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Craftsmen Kitchen & Tap House – CLOSED

June 28, 2013

Last Wednesday, after a hilarious night of improv at Theater 99, we were struck by hunger pangs and looking for somewhere to eat. I consulted my handy dandy Yelp app to find a restaurant in Charleston that was still serving food at 10:30, and we were lucky enough to stumble upon Craftsmen Kitchen & Tap House. Located on Cumberland Street in the old Johnson’s Bar spot, Craftsmen is a cool space featuring 2 bars and an outdoor beer garden area.

No, not that kind of beer garden. [Photo: Tilly’s Nest]

I started off with a beer from Frothy Beard, one of Charleston’s newest breweries. The Photuris Pale Ale (apparently a photuris is a lightning bug. Who knew?) was good, but I think they still have some work to go on getting their technique right. Or maybe I just don’t like pale ales. I would like to try their Peppermint Porter (which hopefully I will be able to do this weekend at the brewery!) But, I digress. The beer menu is pretty cool, featuring 48 drafts on tap, which they rotate out regularly. I’d like to stop by during the day to take advantage of the outdoor space. The interior bars are also really well designed and have a very comfortable feel to them. Here are a couple of pictures of the two bar areas:

2 Bars, One cup [Photo: Eater]

The menu is divided into 2 parts. One one side, you have their “Bar Classics” which are available daily. On the other side, you have their “Daily Features,” which change out daily depending what they have in the kitchen. Laura and I both ordered the BBQ Pork sandwich (pulled pork, cole slaw, fried pickles on a sesame seed bun) from their daily features menu. It was delish. The bun was toasted ever so slightly and the fried pickles had just the lightest coating of batter and were delicious with the coleslaw. The sandwich was served with their “fries” which were more like fat potato chips.

I’m so glad I live in the south so I have access to good BBQ.

John ordered the Delta Catfish and Chips with Comeback sauce ($10) from the Bar Classics menu. He said it was delicious with a “good fry on it, nice sized chunk of fish, and good catfishy flavor.” I love catfish, and just looking at it from across the table, I could tell it was delicious.

It kind of still looks like a fish. Like it’s swimming across John’s plate.

Ben ordered the Farmhouse Burger (beef, pork, idazabal, beer pickles, and bibb lettuce) from the Bar Classics menu. I took a bite of it, and let me tell you, it was outstanding. Not as good as a Husk burger, but still pretty darn good. The combination of beef and pork was very interesting and gave it an extra layer of depth. The idazabal cheese was good too, and added an almost smokey flavor to it. Really, really good.

You can’t really see the meat because of the lettuce, but trust me, it’s there (and it’s delicious).

I’ve had like 4 people tell me that I should get the Crunchy Dame (BBQ Pork belly, butterkase, cherry jam, sunny egg, $9) from the Bar Classics menu. Apparently it’s “unreal” and it “may have brought tears to my eyes,” so when I go back I’ll have to give that a try. All in all, I was very impressed and definitely recommend you try this place out.

I mean, the space is so freaking cool.

Craftsmen Kitchen & Tap House
12 Cumberland St
Charleston, SC 29401
(843) 577-9699

2 Comments

Charleston, SC Restaurant Reviews

La Norteña

May 3, 2013

I have a new favorite mexican restaurant in Charleston. Technically, it’s in North Charleston, but it is 1000% worth the drive out to Rivers Avenue. Other than Real Mexico in Columbia, I think this is the freshest, most authentic tasting Mexican restaurant I’ve been to in a really long time… and I eat a lot of Mexican food.

Yeah, that’s pretty accurate.

I’ve been a bunch of times, so I have a lot of pictures to share. When you first get there, they bring you chips, salsa, and a plate with 4 different kinds of sauces. Many of them are spicy, so I’d recommend waiting until you have a drink in front of you before you try any of them. I really like the thicker red one, which has a nice smoky taste to it and the green goopy one because it isn’t spicy at all and is really refreshing and helps to put out the fire that the other start in your mouth.

The “goopy one” is the one at the very top, by the way.

When I went there last week with my dad, he wanted to try the shrimp cocktail, which came out more like a shrimp soup. It was served cold in a tomato sauce with pico de gallo, which kind of threw me off at first. I couldn’t really get over the cold tomato soup part, but the shrimp were cooked to perfection and tasted yummy. My dad said it was “very refreshing,” and ate the entire thing.

