Things have gotten out of hand with the pumpkin obsession. I mean, it is the BEST FLAVOR ON EARTH, but there are other fall flavors worth savoring. Like apples, for example. We found local restaurants are putting Honey Crisps and Pink Ladies to good use this week just in time for cold autumn weather.
For breakfast or lunch, Queen Street Grocery is finding plenty of uses for the fall fruit. Try the Tenacious Turkey, a pressed sandwich that comes with organic apple, brie, and sprouts. Or go for the Palms sweet crepe, stuffed with apples, raisins, caramel, and cinnamon. On the lighter side, build your own salad to top with apples.
If you’re craving a burger but don’t want to go beef, why not try HoM’s Green Gobble’N turkey burger? It’s topped with leeks, spinach, melted brie, and green apple slices. The burger also gets a dose of green goddess aioli, an herbed mayo that combines cilantro, dill, and mint. On the side, keep the healthy thing going and order the Smith Apple Salad, where the tart green apples, arugula, and frisee get topped with a truffle-mint vinaigrette, peanut powder, and soy syrup.
Pizza and apples may sounds like a strange combination, but Park Pizza Co. has several pies that unite sweet and salty. Take the Bradwell pizza. This olive oil-based pie comes with provolone, turkey, sausage, fig preserves, caramelized onions, apples, blue cheese, and pecans. For another, Park Pizza’s John Haygood recommends adding some slices of Granny Smith apple from the a la carte toppings to the pizza of the month, the Mayflour, to round out the fall flavors. This pie piles on the mozzarella and pork sausage on an olive-oil base. Then, it’s topped with green onion, dried cranberries, blue cheese, and walnuts. Or get crafty and concoct an apple pizza combo of you own. Whatever you do, don’t forget the dessert. Park Pizza Co. makes an Apple “Pie” with cream cheese, cinnamon, and pecans, as well as turbinado and brown sugars.
On James Island, Heart Woodfire Kitchen is using the fall fruit in several of its specials with Honey Crisp and Pink Lady apples from North Carolina. A recent soup special combined them with local, roasted chestnuts for a hearty autumn meal. Hopefully it’s still available for you to try. Another side option is roasted butternut squash, complemented with roasted apple and brown butter. You’ll also find apples in an apple and fennel salad with arugula, frisee, bacon, and pecans and finished with a mustard seed vinaigrette made with whole grain mustard and honey. As for main courses, the restaurant brought in a whole pig from Keegan-Filion farms for the weekend’s menu and will feature pork chops until they run out. Other entrées to pair with the fall apple sides include the rotisserie chicken and local fish.
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