Zero George, on the corner of George St. and East Bay St.

     Another Charleston Restaurant Week has come and gone, leaving me satiated, well-pleased and full of anticipation for the next CRW in September.  We visited two restaurants that were new to us, Vincent Chicco's (see my previous review) and Zero George.  Although I loved both restaurants, Zero George has now become my favorite destination for an intimate, gourmet dining experience.  The food, staff and location exceeded all of my expectations, even though I knew in advance that Zero George had received awards for excellence in 2014, including the Conde Nast Traveler's worldwide award as one of the Top 5 Best New Food Hotels.
     Located at the corner of East Bay Street and George Street, Zero George is both a boutique hotel with eighteen rooms and a small but perfect restaurant.  The property is surprisingly private considering it borders two busy steets and is a half block from the soon-to-be-completed Gaillard Center.  Reservations at Zero George will be a precious commodity once the Center opens for performances later in 2015.
  The hotel/restaurat compound consists of three Charleston homes and two brick kitchen houses that surround a charming brick courtyard.  The restaurant is housed in three, small, first floor rooms of the 1804 kitchen house.  Approximately a dozen tables and a tiny, efficient open kitchen are artfully arranged in the small space so that guests are not crowded too closely together.  The menu changes weekly, taking full advantage of fresh, locally sourced ingredients.
     The restaurants that participated in Restaurant Week this winter were allowed the freedom to set their own prix fixe menus.  So, rather than offering the typical three courses for $40.00 per person menus that the higher end restaurants have offered during past events, Zero George gave their guests the choice of one snack or appetizer, one main course selection and a shared dessert for $45.00 per person.  Guests could also order a la carte.
     I would be remiss if I didn't mention the drink menu, an eclectic mix of boutique wines, craft beers and cocktails and even artisanal mixers for non-alchoholic drinks.  My excellent server, Jami, asked the bartender to create something special for me in the non-alchoholic vein, a Jack Rudy tonic water based drink that combined fresh grapefruit juice and lime juice for a refreshing change to my usual ginger ale.  I ask every restaurant for non-alchoholic suggestions and only a few are prepared to accomodate my request (Husk, The Grocery, Stars) with something other than tea or Coke.
     Our meal was served by a team of servers who were friendly yet highly professional.  They appeared quietly and discreetly when needed: filling water glasses, clearing plates, explaining the next course.  Our server, Jami, was a delight.
     My dining partner and I followed the Restaurant Week Prix Fixe menu, beginning with one snack item and one appetizer.  My partner ordered the Local Vegetable Tempura which was served in a terracotta flower pot.  A wide variety of vegetables (cauliflower, zuchinni, cucumber) were cut in large pieces and lightly fried in a batter that left a hint of cayenne on the palate.  A rich aoili for dipping was provided, although when I tasted the tempura it was so delicious that I didn't feel the need to dip.
     My starter was the Warm Beet Salad, a hearty, winter root vegetable salad that was arranged artfully on a plate around a square of deep-fried chèvre (crunchy on the outside, warm and melted on the inside...delicious).  The purple beets were cut into good sized, chunks, roasted and served warm, while the remaining root vegetables (carrots, radishes) were uncooked, delicious and sliced paper thin.
     Our choice for the main course was a 40 Day Dry Aged Sirloin.  Served medium rare in two thick slices, the sirloin was tender and full of bold flavor.  A pureed, tri-colored swirl of "Classic Steakhouse Flavors" filled the plate and rounded out the entree by pleasing both the eye and the palate.  Pureed black truffles, spinach and Japanese sweet potatoes created a black, green and white rainbow around the sirloin.  Three, small roasted purple potatoes. (Trader Joe's sells a delicious mixed bag of red, white and purple potatoes for those of you, like me, who like to recreate restaurant dishes at home.) rested happily in the vegetable swirls.  In the center of the plate was a roasted chunk of celery, a new flavor sensation for me.  Who knew that roasted celery could taste so good?
     Although we were getting fairly full, we still decided to eat our shared dessert, the Tres Leches, a lighter than expected mixture of moist, (not soggy) white sponge cake chunks soaked in coconut milk and dotted with whipped cream and honeycomb pieces.  Zero George's Tres Leche was a surprising combination of silky smoothness and crunchiness, a real end of meal treat.
     My hat is off to Zero George, a restaurant that deserves but doesn't rest on its laurels.
   

