Osteria la Bottiglia, Charleston, SC

Can Somebody Please Turn Up The Lights?

Bar At Osteria la Bottiglia

I read about the opening of this restaurant the other day.  We have a good friend coming to visit this week and since it’s an Italian restaurant and she loves Italian food, off we went.

Like Leaf, a restaurant that opened a few weeks ago, it has no social media presence. No facebook, twitter, webpage… you name it, nothing.  AND, unlike Leaf it has no signage.  Unless we knew that it was at 420 King Street we would have never found it.  You would think a menu would be in the window for passersby to see and to draw attention to it.  Nah, I guess their thoughts are, “If you build it they will come.”

Having worked with Metromedia Restaurant Group (they were the parent of Steak and Ale, Bennigan’s, Ponderosa and Bonanza), many years ago, Osteria seemed immediately like a throwback to Steak and Ale, a brand created in 1969 by the restaurant legend, Norman Brinker. 

Looking Out From The Back Dining Area

It is a very narrow, shot gun space with tables and high tops as you enter followed by a long bar.  The tables are dark wood and the high tops were made by the owner (we overheard this). The walls have dark framed mirrors and they are waiting for framed prints for the walls to be delivered, so the walls are bare.  The ceiling looks more like a floor than a ceiling created with dark salvaged wood from former homes in Charleston. The kitchen and more seating are in the back.  Seating in the back is a small stucco walled room with dark beams.  I really thought I was going to bump into a salad bar like I would have at Steak and Ale.

We had not heard much about the restaurant. One post stated that the ticket times were very long on the night that they were there and another liked his salad, but that’s about it. We also heard that there is not a hostess to seat you and that it was somewhat confusing, which was true.  It wasn’t very busy and we were seated rather quickly.

We sat near the bar at a high top that was rocking.  The server explained that the tables rocked because “they moved them around so much.”  Although she said she would get something to fix it, she didn’t.  Thank goodness I am a high maintenance coffee drinker and keep Sweet ‘N Low in my purse. That did the trick.  Can’t someone pay attention to the little things?

The menu is moderate in size, but the restaurant was so dark we had to use the light from both our cell phone and the votive candle to read it. They offer 3 soups, 4 brushcettas, 3 appetizers, 6 pasta selections, 6 salad/veggies and duck confit, Cornish hen and a fish of the day.  House made desserts are also available. So if you can’t find their menu on line (which we couldn’t), there it is.

We started with a cocktail, bottle of sparking water and an order of the artichoke brushcetta.  Our beverages were served rather quickly, but with my beverage, served in a martini glass, they “Damn near missed it,” as my dad would say when something was rather skimpy.  My glass was literally half full.

Artichoke Bruchetta

The artichoke brushcetta was served in a pool of olive oil.  With the lack of light it was hard to see if there was any pecorino romano cheese, as advertised and the garlic was overpowering.  The bread was so heavily toasted it was like we were eating a large, oily crouton.  I am certain that we made some noise chomping on it, but there was no way around it.

You Thought We Were Kidding About The Sign?

We decided to share two pasta dishes for dinner.  Their pastas are made in house and were appealing.  While we were waiting for our dinners to arrive we started to watch what appeared to be the owner tour the restaurant.  He stopped at the table next to us who appeared to be friends of his. He poured wine, chit chatted and moved on. He then went to the table in the front of the restaurant, the lone table by the window - chit chatted and moved on.  Two tables down from us and the table next to us had the same personalized visit.  Ours was the only table that he did not stop at. I was beginning to get a complex. 

We found out through these visits that the restaurant opened on Tuesday after a very long wait. They were supposed to be open last July and are currently in disagreement with the city about their logo, hence, no signage.

Before we knew it our dinner was served. One thing that I can say is that our service was good and the food was served very quickly.

We ordered the Lobster Ravioli Served on Spicy Lobster and Wild Fennel Tomato Sauce “Sardinian Style”. (We took a picture of the menu, so this is the exact menu copy.) We additionally ordered the Tagliatelle Served with Wild Boar Ragout Sauce. At $18.00 and $15.00 these were the most expensive items on the menu.  The menu is very moderately priced.

