Charleston destinations new and old are among the five Charleston-area restaurants I’m excited about right now.
From a standout sushi bar inside a West Ashley hibachi restaurant to a fully outdoor eatery on Johns Island, here is a look inside my top five restaurants to try in May 2024.
Coterie
17 Warren St., downtown Charleston
After opening with an Indian menu of tandoori masala-spiced quail and country captain tikka, Coterie has changed its culinary tune under new executive chef Damian Sandoval.
Born in Mexico and raised in Chicago, the former Xiao Bao Biscuit and Obstinate Daughter chef’s recently launched offering is billed as “modern American.”
Like many of the country’s top restaurants claiming that same style, Coterie now relies on a mashup of global cuisines at 17 Warren St., where Italian restaurant Pan e Vino previously served.
There are pork-filled wontons, charged by a spicy soy glaze, and scallop ceviche with serrano chiles, lime, orange, radish, tarragon and a heavy hit of fennel. Mashed potatoes — served underneath jaggery- and tamari-sauced steak — are infused with kimchi Sandoval makes in-house.
Chicken tinga huarache at Coterie.
Paired with owner Jeremy Buck’s inventive cocktail menu, Coterie 2.0 is all over the map. In this case, that’s the intended approach.
With shareable small and large plates, sides and desserts, Coterie specializes in options like rice noodles with five spice caramel sauce and a baby kale, radish and turnip salad that looks like a souped-up avocado toast. Smoked feta lends creamy, earthy notes to the sourdough toast, which shares the crumbled cheese with another colorful Coterie plate.
Huaraches — prevalent in Mexico but rarely served at Mexican restaurants in the U.S. — consist of flat, oval-shaped masa and a layer of toppings. The shape is meant to mimic the sole of a Mexican sandal, or huarache.
Sandoval makes his own, mixing heirloom corn flour with salt and a blend of oils to make the huarache base, which rests for 30 minutes before being rolled into the sandal shape.
He trades the traditional topping of beans, meat and salsa for a combination of smoked feta, crispy rice noodles and chicken that’s shredded and paired with chipotles to make what’s called tinga.
The flight from Mexico to Asia is a short one at Coterie, where curry — a staple of not just Indian food but also Jamaican, Sri Lankan, Pakistani, Malaysian and other global cuisines — still finds its way onto the menu.
During a recent dinner, the pork belly Thai yellow curry had us scooping up spoonful after spoonful of soft white rice, cooked so that each grain held its form while soaking up the fragrant coconut milk-enhanced sauce.
Da Toscano Fugazzi at Revelry Brewing Co.
10 Conroy St., downtown Charleston
Since March, Le Farfalle owner Michael Toscano's Da Toscano Fugazzi has been serving what the chef calls “unauthentic Italian-inspired Americana” at Revelry Brewing Co. in downtown Charleston.
That could look like porchetta crackling and mozzarella sticks to start, and a porchetta Cubano or porcini prime rib cheesesteak on an Amoroso's hoagie to finish. On a recent Sunday, polenta-crusted dill pickles and “Enzo-style” ribs came calling.
The latter — tossed in a glossy balsamic, honey, rosemary and pickled cherry pepper glaze — are sticky, spicy and sweet. While I wouldn’t recommend ordering these ribs on a first date, it’s well worth the mess for the best ribs I’ve had in years.
“Enzo-style” ribs at Da Toscano Fugazzi.
For craft breweries, adapting to the changing industry landscape will be key to a sustainable future. The team at Revelry Brewing Co., the decade-old destination where Fugazzi serves, realized they needed to give their guests the food program they had been asking for, co-owner Sean Fleming told The Post and Courier in March. That meant completing a kitchen renovation in order to make Da Toscano Fugazzi happen.
I’ve had Da Toscano Fugazzi three times since its debut, and it’s not just the proximity to my apartment and The Post and Courier’s office that’s bringing me back time and time again. This is hands down the best bar food — if you can even call it that — right now in Charleston.
Food orders can be placed using QR codes at Revelry’s tables and bars downstairs and on the sun-soaked rooftop. After placing an order, simply sit back on a red-cushioned couch with your Pina Ola pineapple wheat and wait for a member of the Da Toscano Fugazzi team to deliver your vodka-sauced “disco fries” and Le Farfalle meatball smash burger, piled high with lettuce, tomato, shaved red onions, provolone, pecorino romano and basil aioli.
Hachiya Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar
688 Citadel Haven Drive, West Ashley
Behind one of the busiest traffic intersections in West Ashley sits one of the Charleston area’s top teppanyaki restaurants. Tucked in the right corner of Hachiya Japanese Steakhouse is one of the Lowcountry’s best sushi bars.
In the entryway, underneath a night-blue faux-sky finish, Hachiya Japanese Steakhouse and Sushi Bar employees direct traffic using radio earpieces. Those looking for fried rice, hibachi chicken and filet mignon are taken to the red carpeted area in the back.
Teppan after teppan occupy this hibachi banquet hall, where tables were filling up by 5 p.m. on a recent Wednesday. Across the massive restaurant, the sushi bar to the right of the front doors was empty, but the two chefs behind it were already busy wrapping rice and placing sushi rolls inside black takeout containers.
