Where Colin Ate: Charleston Edition
Sunday long read special featuring must-hit spots in the Holy City
Colin Camac (aka @resyguynyc) is officially Blackbird’s “Strategic Sales Lead,” and unofficially is our resident insider’s insider. He is out, on the town seven nights a week, sniffing out the city’s best joints, skateboard in one hand, martini in the other.
The other travel I did last week was for a work trip to Charleston, South Carolina. Besides being a beautiful city, Charleston is a top-notch food town. There is also a really strong connection between NYC and Charleston within the food community, as a lot of the chefs and restaurateurs down there have either previously worked in or come directly from NYC. My Charleston work trips are busy since I need to fill a ton of meetings into a short time. Fortunately, our partners are some of the nicest and most genuine hospitality people who always try to make sure we are well fed. This trip was no different.
My rec: book a trip to Charleston asap and hit as many of these spots as you can.
Colin
DAY 1
Blanca Estrada
📍Downtown
🍽️ Mexican
Directly off the plane and on my way to the hotel I decided to shoot my friend and NYC/CHS Chef Micheal Toscano a text letting him know I’d be in town for a few days and seeing if he had a chance to meet up. Immediately he hit me back with “I’m actually headed out of town for an event tomorrow, wanna come by the new spot and eat some tacos now?” The answer to that question is always a hard yes so I dropped my bag off at the hotel and made the short walk over to Blanca Estrada, the new pop up Mexican restaurant he recently opened right next to his OG spot Le Farfalle downtown. The menu is small but filled with much more interesting items than you would expect to see on a menu like this, including lamb neck burritos and lengua. I opted to go for a sampler of a few, ordering a lengua taco on a corn tortilla, cochinita pibil (stewed pork) on a house flour tortilla, and a quesabirria, which is essentially a birria quesadilla that comes with a side of broth for dipping. All were absolutely delicious and a great (and filling) way to start the trip.
Ma’am Saab
📍Downtown
🍽️ Pakistani/Indian
After another quick meeting with a potential partner in the area, I met my colleague at Ma’am Saab, which is a Pakistani restaurant that has been getting great buzz since the day it opened. Although I had met with the team here a few times, I still had yet to try the food. As we finished our meeting the team insisted we try at least a few items and sent us out several bites. The first was their paneer (non aged soft cheese) in a golden curry — it was fantastic. I am usually a fan of paneer, but the texture on this one was a bit more firm than I had expected in a great way which—I discovered—lends itself well to carrying the curry. The next dish we tried was the masala salad, which featured a total mix of fun flavors and textures including cabbage, coconut, peanuts, and pomegranate seeds. Last but not least was a small plate of chicken pakora, which were masala fried chicken bites served with sliced red onion over a cream aioli of some sort and chili sauce. I really look forward to having a full meal here next time I make it to town.
Lost Isle
📍Johns Island
🍽️ Fusion
For dinner we decided to check out Lost Isle, a restaurant which has recently gotten some national attention, including being named one of the best openings of last year. My old friend TJ Lynch who lived in NYC for years working and owning successful bars (Mother’s Ruin) is a partner here and got us set up with a table. TJ moved down to CHS several years back, first opening Lowlife bar in Folly Beach and now Lost Isle on Johns Island. Lost Isle is an outdoor restaurant with live fire cooking. The menu is tight, but the food is all really good and affordably priced. The whole thing feels like a really amazing backyard BBQ at a chef’s house. We started with the whipped ricotta with blistered tomatoes, herb oil and chili honey which tastes exactly how you would expect with some toasted bread. It was a nice light bite to get started. We then opted for the smoked tomahawk pork chop with smoked apple salsa and an ancho cherry glaze, which was perfectly cooked and bursting with flavor of the salsa and glaze offsetting the richness of the chop. We added two amazing sides to round out the meal with the curry braised collard greens — they added a Southeast Asian-style coconut curry to the classic Southern staple as well as smashed potatoes with harissa creme fraiche and chili oil. The team hit us with a few shots on the way in and out which had us feeling great on the ride back downtown.
DAY 2
The Pass
📍Cannonborough-Elliottborough
🍽️ Sandwiches
After our first early meeting, I went by The Pass for a Blackbird lunch special they were doing and to see how everything was going with turnout. The Pass is an Italian sandwich shop and small market in the heart of downtown Charleston that serves—as you might’ve guessed—really tasty sandwiches. At night from Wed-Sat each week it also becomes The Italian Boy After Dark, serving a sit down tasting menu-style experience rooted in Italian cuisine. There was a solid little line as I walked in during the day and I went with the Blackbird special of the day which was a mortadella sandwich with burrata and pesto on toasted ciabatta ($7 when paying through the app). The sandwich was really good, so much so that I finished it even after promising I wouldn’t due to the long day of eating ahead.
Tutti
📍Westside
🍽️ Pizza
Tutti is the brand new pizza spot opened by the team from Graft Wine. The restaurant is right next door to the wine shop and has a really fun, cool vibe as well as a tight menu of pizza and salad. We chose to sit down at the bar which overlooks the kitchen and pizza ovens — it felt like a great place to sit to be close to the action. The restaurant serves both round and square pies, but we went with a half and half square. My friend insisted on margherita (“to get the true essence of their pizza”) and I wanted to have a bit more fun with it so we went with a half and half pie of one side margherita and the other meatball and anchovy. The kitchen sent us a starter of ‘roni cups with ranch to get the ball rolling. The crispy salty cups were a great way to get primed for some pizza. The pizza was really tasty with a crisp crust that held up to the heavier toppings (at least on MY SIDE). I love the concept of a simple and fun pizzeria with great wine and I think this place is a worthy addition to the Charleston scene.