   
   

     It's time once again to enjoy one of the many benefits of living in the Lowcountry, Charleston Restuarant Week.   Over 150 area restaurants are offering a semi-annual prix fixe dinner menu, ranging from $20.00 to $40.00 per person for a three course meal, from January 7th to January 18th.  Each January and September, Charleston Restaurant Week attracts both tourists and locals interested in sampling the ample talents of the Lowcountry culinary scene.
     The first of my two restaurant choices this week is Vincent Chicco's Italian American Restaurant.
located along a quaint alley that connects Hutson St. to John St.   Bordered by sister restaurants Michael's on the Alley, Coast and Rue de Jean, as well as the coctail bar Victor's Social Club,  Vincent Chiccos occupies a renovated and creatively subdivided warehouse behind the Meeting Street Embassy Suites.  All are owned by Bennett Hospitality group.
     With soaring, mustard colored stucco walls, huge gold framed mirrors and a combination of banquette and counter table seating, Vincent Chicco's is all about comfort and service.  We arrived for dinner bundled up for below-freezing weather and were able to conveniently check our coats.  My seating request for a banquette was honored and due to my mobility issues, a waitress even escorted me to the ladies room (unnecessary but very nice).  Our waiter, Johnny, was attentive and knowledgeable, imparting a history of the building and details about the menu with equal skill.
     The menu is broken up into three sections: appetizers and salads, American-style Italian offerings and Classic Roman Italian dishes.  We look forward to returning to sample the Roman dishes, but decided to try the meals showcased on the Restaurant Week menu this time.
     For our first course, we chose the Wagyu Beef Carpaccio and the classic Italian Salad.  The Beef Carpaccio featured thinly sliced, marinated sirloin on a bed of watercress and arugula with horseradish aioli.  Garlic crostinis were the perfect crispy match to the tenderness of the beef.  My House Italian Salad was a generously sized plate of assorted greens (lots of arugula, my favorite green), thinly sliced heirloom radishes, chopped yellow and red cherry tomatoes tossed in a light, olive oil house dressing.  (Red onions were excluded at my request.)  This salad was more flavorful than most of the house salads I've tried on the peninsula.
     There were two choices for the main course; Cacio E Pepe and Marinated Painted Hills Ribeye.  My dining partner and I both ordered the pasta dish (when in Rome...) and were pleased with both the  texture and the flavor-holding properties of the spaghetti.  The light, creamy sauce clung nicely to the pasta, which was topped with a delicious Pecorino Romano/parmesan crisp, which fell apart nicely when tapped by a fork.  These crispy bits swirled into each forkful of pasta added a rich, nutty flavor to the pasta dish.
     Our last course was a milk chocolate Semifreddo, served sliced with a topping of chopped pistachios, a pool of orange cream and a generous scattering of candied, whole  pistachios.  The dessert's presentation and flavor were perfect.  Also perfect was the house cappuccino.  Served in a large cup with at least two inches of dreamy, frothed milk, Vincent Chicco's cappuccino was the perfect end to an authentic Italian meal.  Gustare il pasto!
   
   
   
 
   

