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Saturday, March 3, 2012
CHSWFF: 82 Queen Craft Beer Dinner
Widmer Brothers Brewing
Posted by Eric Doksa on Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 1:58 PM
The main dining room on the second floor of 82 Queen was as packed as it’s ever been on Friday night, so says Stephen Kish, owner of the historical restaurant downtown. The restaurant hosted a sold-out craft beer dinner with superb food prepared by Chef Steven Lusby and beer parings courtesy of Widmer Brothers Brewing.
The décor in the room was definitely focused on beer. Even the nametag holders were creatively constructed with bottle caps.
The dinner started with an opening beer as people filed into their seats (I chose the easy-drinking hefeweizen). Five courses came out promptly with an elegant presentation.
All of the pairings seemed to work well except for the seared scallop and the Drifter Pale Ale. The dish alone was one of the top two of the night, but the hoppiness of the beer overwhelmed the delicate flavor of the dish. Either way, the dish was still a winner.
The standout of the night was the apple-smoked venison short ribs with a sweet, BBQ-like blackberry-ancho sauce that came with a acorn squash gratin and Brussels sprouts. This was originally paired with the Pitch Black IPA, as per the menu, but a wise decision was made to serve this with the Barrel Aged Brrrbon, which was such a wonderful combination.
Bon Dodler, the brewer, was on hand to talk about the various beers and answer questions, and a special guest was present. Daniel Bradford, publisher of All About Beer Magazine, played a key role in helping organize the Great American Beer Festival in the ’80s. This guy knows beer.
I left the event satisfied and with a final thought — Chef Steven Lusby can really cook. He’s been flying under the radar the past couple years, but his food speaks for itself and he definitely deserves some attention. Job well done.
CHSWFF: Sinful Soul
Food made with Love
Posted by Eric Doksa on Sat, Mar 3, 2012 at 11:33 AM
“I hope nobody ate breakfast,” were the initial words of food writer and City Paper contributor Jeff Allen on Friday morning as he addressed a group waiting to be schooled on Charleston’s Gullah and Soul food cuisine. The tour started at Marion Square where Jeff gave a brief overview of the area and the five restaurants on the agenda.
After a nice historical stroll through the neighborhood between King Street and St. Philip Street, the first stop was Dave’s Carryout. We could smell the fried food from about a block away. Everyone crammed into the small joint run by Sandra McCray and two family members. Small brown bags filled with fried shrimp, hush puppies, and tartar sauce were handed out to each guest. The shrimp was flavorful enough that it didn’t require any sauce.
Jeff then led the group over to one of Charleston’s best kept soul food secrets, Ernie’s. A nice spread was setup that consisted of cornbread, a gelatinous okra soup, and butterbeans so good you could hear everyone in the room hum “mmmm” in unison. Ernie’s doesn’t advertise, the bowl of butterbeans speaks for itself.
A shuttle then took everyone up to “The neck” of Charleston, which is basically the border of Charleston and North Charleston, where the sisters of Bertha’s Kitchen cooked up a crispy fried pork chop, cabbage, and rice.
At that point everyone was getting full and in need of a nap but two of the most important stops were still ahead, including the kitchen of a Charleston legend, Martha Lou.
Tables were setup outside and Martha Lou herself started carrying out trays of food that became part of a full-on buffet of rice, baked chicken, butterbeans, and mac n cheese. Word got out that Martha’s fried chicken is the best in town so she ended up bringing out a tray of that as well. It was agreed by everyone that Martha Lou was not messing around — this woman can cook.
Finally, the group was shuttled through some of the rough parts of Charleston on the way to Alluette’s holistic café for dessert. The good news was that Alluette uses almost all organic ingredients. We started off with a cup of decadent dark chocolate mousse followed by a plate of pound cake, bread pudding, and apple pie, which Jeff calls “the best apple pie I’ve ever had in my life.” I tend to agree.
After Alluette and Jeff made some closing comments the group applauded to the close of such a wonderful event. The stories about the rich soul food history that Jeff was able to share with everyone were truly amazing, and all of the food was cooked with pure love. The only thing that could make the event even better is a final stop at the battery where a spread of hammocks are lined up for an afternoon slumber.