If the words “Cold Shrimp Soup” throw you off, you might not enjoy this.

We also tried the guacamole which came with 3 chicken taquitos, which was kind of cool. I liked the taquitos and ate pretty much all of them immediately. The guacamole was good, but not the best guacamole I’ve ever had. Definitely better than most mexican restaurants, though. You could tell it was pretty fresh.

Sorry for the poor quality. I was in a hurry to get to eatin’

We also tried some of the tacos, which ranged from your normal chicken, ground beef, and pork, to more unusual options, such as beef tongue (lengua), beef cheek (cabeza), and beef intestines (tripa). We ordered three- al pastor, cabeza, and lengua. I loved the al pastor, which ended up being my dad’s least favorite. We both really liked the beef tongue (lengua) tacos, which had the taste and consistency of pulled pork. My least favorite was the beef cheek, as it was just a little too dry for me.

I have to say, eating tongue was not as gross as I expected.

The first time we went, my mom ordered the barbacoa platter (marinated, shredded beef served with Mexican rice, refried beans, and a small salad), which I really liked, and I don’t usually like beef.

Also, they have amazing refried beans

Ben always gets the enchiladas verdes with chicken because those are his favorite, and I love to steal bites from his plate because they’re so yummy. They’re listed on the menu as “your choice of four enchiladas topped with green sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, and queso fresco. Served with choice of salad on top or Mexican rice.” I don’t know what the green sauce is, but it’s delicious. Ben always gets the rice, which is really yummy. Lots of times Mexican rice can be really dry, but the rice at La Norteña is never dry and always very flavorful.

I promise there are enchiladas under all that sauce.

When Ben was visiting with his friends from Auburn, we took them to La Norteña and they each got burritos. The burritos there are huge and they have seemingly endless options on what to put in them. Everything from cheesesteak, to fajita meat, veggies, beans… you can even get a seafood one stuffed with octopus, shrimp, and scallops. They opted for the basic Burrito La Norteña (Made with refried beans, Mexican rice, lettuce, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, and choice of meat filling) and raved about how delicious it was. Forgot to take a picture, so enjoy just screenshot from their menu.

Pixellated burrito!

I usually get the order al pastor (marinated, sliced pork and steak layered and slow-cooked on a rotisserie served with charro beans, sweet onions, cilantro, and soft tortillas). It’s my favorite thing and unlike anything I’ve eaten at other mexican restaurants. The charro beans (Delicious combination of bacon, chipotle sauce, beef franks, Mexican sausage, and onions) are like a Mexican version of beanie weenies, and are surprisingly good.

I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve ordered this.

On my most recent visit, I decided to be more adventurous and get something other than al pastor, so I decided to try enchiladas poblanas (four enchiladas with choice of grilled chicken or steak, topped with poblano sauce and cheese. Served with choice of salad on top or Mexican rice), with chicken. The poblano sauce turned out to be a mole-like sauce (savory chocolate sauce) which was pretty good. My only issue with molé sauce is that I really want to like it, but in reality I usually don’t. This one was good, but I don’t think I’d ever order it again. If you like mole sauce, then I definitely recommend you order this.

I love chocolate, so I don’t understand why I don’t love mole sauce.

We also tried the Sopes once (specially made thick tortillas with your choice of meat with refried beans, tomato, lettuce, sour cream, and fresco cheese) with chicken, and it was good, but kind of strange. It was almost like eating a savory funnel cake.

Obviously I didn’t take this picture.

They also make pretty delicious margaritas. I tried a “Texana margarita” which is made with tequila and grand marnier, so it’s sweeter than your typical margarita. It was really good and they definitely give you your money’s worth of liquor.

It’ll get you drunk!

Basically La Norteña is fast becoming one of my favorite restaurants in Charleston. Even if I do have to drive all the way out to North Charleston to get there. Plus they have really awesome live music on Friday nights, and they have a special loyalty card where you buy 6 meals and your 7th one is free. How can you beat that?

Thank you Google Maps for being so creepy.