Tagliatelle Served with Wild Boar Ragout Sauce

Lobster Ravioli

Stem billowed from the plates as they were sat down in front of us. I thought, “Finally, very hot food.”  But alas, my dreams were dashed. The sauces were very hot and my lobster sauce had a nice kick to it.  The Boar Sauce had a nice flavor but the little chunks of boar within the sauce were so incredibly tough it was hard to chew them. Most disappointing was that the pastas were served tepid at best.   They must have been platted ahead of time?  Even the hot sauces didn't help. The Lobster Ravioli had somewhat of a fishy taste, so I wouldn't recommend it. 

After all the time they waited to get this off the ground, it still needs some work. Can someone turn up the lights?

We gave Osteria la Bottiglia 2 out of a possible 5 plates.

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Eurasia Café and Wine Bar, Mount Pleasant, SC

Don't Let The Name Fool You..

To be honest with you if I had not seen Eurasia recently popping up on a few food and blog sites I would not have known it was there. I am in the Whole Foods Plaza in Mt. Pleasant quite frequently and I think I once looked over to the area where it’s located and thought it was a Chinese restaurant. 

We entered the restaurant on a sleepy spring evening. At the time there were only three tables and three people at the bar. More patrons would arrive, but it was never very busy during our stay. 

Our server was very knowledgeable and I asked him a few questions about the restaurant. He said that the owners have two other locations, one in Richmond, VA and one in Virginia Beach, VA.  He mentioned that they have been in business together for about 10 years and that this Eurasia opened about four months ago. 

Inside Eurasia Cafe

The name doesn’t fit the décor of the restaurant.  It’s a bit contemporary and somewhat stark.  A nice outdoor patio with colorful umbrellas and a babbling fountain that seats about twenty looked inviting.  It was tempting, but it was a tad cool that evening, so we passed. When we asked about the name of the name of the restaurant, our server said, “The whole thing is a bit confusing. It’s not European, it’s not Asian.  A restaurant owner came in today and thought it was a Sushi place. We get that all the time.”

Eurasia is a comfortable place with moderately priced, tasty food. The menu is a varied, seasonal offering of soups, appetizers, sandwiches, salads, entrees and desserts. The wine and microbrew options are extensive. They take great pride in utilizing products from regional & local purveyors.  So much for their website info, now let me tell you about our dining experience.

We started with the Beef Tenderloin Carpaccio that was served with truffled egg salad, baby arugula and balsamic mustard vinaigrette and the Chinese Vegetable Spring Rolls served with ponzu, (a ginger/teriyaki combo) and spicy mustard.  Beef Carpaccio in general is one of my husband’s favorite dishes. In fact, when we went on one of our first dates I asked him (as funny as this may seem), “What would you chose to be your last meal?”  He mentioned a few things, one of which was Beef Carpaccio from a restaurant then located outside of Washington, DC named Boneratti’s. 

Beef Carpacccio

Spring Rolls

I was surprised to hear that his Carpaccio, “hands down” was better than Boneratti’s. The presentation was exquisite and he said that the truffled egg salad was unbelievable.  The presentation of my Chinese Vegetable Spring Rolls was also very eye appealing and was served with four large spring rolls, actually, enough for two to split.  Both of the side sauces, the Ponzu and the spicy mustard were awesome.  The mustard made my eyes water it was so spicy! Although the spring rolls could have been warmer in temperature, we thought we were off to a great start.

Although you can argue that a “salad” might not be considered an entrée (someone at the table did), I ordered the “Tangled Up in Bleu” Salad.

Tangled Up In Bleu Salad

Our other entrée was the Ginger Snap Crusted Pork Loin and “Mac & Cheese” with raspberry ale aged cheddar - quite a mouthful to say and eat. Although the menu item was listed with “ginger snaps,” I didn’t really put two and two together and in fact the pork was topped with ginger snap cookies, a nice, sweet combination to the flavor of the pork.  It sat high on a mound of Mac & Cheese and broccolini.  My husband found the pork tough to cut into but very tender and flavorful.  The Mac & Cheese was a tad overpowering though, and the flavor of the broccolini took somewhat of a back seat.  He still gave the dish very high marks.

