Signage signals impending opening of Wentworth Street's new Basic Kitchen

If a forthcoming restaurant’s Instagram Stories game is any indication of its future success, consider Basic Kitchen one to watch. Each day owners Ben Towill (of New York City’s Fat Radish, The Leadbelly, and The East Pole) and his designer wife Kate Dougherty track the progress of their under construction Basic Kitchen, the restaurant that will fill the void of the long empty Andolini’s space on Wentworth. And if yesterday’s Insta Story is to be believed, it will open sooner rather than later — in a post the Basic Kitchen team documented getting the A-OK from DHEC.

So what’s Basic Kitchen all about? From earlier conversations with Towill, we get the feeling it will be anything but the greasy pizzas of 82 Wentworth St.’s past. Instead, Basic Kitchen’s chef Air Casebier told Post & Courier in September that diners should expect “dishes such as a lamb burger; brown rice bowls with fermented vegetables and pumpkin sumac fritters with roasted Brussels sprouts.” That will be accompanied by a creative beverage list featuring “on-tap kombucha developed for Basic Kitchen by Dalai Sofia Ferments; Black Tap coffee; non-alcoholic cocktails and natural wine.”

Casebier brings a resume as equally stacked as Towill’s. She worked at Husk and then operated her own catering business, FEAST, as well as worked as Sean Brock’s on-call chef for events. Brock’s said of Casebier, “Anything she does is done with care and precision. I wish she was still on my team.”

Casebier went out on her own the summer of 2016 opening FEAST Provisions on Isle of Palms which received a positive review from City Paper in September 2016. Her roast cauliflower and kale salad made a big impression. Perhaps that dish will make a new appearance at Basic Kitchen.

Look for the new restaurant to serve three meals a day, seven days a week when it opens.

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