Visited Charleston, South Carolina recently. Have very mixed feelings about the city itself. The surrounding area is great with beaches and lots of tourist sites. The city seems tired to me. The food scene has a number of established restaurants that are very expensive and provide decent food. One place Hall's Chophouse http://hallschophouse.com/ was overpriced and terrible. The wine list was outrageously expensive. The steak I had was not prime though the menu said it was.
We did order some of the cheaper wines on the list and they were good. A Tamarack Cellars 2007 Syrah from Washington State and a Ballentine Vineyards 2008 Cabernet Franc from Napa. The wines were about $60 each. The Tamarack was very intense with good spiciness. We enjoyed it. The Ballentine was interesting. 100% cab Franc is hard to find. I found it a bit grapey which would be unusual for a cab franc.
I took a restaurant class years ago and I will never forget what my teacher told us. A restaurant should be an easy business. You have a menu and you need to provide perceived value for your menu. McDonald's provides value for the price it charges for hamburgers. When a fancy steakhouse charges a high price for an ala carte steak, it needs to deliver on the what the menu offers. Hall's did not. Not close.
However my ambivalence with Charleston is based on going off of the grid. I found a small pastry shop Christophe that serve croissants and tea or coffee. They also had chocolate and pastries. The croissant was OK but when I asked for jam they wanted to sell me a small jar of jam for $1.25. OMG.
I did find a great place for lunch, Kitchen 208 at 208 King Street. It is a nice place where you order at the counter and they bring the food to you.I had a smokey Joe sandwich. House smoked brisket, caramelized onions, aged cheddar, pickles, cracked bbq pepper and Texas Toast. The sandwich was great and it was $9. My friend had Quinoa salad with feta, cucumbers, bell pepper, tomatoes etc for $8 with chicken added for $3. He loved the salad and it looked great.
Good Old Reliable Nathan
We had the opportunity to see a concert production of Guys and Dolls at Carnegie Hall last week. Guys and Dolls is one of my favorite musicals. It was our "house musical" when my sons were younger.Nathan Lane played Nathan Detroit, Megan Mullaly played Miss Adelaide, Patrick Wilson played Sky Masterton and Len Cariou was also in the concert. They did the entire play with some dance numbers and all of the songs. The night was a benefit concert for Carnegie Hall. We had the only reasonably priced tix but they were obstructed view in the balcony. We could not see that much but the music was great. Nathan Lane brought all of his comedic skills to the role of Nathan Detroit. He played the role in the last decent revival of the play on Broadway in 1992, which we saw. Megan Mullaly was great. If you get a chance see her in anything she does. She is now off -broadway in a new play with her husband.
Lettie Teague had an interesting article in WSJ on buying wine based upon the recommendations of salesmen in wine shops. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304179704579459592138208628?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052702304179704579459592138208628.html
Wine of the week. Domaine Drouhin has released their 2013 Rose. It is 100% Pinot Noir. I have not tasted the 2013 but the 2011 and 2012 were very good. It is about $25 but it is not a light wine. They only make 400 cases and I think that you can only get it from the winery. They do ship to NJ.
Anguilla is coming up soon. Really looking forward to it.
Spring looks like it is here. I am getting my garden ready and looking forward to the farmers' markets.
Enjoy.