Ginger Snap Encrusted Pork Tenderloin

The “Tangled Up In Bleu” was a very large mound of arugula. Very large is an understatement. To one side of the plate sat a perfectly cut hardboiled egg and fried onions adorned the top of the salad. In the spirit of the upcoming Easter Holiday, finding anything else in the salad was an Easter Egg hunt. There were two cherry tomato halves, different colored halves, but one total cherry tomato. The cherrywood bacon and crumbled blue cheese dotted the salad like a few flowers on a hillside.  Although the dressing was good, all ‘n all it was a large mound of arugula – and many pieces of brown lettuce at that.  Again I ask, didn’t someone see the brown pieces when they were making the salad or prepping?

Brown Lettuce In The Salad  How's That Happen?

In a nutshell, the service was good, other than the salad; the other menu items were very good. But the restaurant has such the potential to be 5’s in all categories.  It missed the mark on our visit.  Brown lettuce? Really?

We gave Eurasia Cafe 3 out of a possible 5 plates

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Leaf, Charleston, SC

A Work In Progress…

If you’re like me you’re probably wondering why a restaurant would call itself “Leaf”.  When you go there you will still not receive any clues. There is also no online presence. No website, facepage, twitter, menu posting, etc.  I would suggest Leaf might think about enlisting the services of Your Social Media Company. A company  that does a great job of driving businesses through tactical social media positioning. I know that they have helped me tremendously.  OK, enough shamless promotion.

Home of the former Vickery’s Bar and Grill Leaf has undergone an extensive three month renovation.  After a “soft opening” the weekend of the Cooper Bridge Run it has been open only for dinner ever since.  Our bartender mentioned that they “hoped to open for lunch and Sunday brunch very soon”.  But even though we did have a bit of a conversation with him the reason why it was named Leaf remained somewhat of a mystery.

The restaurant itself is cavernous. I had not been to Vickery’s but apparently this light and airy restaurant is a far cry from what it was. High ceilings, long, expansive windows, 10’+ wide door frames ornament the restaurant.  As we waited at the bar for our guests to arrive we overlooked the very popular patio area which was filled with Adirondack Chairs and tables. It really seemed like the place to be.

Dining Room At Leaf

Further sleuthing deduced that there are three principle partners in the business.  One that was primarily in charge of the remodel, one that was in charge of the front of the house/restaurant  and one that was in charge of the bar. Two of the three were on site the night we were there, quick to greet customers and say hello.

Our friends soon arrived and we were seated in the dining room. I would be stunned if this restaurant were not a “work in progress”.  Construction was not complete and the restaurant itself was “stark” – no artwork, plants, décor, just plain walls. There were high end black leather chairs and not-so-high-end tables.  Piped in music came and went.  The acoustics were just so-so, and at times it was very hard to hear one another. And Pet Peeve #9 was in play.  The table rocked the entire night. We tried to adjust the wobble stoppers but it continued to rock.  We had our own ‘Table Tsunami’ going on as the beverages shifted two and fro. Can someone please write a checklist to open the restaurant and add this to it!! But it’s on to the food, as in “food is the star”.

On a very high note for only being open barely two weeks the service was good. Our server was attentive, not intrusive and seemed to have a good understanding of the menu. We began by placing our beverage order.

When we asked, “What kind of Cabernets do you have by the glass?” they only had one, which we ordered. The Stoli Cosmo that was delivered was wrong on many levels. It was the color of dark Hawaiian Punch and it tasted like something was spoiled.  Perhaps that was the cherry in it.  Who puts a cherry in a cosmo for God’s sake? It was sent back and we stuck with good ol’ H20 for awhile. 

We ordered three appetizers to share – Fried Frickles (which were pickles, and no, we did not have an idea why they were called Frickles), Fried Calamari and a Beet Salad.  The Beet Salad was stellar.  Red and Golden Beets lightly dressed served over arugula. Even our non-beet eating friend was coerced into trying it. 