Vern’s
📍Cannonborough-Elliottborough
🍽️ American
Since it opened its doors about a few years back, Vern’s has been a smash hit in Charleston. It comes from local industry vets Daniel and Bethany Heinze, who, after making their names locally, decamped for LA before returning to open a place of their own. The small space feels incredible and creates a very intimate vibe that would be perfect as a date spot, family outing, or just dinner with friends. The food is as good as any restaurant I’ve been to this year so I was excited to come back for a second visit on this trip. The menu changes often with seasonal availability, as well as a nightly specials board right next to the kitchen that is always worth checking out. My first visit about a year or so ago was a solo adventure which left me wanting to try so much more of the menu. Luckily on this visit I had my dining partner in tow so that we could properly share the full experience. The highlights of this meal included the always awesome (and always on the menu) charred sourdough with allium butter and dill. The bread, nice and crispy on the outside but warm and chewy within, is the perfect accompaniment to almost any other dish on the menu. That was followed by the shrimp with aji dulce (sweet pepper), smoked aioli, and a little bit of grated horseradish for some bite. The sauce itself was perfect, especially with the previously mentioned bread, and it was something I snacked on throughout the meal. We decided to go with two pastas, the first a rigatoni with pea tendrils and pine nuts that had the saltiness of a pesto and was evened out with the creaminess of a globe of burrata added on top. The other pasta was also a menu staple of campanelli with rabbit and vacche rosse, which is a parmigiano reggiano aged 24 months coming from the red cows of Emilia-Romagna. It is a staple for a reason and a really fantastic pasta. We rounded out the meal with the red fish served over corn with saffron and topped with a small skewer of crawfish and green onion. I loved the little bits of briny sweetness you’d get mixing the fish together with bites of the crawfish. Vern’s is a must visit on any trip to Charleston.
DAY 3
167 Raw
📍Ansonborough
🍽️ Seafood
For my last day in Charleston, I usually spend it tying up a few loose ends with work and then going around to quickly snack at a few of my favorite spots as well as hang at some old favorites for the sake of tradition. I arrived at another one of the busiest places in Charleston, 167 Raw, just after opening around 11:30 a.m. and had about a 15 minute wait for a solo seat at the bar. I had a bunch of places to hit on this day so I went classic with shrimp cocktail and an ½ dozen oysters as well as crab dip and a mahi mahi taco. The seafood here is always perfectly shucked and handled with care. I really liked the crab dip, which came in a cast iron boiling hot with some tortilla chips on the side. It was a perfect salty-sweet bite. One thing I hadn’t noticed before was that the taco was dressed not only with pickled onions, peppers, and what seemed like a spicy crema of some sort, but they also added guac in between the double flour tortilla which was a nice touch.
Xiao Bao Biscuit
📍Cannonborough-Elliottborough
🍽️ Asian
While I was running around town, I wanted to make sure I finally checked out Xiao Bao Biscuit, which has been on my Charleston list for years at this point. XBB is known for their okonomiyaki, aka a Japanese cabbage pancake. Their version was really satisfying, topped with furikake mayo, sweet soy, and chili garlic sauce. I also added a fried egg and sweet pork floss. It was such a texturally fun dish with the slightly crunchy cabbage oozing with the fried egg yolk and then mixing with all the umami of the sauces and pork. I understand why this is the star of their menu.
The Ordinary
📍Cannonborough-Elliottborough
🍽️ Seafood
The Ordinary has been a staple restaurant in Charleston for as long as it has been around. Located in a prime location on King Street, it occupies a huge beautiful space and is always a spot I need to stop into either for a full meal or a quick snack and drink. On this visit I was just popping in for a quick one before my last stop of the day. I went with the oyster slider, which is one of my favorite things on the menu. They make the sesame seeded Hawaiian rolls in house and top the perfectly fried oyster with cabbage and fresno mayo. It is simple and delicious. Frankly, I could eat anything on that awesome little roll. The Ordinary also has a really great rum selection and cocktail menu. I usually just go for a classic daiquiri here but I was feeling like something different and went with a really fun cocktail called the green thumb, which combines gin, shochu, bols genever, lime, and a midori cucumber foam. It was a gorgeous looking drink with an almost creamy texture balanced out with a sour herbal note that all really worked well.
Little Jack’s Tavern
📍North Central
🍽️ American
I am a fan of traditions, even meaningless ones. I like the ritual of doing something over and over again. Going to Little Jack’s with my bags on the way to the airport is my Charleston tradition. The bar is comfortable and feels like a place you just want to spend all day in. The team there is top-notch. The bartender always remembers my order (thanks, Maria!), even though I am only in town once every three or four months. When I am sipping a martini at the bar at Little Jack’s it feels like everything is in its right place. Depending on how much time I have I will usually take down a martini or two (or three, but who’s counting), order some shrimp cocktail (aioli on the side, please), and then finish with one of their famous burgers. The burger, which used to be sold as a single on both the normal and the dessert menu (because it was so good you could order another for dessert), is the perfect size to not make you feel too full. It comes topped with griddled onions and tavern sauce on a sesame seeded bun. The fries are equally delicious, and I recommend them with a side of tavern sauce as well. Leaving the restaurant, slightly tipsy with bags in hand, was the perfect ending to another great trip to Charleston.
Updating my list of where to eat in Charleston...such good food there!