The Cottage
Cafe, Bakery and Tea Room

     Bluffton, SC, the oft missed doorway to Hilton Head Island, is a hidden gem that should not be missed.  The next time you're driving down Route 278, skip the outlet malls, turn right on Burnt Church Rd. and head down Bruin Rd. towards quaint and friendly Old Town Bluffton.  Park on the roadside of Calhoun St., get out of your car and walk; walk into the art galleries, walk into the antique shops, and most of all, walk into The Cottage Cafe and Bakery at 38 Calhoun St.  Offering delicious sandwiches, seafood, mile high cakes and copies of The Little Cottage That Could Cookbook, The Cottage is a charming restaurant,  peopled by friendly employees, relaxed and familiar locals and lucky tourists.
     The menu, so varied and tempting that it was almost impossible to make a choice, is divided into sections which include Favorites (such as Liver and Onions,  Lobster Avocado Rolls, and Shrimp and Grits), Sandwiches, Wraps and Paninis (with combinations such as turkey, apple and brie or lime ginger shrimp), a long list of Salads and what seemed to be their specialty, Pot Pies.  They also offer a few specials each day.
     We chose the Chicken Pot Pie and the Saturday lunch special, Fried Green Tomatoes topped with local shrimp in a light tomato sauce.  Every meal is served with a shredded green salad, your choice of dressings and a plate of delicious, warm corn muffins accompanied by a dish of soft butter sprinkled with cinnamon.
     The pot pie was generous in size, its crust a thick layer of puffy pastry dough, baked a light, crispy brown.   Large chunks of tender chicken shared the pie with green onions, peas, carrots and a classic white cream sauce.  A dollop of creme fraiche on the side was the perfect pairing of both taste and texture.   My fried green tomatoes were thickly sliced and firm, coated with crunchy Panko bread crumbs, then deep fried and served piping hot.  Four large and perfectly cooked shrimp (they were not overcooked as shrimp so often are) topped the tomatoes, covered with a light and smooth tomato sauce.
     The Cottage is a tiny house with a wide front porch and tables both inside and out.  The walls are crowded with large canning jars of their corn bread mix, local honey and bee pollen and house-made granola.  We were seated beside a many-tiered, rotating cake display case, a real distraction for me as I spent my entire meal gazing with affection at huge slices of Pistachio Cream Cake, Banana Cake, Orange Cake, Chocolate Cake, Wedding Cake, and Hummingbird Cake.  The pie varieties sounded just as good, with every flavor listed from fruit to pecan to nutella, but they were kept in a chilled case whose side facing me was too fogged up for me to peek through.  To my left was an array of pastries in another chilled case: Hazelnut Ganache Cups, individual Lemon Cheesecakes and bread puddings,  dark chocolate dipped Macaroons, huge Compost Cookies.  I was so full by the end of my meal that I couldn't eat even one bite of the Pistachio Cake I had eyed so longingly during lunch so I settled for two cookies in a to-go box.   We ate a chocolate macaroon (moist, tender heaven) and a Compost Cookie (made with everything sweet and good that they had in the kitchen) in the car not two minutes after we left The Cottage, a sweet finish to a lovely lunch.
   

   

Guilt, God and Real Estate in a Small Town

     My last memoir review of the summer is Perfectly Miserable~ the book, not the review!  Written by Sarah Payne Stuart about her childhood in, and adult return to, Concord, Massachusetts, Ms. Stuart's story was very readable and had a lot of potential.
     I enjoyed her tales of her formative years in Concord yet wished she had given us more details about her family.  The information she shared about them was spotty, leaving me with more questions than answers.  I was pleased and satifsifed, however, with the way she wove tales of Concord's famous past residents into her own story, especially those of the Alcott family. References to Hawthorne and Thoreau were interesting, as well.



     In order to fulfill the promise included in her book's title, Guilt, God and Real Estate in a Small Town, Sarah Stuart begins by telling her readers that she was not the perfect example of filial compliance, but then who really is?  And while she willingly moved away from Concord (escaped, if truth be told), she then returned, husband and children in tow, to recreate for her own children the childhood experience she had.  That seemed odd to me.  After putting distance, both physical and emotional, between herself and her parents, I remain puzzled about why she returned and what she gained by doing so.  She seemed to leap gleefully into the competition for house and neighborhood prestige in Concord, the "keeping up with the Jones family" syndrome,  a habit that I don't think she admired in the adults of her youth.   And where God enters in, I'm really not sure.
     I do recommend reading Perfectly Miserable, Guilt, God and Real Estate in a Small Town yet I would be interested in the opinions of others regarding whether Ms. Stuart really delivered what she promised in the title.