Friday, March 2, 2012
CP launches mobile web app for Charleston Wine and Food Festival
Posted by Joshua Curry on Fri, Mar 2, 2012 at 3:44 PM
We teamed up with the folks at the Charleston Wine and Food Festival to create a mobile guide to the Culinary Village in Marion Square. You can keep track of all the tastings and events, as well as find your way around tents. It'll show you what's coming up next and also has a link to our Dish Dining Guide mobile web app. When the day is done, you take your pick of Charleston's best restaurants near you.
It's free and works on most modern smart phones like iPhones, Android, and even Blackberry. There's nothing to download, just visit charlestoncitypaper.com/chswff in your phone's web browser or scan the QR code below.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Sipping and strolling on King Street
Lots of wine and hummus
Posted by Dee Dee Arthur on Sun, Mar 6, 2011 at 9:35 AM
The idea behind the "Sip and Stroll" is to combine the festival's featured winemakers and retailers and possibly induce some impulsive buying in some of King Street's finest shops. Like the notorious drunken texts, I was on the lookout for drunken shoppers. To my slight dismay, people were very well-behaved. I didn't even see any spilling.
Some of the shops seemed to have wines that were particularly suited for them, like the floral and dry chardonnay at Dumas from Hess Family Wines in Napa.
Seventeen stores participated in the stroll, many decorating their windows with W+F themes. Copper Penny spelled out SIP + STROLL in corks and hung a large tin foil sculpture of a fork. They won a contest for best display, deservedly.
The afternoon was sunny and brisk and hopefully didn't seduce any more people to move here. Newsflash: This weather is a fake-out. We're just getting lucky the last few weeks. Don't buy into that.
Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q sponsored the event but provided the same nibbles in each store. Nobody wants to see hummus 17 times in an afternoon and why is a barbecue place making hummus anyway-is that legal in SC? I would hope that next year they let more downtown cafes pair up with the shops.
After the clusterflock of the tents and lines at Marion Square, a leisurely walk down Charleston's main drag felt refreshing. People were spread out enough that you could talk to the winemakers and socialize with the shop owners. There was a W+F volunteer in each shop who marked a passport card to show you had visited.
If you hit 14 stores, you were eligible for the drawing at Jim 'N Nicks that concluded the event. A huge basket of gifts from all the shops was just enticing enough to go for it. We were shocked to see that hundreds of people completed the task and crowded into the space to see whose card was drawn. The sweet-looking lady who won was thrilled and started opening the huge basket at once, pulling out wine tools and some nice loot.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Three states collide for Cypress Dine Around
Posted by Erica Jackson Curran on Sat, Mar 5, 2011 at 8:36 PM
Friday night, Cypress hosted a truly gluttonous Dine Around event in a private dining room upstairs. Executive Chef Craig Deihl teamed up with Chicago chefs/brothers Mike and Patrick Sheerin to create a five-course meal, plus appetizers. Straight from California’s Santa Ynez Valley, Melville Vineyards and Brewer-Clifton Vineyards provided most of the wines, and we were lucky enough to be seated with winemaker Greg Brewer and sales manager Stephen Janes.
- Greg Brewer and Stephen Janes
Guests sipped Melville’s Chardonnay INOX as waiters passed around little teasers like banh mi — pork pate, ham, kimchi — and crispy chicken livers on a sweet corn cake with bacon onion syrup. After being poured our second glass, a Viognier, Brewer spoke for a few minutes about his philosophy as a winemaker. “It’s all about what I’m not doing,” he said of the first two wines. Simplicity and restraint drive him, allowing the most fundamental flavors of the wine to shine without unnecessary additives.
The first course was our favorite of the night, two fat sea scallops with a spicy bright green oyster avgolemono. The second was equally bright and refreshing, slices of lightly smoked black cod served with a chunk of saurkraut bagel and a dollop of celery cream cheese. Things warmed up with the third course of pork neck with pumpernickle noodles and dijon curry served with a Brewer-Clifton pinot noir. A salt-baked lamb shoulder arrived as our stomachs reached maximum capacity, and we finished off with a coffee cake served with fried chocolate (which just tasted like regular chocolate) and an extremely aromatic cardamom tofu ice cream.
After dinner, a few guests lingered, sipping coffee (or more wine) and mingling with the wine experts. Over at Table 6, we enjoyed our first taste of Grand Marnier — a liqueur that’s practically a diety in the local F&B community — thanks to two of our generous tablemates. Charleston, Chicago, and California had successfully joined forces for a memorable Wine + Food experience.
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