When Husk opened in 2010, it marked a seismic shift for the Charleston dining scene. While the Lowcountry had been home to delicious food for centuries, the city’s national acclaim and relevance hit another level when Bon Appétit magazine named Husk its best new restaurant for 2011.
Now as the restaurant celebrates its 15th anniversary this month, it was time to take stock of Husk’s lasting mark on the Holy City.
A Charleston single on Queen St.
When Husk opened, everything seemed out of central casting for Charleston. The restaurant is housed inside a restored two-story Victorian with double piazzas, and the bar is in an adjacent kitchen house. The chalkboard near the entryway lists the ingredients and purveyors used in the kitchen, all sourced from south of the Mason-Dixon line.
And perhaps most strikingly, the chef, Sean Brock, looked the part. And boy, oh boy, the man could cook. A native of rural Virginia, Brock has sleeve tattoos speckled with produce like carrots and tomatoes, and he often wore a “Make Cornbread Not War” baseball cap. A graduate of the former Johnson & Wales culinary school in Charleston, he started cooking at McCrady’s, a fellow Neighborhood Dining Group (NDG) restaurant, in 2006.
In addition to the Bon Appétit honor, the list of accolades associated with Brock and Husk is hefty. Brock won the James Beard Award in 2010 for Best Chef Southeast for his work at McCrady’s and was a finalist for James Beard Outstanding Chef multiple times. His cookbook Heritage was a New York Times bestseller, and he hosted season two of the television show Mind of a Chef with Anthony Bourdain, which won the Emmy for Outstanding Culinary Program in 2014.
Through the years
“The excitement surrounding what we were doing when we first opened, it was palpable,” said David Howard, CEO and founder of NDG. “Fifteen years ago, the farm-to-table concept was not the norm, and I believe our success inspired many chefs to rethink their approach to ingredients and menu development. The discipline of using only ingredients from the south was enthusiastically received. The restaurant continues to evolve, and we are busier now than we have ever been.”
Dishes like the pimento cheese and ham plate, the wood-oven-baked skillet cornbread and the wood-fired oysters have been on the menu since day one.
Brock left the Husk kitchen in 2018 but stayed with NDG for another year to oversee Husk restaurants in cities like Savannah and Nashville as well as his own projects in Nashville. Chef Ray England had most recently been running the kitchen before his switch to NDG’s executive team. Now Chef Rick Ohlemacher, the former chef de cuisine at the restaurant, has moved into the role of Husk’s executive chef.
England’s kitchen stayed true to Husk’s foundation.
“My first vision was to provide a meal that you wouldn’t make at home, but would still feel nostalgic,” he said. “Additionally, [I wanted to continue] to support the local farms and vendors that proved to be so important during the pandemic. Lastly, [I wanted] to grow young cooks into leaders that do it right.”
Husk’s next chapter
Ohlemacher has been in the Husk kitchen since 2022 and has a clear plan for the restaurant’s next chapter.
“My vision is to continue what Ray and I started three years ago by highlighting Southern ingredients in unexpected ways,” he said. “I’m not Southern, so I want to showcase the versatility of the beautiful products that come from the area while pushing to make fun, creative and delicious dishes.”
The current menu includes fried pork ribs with Alabama white sauce and benne seeds, a tilefish with cabbage, pine bark broth and turnips and Ohlemacher’s favorite scallop dish.
“It has the vibes of clam chowder,” Ohlemacher said of the seafood entrée. “Appalachian gold potatoes [are] cooked in a brown butter sauce and finished with a light bacon cream and hot sauce we made with peppers from Kindlewood Farms.”
After 15 years, Husk, a regular on the City Paper’s list of Top 50 restaurants, has established its legacy.
“We opened Husk with the goal of celebrating Southern ingredients,” Howard said about Husk’s impact. “We set out to honor the land, the people and the diverse foodways and traditions that make this region so special. By supporting local farmers, celebrating heirloom ingredients and combining time-honored methods with modern techniques, we have given it our all to show how the South’s food could be both rooted in history and alive with new ideas.”
Looking to celebrate? At 6 p.m. Nov. 8, Husk is hosting an oyster roast alongside Willett Distillery. Enjoy special pours, local oysters, country ham and other treats. Cost: $175 per guest. More: Resy
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