Tuesday, December 4, 2018

November Charleston Restaurant Visits

Name Loc Rank Beer Sel Rating
Husk DT 5 2
Short Grain Var 5
Sorghum and Salt DT 5 2
Wine and Company DT 5 4
Azul Park 4 2
Chez Nous DT 4 1
Edmund's Oast Brewing  NK 4 3
Famulari's WA 4 3
Gillie's Soul Food WA 4 0
One Broad DT 4 2
Rita's WA 4 2
The Brew Cellar Park 4 4
The Establishment DT 4 2
Tradd's DT 4 2
Benny Palmetto's MP 3 2
Dispensary DT 3 2
Grace and Grit MP 3 2
Grit Counter MP 3 2
Krystyna's Polish Food Var 3 0
Maple St. Biscuit Co. WA 3 0
Two Blokes Brewery MP 3 3
Westbrook Brewing MP 3 2

Here's a link to the Master Restaurant Spreadsheet

Columns are Restaurant, Location, Rating and Beer Selection Rating.

Locations: Park - Park Circle, DT - Downtown, NK - North of 17 Downtown, Var - multiple locations, MP - Mount Pleasant.

Rating - 1 to 5 scale (5 being best (gotta be perfect to get a 5))

Beer rating:
0   No beer or little good beer (or a bad brewery)
1   Below Average (or a mediocre brewery)
2   Some locals and other good brews (or an OK brewery)
3   Excellent (or a good brewery)
4   Best (or a great brewery)

Husk and Husk Bar continue to be outstanding. The food menu at the bar is like the Greatest Hits of Husk, with the burger, the fried chicken and the wings starring.
Short Grain is a popup that can be found most Tuesdays at Edmund's Oast Brewing Company. Not a food truck, they take over the kitchen for some Asian inspired delights.
Sorghum and Salt is a small place between Cannon and Morris that has a great casual feel, super friendly staff and delicious food.
Wine and Company is the best wine bar in Charleston AND has a sneaky good beer selection and awesome charcuterie plates. You can buy bottles (or a dozen bottles) of wine to go with really great advice from the super staff.
Azul is the new Mexican place near Park Circle. Second visit was outstanding. They have a HUGE combo plate (can't remember the name) but it would be perfect for 2 people.
Chez Nous is a cute little French place with just TWO entrees and TWO appetizers on the menu each day - but they are VERY good. I think this would be a great place for a date night.
Edmund's Oast Brewing Company: A great brewery with a good kitchen. Awesome beers on tap and some cans to go.
Famulari's has really good pizza and also brews really good beer. A great craft beer/pizza combo for those West of the Ashley.
Gillie's Soul Food is a very casual southern restaurant with really good food. They were putting a bunch of beer taps in when we went there so the beer future looks good.
One Broad is a cool bar/restaurant in a great location but casual setting. You can watch most of your food being prepared.
Rita's is a casual bar with a good food menu near Folly Beach. The fried shrimp was quite good.
The Brew Cellar is a tiny retail store with almost a dozen taps and a cooler of beer to drink on premises. Very casual place for beer lovers.
Dispensary is basically a college bar with a really good happy hour - almost every local beer on tap or in cans is super cheap then.
The Establishment is a nice and cool looking new seafood restaurant with a large chef's counter.
Tradd's opened up in the old Cypress location and they have a couple really cool bars and a nice dining area.
Benny Palmetto's has HUGE slices of pizza and decent beers in a small space with booths to sit at. They also do takeout.
Grace and Grit and The Grit Counter share a kitchen. Grace and Grit is the sit down and be waited on casual restaurant while The Grit Counter is fast casual. I think I would do the counter over the restauarant.
Krystina's Polish Food is a food truck that can be found around town, at breweries and Container Bar.
Maple Street Biscuit Company is a southern chain with decent breakfast type food.
Two Blokes Brewery is a cool spot to have some really good beer. They often have food trucks.
Westbrook is another brewery that usually has a really big tap list and some cool (though expensive) bottles from past years. No significant food.

You may wonder why nobody got a score below 3. There's an explanation on the spreadsheet. In fact, there's a ton of information on the spreadsheet. But to answer the question, we go places we expect to be great. I'm not here to confirm that a mediocre restaurant is actually mediocre. So 2's will be rare, and 1's will be a catastrophic failure in planning.


October Charleston Restaurant Visits

Azul Park 3
Coda del Pesce MP 5 1
Container Bar NK 4 2
Daps NK 4 2
Edmunds Oast NK 5 4
EVO Park 5 3
FIG DT 4 1
Kickin Chicken Var 3 2
Orange Spot Park 4
Papi's Taqueria MP 4 2
Park Café NK 4
Sunflower Café MP 3
The Brew Cellar Park 4 4
The Codfather Park 4 2

Columns are Restaurant, Location, Rating and Beer Selection Rating.

Locations: Park - Park Circle, DT - Downtown, NK - North of 17 Downtown, Var - multiple locations, MP - Mount Pleasant.

Rating - 1 to 5 scale (5 being best (gotta be perfect to get a 5))

Beer rating:
0    No beer or little good beer (or a bad brewery)
1    Below Average (or a mediocre brewery)
2    Some locals and other good brews (or an OK brewery)
3    Excellent (or a good brewery)
4    Best (or a great brewery)

Container Bar is a cool bar that brings in food trucks. All the great things about food trucks with none of the issues with them.
The new Kickin' Chicken on Dorchester is having growing pains, so we gave them a bit of a mulligan.
Daps is great for breakfast type meals and great drinks.
Coda Del Pesce is still the place to go on IOP
Azul has some really good, inspired Mexican
The Brew Cellar is still the place to go for beer variety in Park Circle (sorry Commonhouse)
EVO still the best pizza and beer combination in town (Love Pork Trifecta - take some home and have it for breakfast with a fried egg on it!)
Edmunds Oast might be the best beer+food combo in town, or possibly the best restaurant period (try to sit at the chef's counter).
Orange Spot has a great Thai Tea
FIG was still really good, but the ribeye was just not that great this time, hence a downgrade from 5 to 4.
Papi's is the IOP place to go if you want faster and less expensive, but still great.
Park Cafe has awesome brunches.
Sunflower cafe was good, but not special.

Didn't get everywhere we wanted due to a great visit to Iceland. Might post about those restaurants.