The Fried Frickles were lightly battered and fried. Served with a very light aioli, these were also a hit. The Fried Calamari was also good but it was very pale versus golden brown batter that we’re used to seeing. It was also served with aioli, which it needed as it was somewhat bland.

Fried Calamari

Fried Frickle

Beet Salad

Like clockwork, just as we were finishing our appetizers, our entrees were heading out from the kitchen. The speed of the food service continued to impress us. The homemade meatloaf was shaped like a strip steak and appeared to be pan seared. It sat atop a mound of mashed potatoes and was served with grilled asparagus.  My friend said, “This is comfort food that is comforting.”

Meatloaf

Salmon BLT

Beef Tenderloin

A grilled salmon sandwich on a light roll served with truffle oil fries also was a big win. The Beef Tenderloin although perfectly cooked seemed to be not a great cut of beef. On the up side, it was served with slices of sweet potatoes and grilled asparagus that were tasty.  And now on to what I ordered.

I seem to have a habit of always ordering the wrong thing. Although a tad full from the appetizers I ordered the Basil Leaf Capellini pasta dish that was served with Brie, basil and.  I had asked if it was served cold as I could not understand how Brie could be mixed with pasta and not come out gummy.  When in doubt… go with your gut as that’s exactly how it was served – a gummy, glutinous pasta/Brie mix. The flavor of the Brie was so strong that it overpowered the dish. I had a bite or two and then rode out the rest of the dinner by moving it around my dish. Thank goodness for Frickles.

Basil Leaf Capellini

As coffee was ordered I headed off to the restroom. The restrooms (I only observed the ladies room) have high end tile, sinks, mirrors and have a glass tile inlay similar to a very high chair rail. Instead of doors they had plastic shower rods and shower curtains pinned to them.  It was difficult to have any privacy in the bathroom. Hopefully the doors are on back order.

Clearly the restaurant is still gaining its sea legs.  With a Main on Main location and a great patio, I would suspect that they will do very well. Perhaps we’ll go back in a few months to hopefully see the transformation. 

We gave Leaf 3 out of a possible 5 plates.

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Cypress, Charleston, SC

It Was The Best Of Times It Was The Worst Of Times

I can't think of a better way to describe our experience at Cypress.

Our very good friends, Ann and Ed are in town visiting from Cape Cod, where, by the way, they are experiencing more snow this week!  With that in mind we tried to make their stay with us as memorable as possible.

In selecting a place for dinner last night we thought about ‘playing it safe and just returning to one of the restaurants we had written about and rated  a “5”.  Adventurous as we are we decided to try something new. 

Cypress is one of the three Hospitality Management Group Inc, restaurants (sister restaurants include Blossom and Magnolias) on East Bay.  Parking is easy as there is a parking lot nestled between the three locations.

Kitchen View At Cypress

The restaurant itself is very pretty.  High ceilings, an antique brick façade, colorful chairs, an open kitchen and a “wine wall” adorn the 1^st floor.  There is a second floor seating area that includes a bar, but we did not see it. Ceiling lights changed colors as we were there giving the room wonderful, warm hues.  You'll also see these hues in the food shots unfortunately.

The Best Of Times…….

Although the restaurant would become crowded after we were seated, it wasn’t crowded at all when we arrived. This lent itself to allowing our server to quickly approach our table.  We ordered a few beverages and then began to pursue the menu selections. The menu is very interesting.  There is a page that has your regular app’s, salads, entrees, etc. and a page that has “seasonal offerings” which included ‘Three for $39.00’ selections – appetizer, entrée and dessert.  We liked the variety and the selections.

I was chagrined to realize that I had forgotten my reading glasses.  This would have really slowed the ordering process… The server overheard me and mentioned that customers had often left reading glasses and so they had loaners that I could use.  I took him up on his offer and it was a big plus.

We started with the Crab Cake over Creamed Corn, a Butter Lettuce Salad and the Charcuterie (House Cured Meats Plate).  Chef Craig Deihl is one of only a couple Chefs making his own Salami and dried meats (see the video below). 