La Norteña
6275 Rivers Ave
North Charleston, SC 29406
(843) 225-7055

Restaurant Reviews

Pomegranate On Main

June 14, 2012

Our visit to Pomegranate didn’t get off to a great start. When my mom called early that day to increase our reservation from 6 to 7, the hostess got all flustered, like we’d asked her something totally insane, like “Hi, I’m going to need for you to find me a chair made out of pure gold, because my badonkadonk is too high class to be sitting on anything less.” She chastised us over the phone “Ok… uhmmm….. let me see what I can do… I just…. this is really…. uh. It might be a bit of a problem. But. uhhh…… hold on [1 minute of silence] Ok. You have to call us if anything changes, because we were only planning for six of you. So let us know if you get any more or any less, because we might have to switch tables, which can be a problem… so…. just make sure you call us.” I’ve changed the number of people on a reservation a hundred times. I know for a fact that’s something restaurants deal with on a daily basis, so spare me the lecture and just add an extra chair to our table. It’s really not that big of a deal. Especially since the restaurant was half empty the entire time we were there. It’s not like people were fighting over seats. But, I digress.

God, I HATE IT when people actually make me do my job!

Everything was fine when we got there, no issues over seating or numbers, which was good. Tina and I ordered their signature pomegranate martini, which is very, very strong, and very, very sweet. It was good, but it took me the entire meal to finish. We started out with an appetizer trio sampler, because we’re indecisive and hungry so we couldn’t pick just one thing. You can customize your trio based on what appeals to you, so I picked the Mast Khiyar (mixture of freshly diced cucumbers, yogurt, raisins, walnuts and fresh herbs), Borani Spinach (blend of sauteed spinach, onion, yogurt and garlic), and Hummus. Tina was apprehensive about the cucumber thing because it had raisins in it, but it ended up being her favorite of the three. It was almost like tzatziki, and you really couldn’t even tell that there were raisins in it. I think we made good choices (especially since the other options were all eggplant based, and I don’t really do eggplant). The hummus was good, although it didn’t compare to the hummus we had at the Moroccan restaurant in Duluth, which is the best hummus I’ve ever had. The spinach thing tasted a lot like the Palak dishes you find at indian restaurants. The appetizers were served with fresh, hot pita bread, which was delicious, and a tray of mint leaves and fresh feta cheese. All the mint ended up going in our water, because we’re school children who can’t behave ourselves in public.

Ben got all excited to arrange his plate all artistically so I could take a picture of it. It really doesn’t take a lot with him.

For my entree, I ordered a Chinjeh Soltani, which was a combination plate consisting of one Koobideh kabob (blend of ground tenderloin and ground chuck, seasoned and charboiled) and one Chinjeh kabob (cuts of tenderloin, marinated in a saffron yogurt combination, charbroiled). The dishes were all served with a grilled tomato and complementing rice dish. Even though mine was just basic basmati rice, it’s probably the most flavorful rice I’ve ever eaten. You’re supposed to squish up the tomato and mix it in with the rice and then squeeze the lime all over it. So I did that. It was so good. Everything was delicious. The piece of meat that’s cut up in the picture is the Chinjeh, and the long stick is the koobideh. I can’t really say which one I liked better. They were both so, so good.

I mean, who doesn’t love a good stick o’ meat?

Sean and Ben both got the same thing, the Torsh Soltani, which was one Koobideh kabob (blend of ground tenderloin and ground chuck, seasoned and charboiled) and one Torsh kabob (cuts of tenderloin, marinated in a zesty sweet and sour Pomegranate sauce mixed with walnuts, charbroiled). Sean ordered special rice with lentils and golden raisins, which was also really freaking delicious. Ben got the same rice as me, so I’m only going to show a picture of Sean’s, because even though they ordered the same thing, I thought Sean’s meat tasted better (that’s what she said?). Christine decided to be different and order a chicken kabob. It wasn’t that interesting, and neither is she (jk jk! I love you Christinalena!). You can see it in the background of Sean’s picture.

“Special” rice for a “special” little man.

Tina and Jenn got a chicken soltani, which was one chicken kabob (marinated in a lemon saffron sauce, charbroiled) and one barg kabob (tenderloin, marinated in a traditional Persian marinade of onion and saffron, charbroiled). I liked the barg, but I still think the torsh was my favorite. Tina’s came with basmati cranberry rice which was probably my favorite of all the rices I tried. It had that great balance of savory and sweet and tart. It was awesome. The chicken was good, but I don’t think it could even hold a candle to the beef. All of the beef dishes were absolutely outstanding, but the chicken was just kind of…. chicken. I mean, it was good, it just didn’t blow me away like the beef dishes did.

