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.

Here's a link to the full spreadsheet:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=17QICC9YaZbbzy814xH_MuWFO79YrMDOO

Atlantic Grill - Middletown, RI

Really?  In New England?
But it's okay, for a $2 up charge you can get maple syrup from Oxnard, CA.

Husk for Thanksgiving - Charleston, SC

Pumpkin soup sweet and nutty
Risotto, tomato, fresh, poached egg
Bibb Salad with fried oysters and onion vinagrette
Pork Osso Bucco, super tender, on the bone, tons of flavor
Turkey, cornbread stuffing cake that was kind of smoky, potatoes and veggies
Wagyu flat iron stea.  Buttery, tender, perfectly cooked, flavorful.  Broccoli and mushrooms.
Husk plus pig equals awesome.
Spiced cheesecake with cream cheese ice cream
Sweet potato pie with bacon ice cream.  Maybe everything isn't better withbacon.  Though it meshed well with the pie and marshmellow cream
Pumpkin panna cotta wiith pumpkin seed brittle

Pottery Grill - Cottendale, AL

We pulled our usual travel messup and waited too long to find a restaurant, so we ended u meandering around two exits looking for something, anything that wasn't fast food.  I was getting frustrated and about to give up when we stumbled upon this place.  For a minute we thought it might be closed, but it was open!

Lots of pottery in the front and a very unassuming decor.  This is a good sign for a barbecue place.  Now I just need to try the food.
The smelll in the parking lot and throughout the diining room was smoky and delicious

Kiefers - Jackson, MS

This is a casual, fast service Greek restaurant that has all the traditional salads and gyros, but then provides an extensive list of unique wraps.  If you can't find something you like here, you don't like food.
We had Suvlaki, Grilled Chicken, Falafel, and a BLT wrap (four different wraps). All were delicious, Suvlaki 5.0, Falafel 4.5, BLT 4.25, Grilled Chicken 4.5.  The pita's were super fresh.
We also had Hummus which was excellent and Cottage Fries - whole slices of potato fried until golden brown.  Order them extra crispy and get them with the Feta Sauce which is awesome!
Get here early and bring some friends so you can try a variety.  Or come everyday if you live here.

Justin Blabaer

So I'm at Stan's, a beer store in Athol, MA, and the first thing I see is a huge display of Evil Twin, which gets me started talking about Jeppe, CBX and Meat Beer Fire, which of course leads to a discussion of Westbrook Brewing. Ed and Morgan.  I spend about twenty minutes talking about the Charleston Beer scene until suddenly I find this bottle of beer - it's got pictures of Rich, Ed and Morgan, and I'm pretty sure that's Scott at the bottom right.  I'm not sure what you guys were thinking with Justin Blabaer (I'll let you know what I think later tonight after I drink some) but it was really cool to find 3 of the biggest names in Charleston Beer on a bottle in a beer store in North Central Massachusetts!

Roots - Rutland, VT

They've made it up to number one on Trip Advisor, and the last time we were here they were pretty good, though maybe not our #1.  We'll have to see.

Went seafood this time, lemon basil shrimp appetizer, fish tacos and fish and chips.

The decor is nice with a wide open feel and cool vegetable pictures on the wall.

Mt. Pisgah Diner - Winchester, NH

This is our third time here, but the first blog post.

They have great down home good and awesome prices with friendly service (and friendly customers.)

We've had grilled cheese, BLT's and Fish Chowder.  All have been excellent.

Fast service too.  Perfect for a driving stop.

Armsby Abbey - Worcester, MA

What a beer selection!!  Lots of great, unique beers with a very knowledgeable staff.  The cheese selection is also great.  Local meats prepared very right make up a large part of the menu.  Pizza's are excellent.  Yes, that is a picture of Pork Belly Pizza and Yeastie Boys Pot Kettle Black!

The Ordinary - Charleston, SC

Get the oysters, then get the Barbecue Shrimp.  Seriously.

Wescott Plantation - Summerville, SC

If you read this blog you've probably noticed we don't post as often as we used to.  T was overwhelming my food enjoyment to post every meal out.

This post had to be made to say that after a half a dozen Thursday night meals and just as many wine dinners at Wescott that the chef has it all figured out!

She knows seafood, from scallops to lobster, to snapper, to shrimp, we've been blown away by the outstanding meals.  Well above and beyond what you might expect from a golf course restaurant.

Make it a point to come on a Thursday or Friday for dinner!

Nigel's - North Charleston, SC

Had 1554 from New Belgiium, so at least one excellent beer.  Friendly service.  Lots of nteresting menu items, southern and soul mostly, but well thought out and unique as well.  I saw raviolis with bacon and collards on the menu!

Chicken and Biscuits: On the submarine, we wouls have called this exploded chicken, except it wouldn't be this good.  Holy crap the peas, carrots and potatoes were perfectly portioned and the gravy and biscuits were great!

