Charleston Restaurant Week began on Wednesday and will run until Sept. 19. We here at the City Paper find this to be one of the best weeks of the year. Restaurants on and off the peninsula have great offerings and some very special specials. Here’s a short, tantalizing list of items we found on the menus being offered around town. We liked that many featured the bounty of our local waters, so we focused our attention on the fresh fish choices.
A fairly new edition to the downtown dining scene Amen Street Fish and Raw Bar specializes in Lowcountry Seafood. Executive Chef Todd Garrigan oversees the menu of daily market fresh seafood that is local, sustainable, and, with the exception of the Hawaiian tuna, comes from within 100 miles of 205 East Bay St. Their restaurant week menu starts diners off with chilled seafood cocktails. The flounder ceviche is light and summery, with a bit of southwestern tang thanks to the pineapple salsa and Yucatan sauce with notes of citrus and cilantro. The dish is paired with a side of corn tortilla chips.
Sullivan’s Island’s upscale yet casual Atlanticville has put together a three-course menu with some wonderful choices. Start with the fried oysters with housemade sausage, sautéed spinach, and onions topped with a roasted garlic aioli. For your entrée, choose the pan-seared scallops with grilled new potato and tiny green bean salad, and then finish with buttermilk bread pudding for dessert.
If you’d rather keep it a bit more casual, Red’s Ice House is a fun choice. The first course? A bucket of beer. Paired with some steamed Shem Creek shrimp, snow crab clusters, or oysters, you can’t go wrong. Red’s never disappoints when it comes to a view, so head out and catch a sunset over the water and have a great time eating, drinking, and being in the Lowcountry. The new Bohicket location is pretty sweet, if you haven’t checked it out yet.
Fleet Landing‘s menu has a potato-encrusted triggerfish. It’s prepared using an upright mandolin to slice thin rounds of Yukon potatoes that are then wrapped around local triggerfish that has been soaked in buttermilk for eight hours. The fish and potato creation is then flash fried and finished in the oven. The triggerfish is put over a cucumber tomato salad and grilled Tuscan crostinis to create a bright and simple dish. Chef Drew Hedlund recommends preceding the encrusted triggerfish with Naked Roy Oysters from the Pacific Northwest that are served with a sea pickle relish, and ending your meal with the “solid” white chocolate bread pudding with crème anglaise.
Restaurant Week is a great time to stop by McCrady’s and sample some of Chef Sean Brock’s food. For Charleston Restaurant Week they have a daily changing Market Menu. Friendly Christine, an employee of the restaurant, shared her picks if she were dining this evening. For the first course, she’d go with the Lowcountry shrimp and okra stew followed by Carolina flounder served with baby squash, an eggplant puree, and topped with heirloom pepper butter. For dessert, she’d choose the peach cobbler made with South Carolina peaches. Of course, no matter what you choose or where you eat for Restaurant Week, you can’t go wrong with a set three courses for $30 (or $20) deal.
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