetable lasagna and baked pasta of the day--as well as a platter of meatballs ($13/$19) and hearty beef stew ($18) with corn polenta.

Mozzarella & Vino puts great emphasis on the vino part, acting as an enoteca where you can order a well-selected range of small estate wines in two-, four-, or six-ounce glasses.

The Sorrentinos offer you a choice on 54th Street--either the posh Il Gattopardo or this casual new eatery. At both you can count on the same quality of ingredients and service, striking a fine casual balance of refined good taste.

Mozzarella & Vino is open Mon.-Sat from 11:30 AM to 10 PM, Sundays from 11:30 AM to 5 PM.

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NOTES FROM THE WINE CELLAR

Wines I'm Drinking for Spring
By John Mariani

Perhaps the title of this article is too optimistic, for spring has yet to settle into the Northeast. But I did see crocuses rearing their purple heads this morning, so I will drink wines accordingly. In early spring you can certainly still drink big-bodied red wines, and there are so many good ones from so many global vineyards right now in the marketplace, at just about every price point. Here is a slew I’m enjoying right now.

Argento Reserva Malbec 2010 ($14)—The characteristic flavor of Malbec, with its strong tannins, makes this wine a primer for the fine red wines of this varietal now coming out of Mendoza vineyards in Argentina. It’s very well priced for the quality, especially since Argento only started making Malbec as recently as 1998. The wine spends nine months in oak barrels, softening it to its present equilibrium.

Duckhorn Paraduxx Winery C Blend 2009 ($48)—Here’s a fine blend of cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel, with the latter providing dark fruit and a tobacco-and-chocolate finish. At 14.5 percent alcohol it’s just at that sweet spot where big means bold. The winery was founded in 1994 and opened to the public in 2005 in Napa Valley and is well worth visiting for its round barn architecture and state-of-the-art facilities (left).

Penfolds St. Henri Shiraz 2009 ($65)—Penfolds is one of Australia’s pioneering wineries in the Barossa Valley and they make a wide range of products at various prices. This is getting to the top of the line and is very expressive of how Australian shirazes manage to retain fruit without being inky . . .. To really hit the heights, sell an antique at get the Penfolds Bin 707 ($265), but be prepared to wait for it to come to full maturity. Right now there is magnificence lurking beneath the fruit, acid and, curiously subdued, tannins.

Robert Mondavi Napa Valley Chardonnay 2012 ($19)—Here's a good entry level premium chardonnay from the estate that created the California style for the varietal. There’s oak and caramel here but enough acid for balance, and I found it tasted even better the next night when some oxygen got absorbed into the wine.

Steven Kent Folkendt Vineyard 2010 ($65)—a Livermore Valley, CA, 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon whose alcohol of 14.2 percent is admirable in a state that loves huge, out-of-whack cabs. Full fruited, it is lively on the palate and has a fine, long finish that will be even better in two to three years. (The winery is shown at left.)

Li Veli Pezzo Morgana Negroamaro Salice Salentino 2008 ($20)—Salice Salentino made from the Negroamaro grape is Puglia’s claim to red wine quality, and this distinctive varietal is ripe and ready to drink right now with red meats. I found some sediment in the bottle, which suggests it won’t be this delicious forever.

Brolio Riserva Chianti Classico 2010 ($30)—A remarkable price for such a beautifully crafted Chianti Classico in a blend of 80 percent Sangiovese, a soft 15 percent Merlot, and a backbone of 5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, spending 16 months in oak and three in bottle. It is ideal with the kinds of foods enjoyed in Tuscany and right now the baby lamb is being readied for Easter, when this wine would be perfect as a celebratory accompaniment.

Veramonte Primus Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 ($14)—The Colchagua Valley of Chile has emerged as one of the country’s finest, and this Cabernet (with 5 percent Syrah) made by Huneeus Vintners shows how you put steel into a velvet glove and have both power and finesse in an intensely flavorful, admirably priced red wine. More age will bring it into even better focus.

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Victoria Beckham (aka Posh Spice) recently tweeted a photo of a box of vintage Spice Girls pizza, for which each girl had her own slice shaped like a letter in the word SPICE. According to E! Online, Mel C’s “S” slice had tuna and cheese, Emma’s “P” slice had ham and cheese, Geri’s “I” had chilies and cheese, Mel B’s “C” had spicy beef and cheese, and Victoria’s “E” had red onions because “she knows what she wants, what she really, really wants when it comes to vegetables” (according to the box).

HMMM, WE ALSO SEEM TO DETECT. . . MOSCOW
SEWERAGE. . . FLORIDA SWAMP. . . AND A TOUCH,
JUST A TOUCH, OF AMAZONIAN LOG ROT.

"The 1970 Jurançon Sec from Clos Joliette is a legendary wine - and deservedly so. It has a potent nose that knocks your olfactory senses sideways for a moment. `Peculiar' is the word I wrote down initially. Then it begins to reveal some lovely notes of tangerine, dried pineapple, Thai fish oil and adhesive glue. The palate is well balanced and comes armed with searing bone dryness. There is a pleasant waxy texture in the mouth with touches of marmalade on the saline finish that packs a might punch Wow. Not for the faint hearted, but electrifying to the senses. Tasted August 2013."--Neal Martin, eRobertParker

MARIANI'S VIRTUAL GOURMET NEWSLETTER is published weekly. Editor/Publisher: John Mariani. Editor: Walter Bagley. Contributing Writers: Christopher Mariani, Robert Mariani, John A. Curtas, Edward Brivio, Mort Hochstein, Suzanne Wright, and Brian Freedman. Contributing Photographers: Galina Stepanoff-Dargery, Bobby Pirillo. Technical Advisor: Gerry McLoughlin.