Shrimp and Grits: Brown gravy was excellent.  Generous portion, great grits and beautiful slices of sausage.  A real winner!

Toast - Charleston, SC

Stopped in for a pre cruise breakfast.  The girls had the classic breakfast and really enjoyed the buttery and delicious eggs.  The biscuits were awesome.

I had the eggs benedict which was excellent, and I can be pretty picky. 

The bloody marys - with BACON - were close to the best I've had.

Service, from David, was fast, friendly and very helpful

Caficultura, Puerto Rico

Old San Juan.  

What a delight to get a coffee artistically prepared just for ME:

For breakfast:

"Pancakes" con Guineos Flameados:

buttermilk pancakes with bananas sauteed in sugar, butter, and rum.  

Tostadas Francesas de Leche de Coco en Pan Brioche con Mermelada de Pina y Coco rallado:

brioche bread coconut milk french toasts with pineapple marmalade and fresh coconut shavings. 

(this one was so delicious I can't wait to try it at home)

Everything was delicious.  

We decided to become temporary regulars and ate at the same place the next morning.  

The next day we had: 

Crepes de Batata Dulce rellena de Longaniza de Pollo y Queso de Cabra:

sweet potato crepes with crumlbed chicken sausage and goat cheese.  

and

Revoltillo de Vegetables frescos rostizados:

pimientos, tomato, cebollas y zetas con queso de papa o suizo

We drank coffee, of course, and ordered the Flaming June coffee which the waiter probably swore under his breath at us for ordering and struggled to light...but we enjoyed it anyway.  

And no, we didn't get a chance to see the museum where the Flaming June is hanging.  

Because this is SO worth a stop, here's a picture so you know what to look for.  

Birra Poretti's - Arlington, TX

Sunday Brunch Buffet
A great italian restaurant...A heck of an irish bar

Carrabba's - North Charleston, SC

Post movie meal - saw Skyfall.  Good action movie, but they don't feel like the classic Bond flicks.
Our waitress, Missy, was very friendly and had lots of energy.  Very enthusistic about the food and working her a** off.

M had the Penne Franco, with mushrooms, chicken, roasted tomatoes, prosciutto and olive oil with garlic.  Good flavors.  Give it a 3.5.

Kari had the Sirloin Marsala with Chicken Brian Ravioli.  The cut of meat had a lot of gristle, but the waitress had the chef cook another one after cutting it to a gristle free state.  It was perfectly cooked and flavorful.  Second piece was better but not perfect.  They didn't charge us for this meal.  Give it a 3.75.

I had Pizza with sausage, pepperoni and olives.  The crusts here are excellent and the toppings generous and good.  I'll give it a 4.00.

Must say again how good the service was and how eager to make sure everything was made right.  As I have said before, nothing is perfect every time, it's how you fix it that matters.  We'll be back again.

Food Truck Rodeo - Charleston, SC

Sixteen food trucks, live music, beret, wine, no cover charge - what's not to love.  You could tell who was good by the line length.  Rotisserie Rolls, Bahn-Mi, Diggity Donuts were some of the longest.

Roma Tomatoes - Summerville, SC

Kari and I, exhausted after a three hour voting ordeal, decided to treat ourselves to a nice lunch.  This place used to be Tomatoes, and they started out good, but deteriorated after a while.  Maybe they'll be better now.

The lunch menu is short, but has decent variety of Italian and other types of dishes.  We shall see...
They started us with a nice sourdough bread, warm, served with an olive and herb infused olive oil.  Our waiter was friendly and accommodating, replacing fries with a salad at no extra charge.  The salad dressing was the house vinaigrette which was excellent.

I went with the Chicken and Sweet Sausage over Penne.  It had capers, spinach and mozzarella in a pink sauce.  It was really nice.  The sauce had awesome flavor and the sausage had tons of flavor!  Give it a 4.50

Kari had the Grilled Salmon BLT with goat cheese.  The bacon with the capers went quite well with the goat cheese and well cooked salmon.  This gets a 4.00.

Looks like new management is working out.  We'll have to come back!

Cracker Barrel - North Charleston, SC

Post oil change pre voting breakfast.  Let the lines die down before the lunch rush at the precinct.

Kari's having the Blueberry Pancakes and I'm having the Bacon, Fried Apples and Hashbrown Casserole combination.

I've always loved the casserole.  Onions, Potatoes and Cheese, yum.  Bad day is when they run out when I come in for a late breakfast.  Today the casserole was not quite hot enough, but the bacon was perfect.  Huge thick slices that were the perfect balance between crispy and chewy.   Bacon saves the score: 3.75

Kari always gets the pancakes and they give her one maple and one blueberry syrup.  She also gets a side of bacon.  Give hers a 4.50