When you taste the sweet, slightly tart tang of a perfectly ripe Charleston strawberry, you know spring has arrived. The Lowcountry’s strawberry season runs from late March through June, and chefs across the city are serving up ruby-red berries in innovative ways — from enriching decadent desserts to sweetening savory salads.
“There isn’t a bad strawberry in Charleston,” said Michael Zentner, chef and co-owner of downtown restaurant Merci. “It’s probably the best version of something you can get in Charleston right now.”
Zentner, who also co-owns The Drifter catering and culinary consulting company with his wife, Courtney, sources strawberries from local farms and farmers markets, including Ambrose Family Farms, Shuler Peach Company, Chucktown Acres and more.
These farms are go-to suppliers for many chefs in Charleston in addition to GrowFood Carolina, which is Coastal Conservation League’s food and agriculture program that distributes produce from more than 85 small-scale farms across the state.
“The beautiful thing is … GrowFood has an open and honest relationship with their farmers, and whatever produce is looking the best is what comes to our restaurant,” said Nick Dugan, executive chef of Sorelle. “All of the products are really special and unique. It’s quite a blessing to have them I’ve worked in a fair amount of cities and to have this resource, this hub that outreaches to all of the farms in the area is incredible.”
But when the South Carolina summer heat dries up the berries, Park & Grove executive chef Carmine Peluso turns to Bradford Family Farms in Sumter, which offers access to regional produce.
“Bradford Farms is really cool because [owner Nat Bradford] is expanding his network, and he helps out a lot of small farmers all throughout the Southeast,” Peluso said. “As soon as strawberries become available in Florida, we could start getting them. Then, as we reach our peak season, we start getting local strawberries.
“As our strawberries hit the peak, he starts going towards northern states that are just hitting their peak of strawberries, so we could have strawberries in Charleston for a couple of months as opposed to just a month straight from Charleston.”
With expanded access to regional produce, chefs can experiment with fresh, small-farm ingredients. For many Charleston establishments, fluctuating menus with the season is a natural ebb and flow.
“It’s about seasonality,” said Daniel Heinze, chef and co-owner of Vern’s. “We try to buy everything locally, or if not directly local, as regionally local as possible. We try to stay within the Southeast United States.”
Ripe for dessert
A truly delicious, ripe strawberry requires no added sugar — it’s a dessert on its own. But the textural experience of mixing juicy berries with fluffy whipped cream or cool, sweet ice cream is unbeatable.
At Vern’s, Heinze and his wife Bethany serve a specialty dessert item: the strawberry granita.
“It’s never left the menu since we’ve opened,” he said. “It’s definitely a crowd favorite. It’s very simple, but there’s a lot of complexity and texture.”
The granita is a layered sundae with house-made vanilla bean ice cream topped with strawberry jam, followed by creme fraiche made from whipped heavy cream and finished with the granita, shaved ice made from Ambrose Family Farm strawberries.
“It’s a nice, light, textural dessert,” Heinze said.
At Merci, which opened its doors on the corner of Pitt and Montagu streets in March, Zentner experimented with a version of a layered strawberry dessert — the trifle. It starts with a light cake filled with a house-made strawberry jam before it’s rolled, sliced, and placed in a dish. It’s then topped with fresh strawberries, lemon- and basil-infused custard, a dollop of lemon gel, Chantilly cream, butter crunch, lemon, black pepper and olive oil.
“I think it’s a good representation of the restaurant,” Zentner said. “The flavors go well together, but it’s also a more complex dish even though it’s really simple.”
Zentner said simplicity is a theme as he tries to minimize the number of ingredients in most dishes for a simple yet delicious approach to cooking. But, Zentner doesn’t shy away from mixing sweet strawberries with savory dishes.
“They go great on crudo dishes,” he said. “Certain times of the year, tomatoes and strawberries go really well together.
“I think they’re very versatile, and they’re easy to do things to. Some other fruits are harder to work with.”
Sweet meets savory
Though strawberries are known as a tasty sweet treat, many chefs blend them with savory elements.
“As far as strawberries go, there’s a lot of things you could do with them,” Park & Grove’s Peluso said. “They are fruit, but they are also great with a lot of savory dishes.”
A favorite springtime dish for Peluso is a frisée salad he describes as “a cheese board turned into a salad” that will make an appearance on the restaurant’s spring menu.
The dish incorporates frisée, a chicory green, dressed in a vinaigrette of lemon juice, olive oil, black pepper and honey tossed with strawberries and topped with a six month-aged manchego cheese and crumbled candied hazelnuts. With all the cherished elements of a cheeseboard, this salad offers a light, refreshing approach to a savory strawberry dish.
But, Peluso’s strawberry experimentation doesn’t stop there. He hinted at the possibility of a strawberry gazpacho making its way to the menu later in the spring. Peluso said dishes seek to balance skill and comfort.
“You can come in and get something that’s really technical, but you could also get something that’s really rustic at the same time,” he said. “Having a French culinary school background, I pride myself in a lot of technical cooking, and my team does too, so to keep us motivated, we need to keep the art and the craft alive. … We can put out fun, approachable food that’s still extremely technical.”
At Sorelle, Dugan said he seeks a similar goal — to bring familiar, comforting dishes to life in a new, elevated way.
“We take the approach of coupling traditional, relatable Italian technique with really great products,” he said. “We very rarely have more than four to six components in a dish and just really focus on quality technique.”
Dugan’s approach to strawberries on his spring menu echoes these elements of simplicity with an air of elegance. Sorelle’s cavolo ricco salad mixes pepper-y baby kale with the sweetness of fresh strawberries, a creamy Gorgonzola dressing and toasted, sliced Macrona almonds.
“Creamy gorgonzola can be something that’s a little bit heavy, if you’re just thinking of it on its own,” Dugan said. “Introducing the acidity but sweet, crisp, juicy [strawberries] really complement and cut through the richness of that gorgonzola. … It’s one of my favorite salads we do at Sorelle.”
Dugan makes use of local strawberries in the Mercato at Sorelle, too, with a strawberry cornetto, an Italian pastry filled with strawberry mousse and fresh berries.
Whether you’re craving a sweet treat or a savory bite this spring, Charleston restaurants are dishing out the good stuff. The season won’t last long, so get your fix while they’re at their best.
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