Bar none, every dish was terrific. Our friend grew up in Maryland and is a crabmeat afficianato.  She mentioned that her dish was one of the best crab cakes she’d ever tasted. The House Cured Meats were served room temperature which brought out the flavor even more.  A variety of olives also garnished the dish. This too, was very nice.  My Butter Lettuce Salad was “like budda”, but… the top core of the salad was very brown. How do you miss that? Brown-ness aside we thought we were off to a great start.

Charcuterie

Crab Cake

Butter Lettuce

It was then that we began to wait awhile for our entrées.  No big deal as the company was great.  But I did notice that other servers were much more engaging with their customers than ours.  They were making suggestions, explaining were the local products came from, etc. Our server was just robotic.  "Oh well”, I thought, our appetizers were very good, so perhaps the entrées would be too.

The Worst Of Times………

This is when the fun came to a screeching halt.  First of all, our server was nowhere to be found.  He had four tables that were sporadically sat while we were there. It was tough to get a beverage or anything else for that matter as we never saw him. If I had to pick him out of a line up this morning I couldn’t. That was very frustrating. 

Many runners brought our entrees. The plates were very warm and everything looked good.  Alas, looks aren’t everything.

I ordered the Wahoo. On a dare the server couldn’t really tell me much about it, but it was the only fish dish offered. Two building-block-like pieces of incredibly bland, pan seared fish were served over a succotash concoction that included local beans.  I don’t  think I’ve ever had a more bland dish -  bland and salty, very salty.  The server did mention that it was served topped with shrimp.  I had to search for the shrimp and when I found it it was slightly larger than a kidney bean as you'll see in the photo below.

Pan Roasted Wahoo

Giving New Meaning To The Word Shrimp

The guys ordered the filet that was topped with a house-made Boursin cheese.  It was accompanied by boring, zero flavor fingerling potatoes and asparagus. I think our friend said it best when he said, “Had I known there would be a Tsunami of cheese I would have never ordered this.”  The cheese completely overpowered the meat and the presentation was sloppy at best.

Beef Filet

 An “Oscar” version of a filet was also ordered.  It came with some asparagus and this gross, burnt version of a large potato chip which was inedible.  Each steak had a different degree of doneness although they were all ordered medium. All of the dishes were also very salty.  Our server remained MIA.

Beef Oscar

We got through dinner OK and then he did arrive to see if we wanted dessert. I suggested some decaf and then we all passed on dessert. I had ordered the Three for $39.00 special and dessert was included however.  So I asked for 4 forks so that we could all try it.

Tick tock, tick tock, time marched on. No server and no cheesecake. Finally after we were on our second cup of not-even-lukewarm coffee we asked if the cheesecake had been forgotten. He said it was on its way. We watched then as he scurried around the kitchen.  We started timing this and it was over 12 minutes before it arrived.  This was on top of the first 8 minutes or so we waited.

And THEN the cheesecake was just awful. A small 1 ½” by 2” piece of ricotta cheesecake was served on a plate with three strawberries.  It tasted like packing peanuts.  But the absolutely horrid thing about the dish was it was topped with what appeared to be candied orange rind.  We think that the pastry chef might have mistakenly used salt instead of sugar in making it.  It literally made us all gag.

Goat's Milk Ricotta Cheesecake

The waiter continued with his lack of interest attitude with us even when he knew something was wrong.  Since most of us had been in the restaurant industry we started talking more about our experience that evening.

It started out great then crashed and burned. It was expensive and the waiter had an entitlement attitude (he has worked there for 5 years). Two thoughts came to mind, first the meaning of  “tips", which stands for To Insure Proper Service. We didn’t get any so his tip was a straight 15%.

Second, “Love what you do and you’ll never work a day in your life.” His time here is painfully over extended.  We put Cypress on the “don’t bother going" list.

We gave Cypress 3 out of a possible 5 plates.

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Anson, Charleston, SC

Awesome On Anson...

It might sound corny, but “Awesome on Anson” is the only way that I can describe this restaurant. 