     Another detour on my summer memoir path is this gem of a book, The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery.   Translated from the French by Europa Editions, Ms. Barbery tells the story of the residents of an elegant apartment building in Paris from the viewpoint of Renee, the building's concierge and Paloma, a sad but brilliant twelve year old tenant.
     The book is written in brief chapters, alternating between Renee's and Paloma's points of view.  I grew to quickly love both characters.     The Elegance of the Hedgehog also tells the story of an older,  Japanese widower who has moved into a recently vacated apartment.  Kakuro Ozu's connection to the disparate female narrators completes the emotional connection both were seeking.
     It would be difficult to pronounce this the best book I have ever read, but it is certainly the best one I've read in a long time.  The characters tug at your heart, stimulate your mind and capture your attention so well that I was truly sad when the last chapter arrived.     
     When reading this story, as Muriel Barbery states, "You have found a good hiding place."  And isn't all great literature exactly that?

Escargot at Brasserie Gigi
Picture by H. Chabot

     As sad as we were to see the Italian restaurant Mercato close in January, our happiness at the opening of a French restaurant in its' place knows no bounds.
     Brasserie Gigi at 102 N. Market St., purveyor of French cuisine extraordinaire, exceeded all of our expectations.   From the Escargot, prepared in a delicious broth of garlic, parsley, butter, chives, shallot and anise, served in the shell, to the chocolate pot de creme, all was perfection.
      Our party shared the Escargot, mopping up every last bit of parsley butter with extra pieces of freshly baked and soft (thank you!) French bread.  We pulled the delicious snails from their shells with a small-tined snail fork--many thanks to the waiter who, when he saw that one of our snails would not come out, brought us an even tinier fork with which I easily extricated the tender, recalcitrant mollusk.
We were served iced water throughout the meal from a large, chilled bottle and also enjoyed a very nice California Chardonnay.  Our waiter, Chris, was kind enough to bring an ice bucket to keep our bottle of white wine chilled tableside.
     Three of my dining partners ordered the classic Steak Frites for a main course.  We were all well pleased with the New York strip steak, seared and cooked to medium temperature with a nice, pink center.  The meat was moist, flavorful and accompanied by a delicious bearnaise sauce.  I dipped my skinny, crispy "frites" (french fried potatoes) in the bearnaise, too.  Oh yes, they were a little taste of heaven.  A salad of leaf lettuce and sliced tomato shared the plate with the meat and potatoes, dressed with a light and tasty vinaigrette.
     Shrimp Provencal,  tail-on shrimp tossed with linguine in a garlic and white wine sauce, was enjoyed by the fourth member of our party.  The lemon and thyme flavors dominated, adding much to the enjoyment of the dish.
     We finished our meal with after dinner drinks and two shared chocolate pots de creme.  The ramekins of milk chocolate were creamy, not too sweet and topped with fresh, whipped cream.  A sweet finish to a lovely meal.

We will happily return to Brasserie Gigi.

Maya Angelou  1928-2014

     For the next installment in my summer reading theme, Memoirs, I chose an unread book from my bookshelf, a book that I had considered often and always remarked, "Oh, that one looks good.  I'll read it next."  Years passed and it remained unread.  After Maya Angelou's sudden death on May 28th, 2014, I walked directly to the shelf, pulled out Maya's memoir of her early life, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, and began to read.
     Her words were powerful, clear and colorful.  They evoked a sharp picture of the United States at a time in American history that no one should be proud of, the Jim Crow south and the WWII west coast, during the first half of the twentieth century.  Her story is one of prejudice, inequality, determination and horror.  Ms. Angelou was a victim of childhood sexual abuse, racial prejudice and parental ineptitude.  
     Many aspects of the story were amazing to me.   That Maya Angelou was able to move forward after being sexually abused at age eight amazed me.  That she became stronger after each custodial setback amazed me.  That she learned from each bad experience, however horrifying, and became stronger for it amazed me.  
     Maya Angelou wrote each word with honesty, something that can be difficult when relating devastating life events.  Her words are full of emotion; never sensational, never downplayed.   She expressed real bitterness and outrage (and rightly so) about the way that she was treated by society, yet she also expressed shock and puzzlement that she didn't feel the same outrage when confronted with the poor treatment of the American Japanese.  Such a real and honest memoir is not to be missed.