The 45 signature sushi rolls are not the reason to visit Hachiya; I go for the nigiri and sashimi.
For $38.95, Hachiya patrons can dig into more than two dozen pieces of fish — plus a ginger salad, miso soup and ice cream — as part of the “sashimi supreme.” A rarity at restaurants these days, this platter of raw fish offers both bang for your buck and high-end quality.
Using sharp knives and fish that arrives from Japan every Friday, the chefs behind the sushi bar can be seen slicing salmon and thin fans of octopus, tinted purple around the edges.
The differing textures between these two bites — soft and buttery versus firm and mild — demonstrates the various bites present on this platter of sashimi, a simple preparation of sliced fish without rice. Bouncing around from piece to piece allows for full appreciation of this variation.
For $38.95, Hachiya patrons can order more than two dozen pieces of fish — plus a ginger salad and miso soup — as part of the “sashimi supreme.”
I normally save the fatty tuna for last, but another impressive piece could emerge before then. During this recent visit, I left with the fond memory of four sliced scallops intercepted by lemon wedges, adding a bright, citrusy essence.
The smooth, silky bite popped on its own, though it was hard to deny a small dunk in the special bowl of soy sauce Hachiya’s sushi chefs make themselves.
Herd Provisions
106 Grove St., downtown Charleston
From the start, owner Alec Bradford's concept for Herd Provisions has been farm-to-table, with cows, chickens and hogs grown on his land in Virginia getting slaughtered up there before being sent to Charleston to be butchered on site. That should be all you need to hear to know this place serves a darn good burger.
Herd Provisions' burger arrives with a pile of french fries cooked in beef fat, but that’s not the only reason to order the Herd Burger, topped with bright Bibb lettuce, yellow American cheese, onions and pickles. This burger is well worth its $19 price tag ($14 during happy hour) because of the meat, sourced from Bradford’s Leaping Waters Farm in Virginia.
The meat is like a prime cut of steak or a piece of high-quality local fish — you really can tell the difference. And if beef isn’t your thing, Herd Provisions offers a veggie variation and crispy chicken katsu sandwich with cabbage slaw.
It’s not all burgers and sandwiches at Herd Provisions, which boasts one of the best happy hours in town.
Among the options served at a discounted price from 3 to 5 p.m. is the tart whipped ricotta cheese appetizer, sparked by a medley of leeks, carrots and onions — all pickled in house — resting on top.
That decorative topper is bested only by that of the beef tartare, adorned in white onions and edible flowers; “a play on what the cows eat,” a Herd Provisions employee said. Accompanied by crusty bread, the Calabrian chili and sumac-spiced tartare has a meaty essence, matted down by just the right amount of egg binder.
Though Bradford is the owner, Herd Provisions’ kitchen is led by Jeanne Oleksiak, who is not only the executive chef but the butcher and the pastry chef, as well. Oleksiak, who has been at the restaurant since 2020 after working as sous chef right down the street at Park & Grove (formerly Park Café), works with a team to put out these and other creative plates using fresh and sustainable local ingredients.
During dinner, she’s dishing out wok-fried lentils with dukkah and puffed rice, ceviche, hand-pulled burrata, rigatoni ragu, brined pork chops and roasted radishes with green garlic butter. For a place built around a focus on meat, Oleksiak has found a way to do more with vegetables than many other chefs in Charleston.
Chefs prepare meals in the open-air kitchen and dining area at Lost Isle on Dec. 14, 2023, on Johns Island.
Lost Isle
3338 Maybank Highway, Johns Island
If I had the chance to build my dream house, the backyard would look exactly as it does at Lost Isle, Johns Island’s new fully outdoor restaurant.
Housed behind an unassuming building next to the Tattooed Moose, Lost Isle is centered around an open kitchen powered by live fire. Patrons seated in the open courtyard can watch as chef Josh Taylor and his team place pans directly on top of hot coals and steaks on a grill, heated by burning wood underneath.
On a recent Monday night, many instead chose to sit with their backs to the cooking arena, facing the action behind Lost Isle’s tight bar, whose counter is stocked with the garnishes and accouterments of a top cocktail destination.
Nothing says happy hour like the Gintonica ($12), with orange slices and a sprig of rosemary bobbing in house-made tonic and lime leaf gin. The tall balloon glass is one of various vessels holding the many cocktails on tap at Lost Isle.
From grilled oysters and smoked swordfish dip to main courses like the smoked pork chop with charred tomato cherry chutney and grilled steak, every Lost Isle dish is kissed by the fire. Those three large-format proteins and the harissa cauliflower steak headline a menu that’s refreshingly tight and determined.
Those who order starters will receive them first, but the slate of shareable entrees won’t be too far behind. While many are surely tempted by the ribeye, paired with red chimichurri, harissa and confit garlic, I recommend the charcoal grilled chicken, whose tamarind chili glaze soaks into the skin to saturate and tenderize the white meat, jolted by a lemongrass salsa verde topper.