Many people have told me that this was a great place to eat, but I have to admit I was more than surprised at how good it was. Tucked away just shy of the Historical Market district Anson is one of Charleston’s true hidden gems.

Bar At Anson

We landed there without reservations on a rainy night and were quickly seated. The restaurant is casually elegant, welcoming and has a menu with a variety of both low country favorites and traditional fare.  Our server was outstanding throughout our dining experience and quickly attended to our every need. A native Charlestonian she was very knowledgeable about the menu and the items that we asked about.  She immediately brought us hot, sliced bread with soft, whipped butter. I was to find out that my husband’s pet peeve is cold, hard butter served with fresh, warm bread.  After all these years… who knew? Both were excellent.

I did ask her, “Before we fall in love with an item on the menu, are there any specials?”  She did mention one, but it didn’t interest us. We then ordered our first course.

The Crispy Risotto Cake with Serrano ham, a few grilled shrimp and a delicate cream sauce was something that I had never seen before, yet alone thought of cooking.  We were to find that the Chef is not only talented, but very creative.

Crispy Risotto Cake

The Crispy Risotto Cake had a tasty crisp shell but was light and airy inside, something that you wouldn’t expect for a risotto, yet alone a fried one… to die for.

My salad – The Fried Oysters & Bibb Lettuce was tossed with a subtle dressing and the oysters were lightly battered and served piping hot. This alone could have been dinner.

Fried Oyster & Bibb Lettuce Salad

 As we ordered our dinner I decided for something on the lighter side.  When I ordered the Pan Steamed Mussels our server said, “I think we’re out of them, but I’ll check.”  Back to the menu I went. Upon her return we found out that they did in fact have them that night. Yeah!

My husband then ordered the Braised Beef Short Ribs, something that he’d decided upon after briefly scanning the menu.  “We’re out of those tonight,” our server lamented.   She mentioned that “because of Lent we sell out of those quickly on Thursday and Friday nights.”  This made me smile.  As a kid, “Lent” to me was filled with Friday fish fry’s, tuna, salmon and whatever fish dish my mom could create for what seemed to be an unending period of time. Maybe this season was treated differently in the south???

So after feeling like we were in a Seinfeld episode we asked her if there was anything else that they didn’t have so we had a fighting chance to order dinner.  She said that everything else was available.

Pan Steamed Mussels

After a wait that seemed a tad lengthy, but in every way worth it, our entrees were delivered.  I did land on the Pan Steamed Mussels that were served with crisp French fries.  The mussels were tossed in a light broth of garlic, jalapenos, white wine and parsley.  The French fries that accompanied them were crisp, hot and well seasoned.  Although actually somewhat full from our appetizers it was a type of meal that you couldn’t stop eating.

The Double Cut Fried Pork Chop was all that and a bag of chips!  It was nicely breaded and had a great flavor, but the stars of the plate were without question, the side dishes.

Fried Pork hop Double Cut, Mac & Cheese, Collards

There are many restaurants that are leaping on the Mac ‘n Cheese train. Flavors are added, toppings too. But to me, Mac ‘n Cheese takes me back to when my mom made it years ago.  She was a tiny Polish woman who kept things simple and added four basic ingredients – shredded cheddar cheese, milk, butter and elbow macaroni.  When I’m sick this is the dish that I ask for.  It’s sheer comfort food at its best and “smoked gouda”, “lobster” and/or bacon is not needed.  The Mac ‘n Cheese served here mirrors my mom’s and could be the best I’ve tasted since she made it so many years ago.

Not to be out done, Mac ‘n Cheese’s companion was Collard Greens, but not just any collard greens. These had a nice bit of spice to them (red pepper flakes we were told) and were incredibly flavorful.  I found myself trying to distract my husband so that I could steal some from him.

As I wrote this I tried to think what restaurant in Charleston we liked more.  It’s right up there to us as one of the best of the best. I actually had to use my Roget’s Thesaurus to find enough adjectives to describe our visit.  In looking up the word “perfect”, I saw many suggestions, but “flawless” fit the bill perfectly.

We gave Anson 5 out of a possible 5 plates!

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