Now I’m getting hungry and can’t think of anything funny to say. Boo.

Dad decided to be unique and get something completely different from everyone else. He opted for the rack of lamb (marinated in a rosemary sauce, charbroiled), and lorded over it like a troll guarding a bridge. He reluctantly shared with us after we berated him enough, and I have to say that the lamb was pretty fantastic. I’m picky when it comes to lamb, because a lot of times lamb can be fatty and tough, but this was tender and lean, and the flavor was really outstanding. His came with the same rice as Sean’s (basmati rice with lentils and golden raisins).

Pictured: Why you shouldn’t get gremlins wet.

We opted out of dessert, mostly because we were all stuffed, but also because they didn’t really sound that great. Even though it’s not the best middle eastern food I’ve ever had, it’s definitely the best middle eastern food in Greenville, so if you’re not afraid of GIANT STICKS OF MEAT, then I highly recommend you check it out.

Order the beef or the lamb with cranberry basmati rice. Also, be damn sure how many people are coming with you before you make a reservation, lest you give the hostess a brain aneurysm.

Pomegranate On Main
618 S.Main St
Greenville, SC 29201
(864) 241-3012

2 Comments

Restaurant Reviews

Heroes Sports Bar and Grill

April 6, 2012

This past week I had the pleasure of spending a few days on Dauphin Island, Alabama with Lauren. We basically ate nothing, drank beer, and lounged in the sunlight for three glorious days. Toward the end of our trip, when we were hungry, hungover, and sunburnt, we started hallucinating visions of cheeseburgers, and attempted to figure out how to use a grill in order to cook for ourselves. Unfortunately, neither of us have any knowledge of how to use a gas grill, and somehow managed to spray propane on the porch, which I’m pretty sure is a fire hazard.

Appendix A: What I was convinced was going to happen if I continued my attempt to turn on the grill.

Knowing we would be driving home the following day, we decided we would stop in Mobile to have the burger we’d been craving for a week. Our final night at the beach was spent thinking we were going to die from what I was convinced was a hurricane (but what turned out to be only a thunderstorm), and fighting to find enough cell phone reception to research what restaurants in Mobile (if any) had good cheeseburgers. I was able to stumble onto a blog entry highlighting the 19 Burgers To Eat Before You Die centered around Southern Alabama. Although I appreciate the variety of choices in the blog, I wish he would have just named his favorite and saved me a bunch of work. Since I’m lazy and got frustrated trying to contort my body in ways that would allow me to get cell phone service, I just decided to go with the first burger joint on the list, Heroes Sports Bar & Grill.

I STILL ONLY HAVE ONE BAR. DAMN YOU, VERIZON!

Now I don’t know if it’s because it was overcast, so no one was really walking around downtown, but Mobile seemed kind of creepy when we were driving around. On the walk to the restaurant Lauren and I were picking out what items we could use as weapons, just in case we had unwittingly stumbled into the zombie apocalypse. When we entered Heroes, we were a little unnerved by the fact that it was packed with people. And by “people,” I mean “men…” nary a lady in sight (other than our waitress, that is).

Apparently they’d already eaten all the womenfolk.

After we sat down and perused the menu, Lauren got really excited by the fact that they had fried pickles on the menu. They also had a lot of really good looking appetizers, like spinach and crawfish dip, mexican egg rolls, and waffle cut sweet potato fries. If I’d been with more people, I would have ordered another appetizer to try it, but I know Lauren would never eat any of the appetizers I wanted. We were a little disappointed when the fried pickles turned out to be fried pickle spears instead of pickle chips. They’re just so much harder to eat that way. They stay molten lava hot for about 45 minutes, and the breading falls off when you try to eat it, so you just end up getting third degree burns on your tongue from a pickle.

Try explaining that injury to your mother.

For my meal, I got the Hero Burger with American cheese and bacon. The burgers are served with 2 sides, so I got French Fries (don’t tell Jesus!) and baked beans. The burger was really great. It was thick, and tasted like it just came off of a grill. The only thing I had a problem with was that there was just way too much bread, which kind of took away from the flavor of the beef and overpowered the burger as a whole. But I did like that they supplied a generous helping of toppings (two slices of tomato, onions, lettuce, etc). The bacon was the perfect level of crunchiness. It was a really good burger, but by no means the best I’ve ever had. The fries were crinkle cut (my favorite) and delicious. The beans tasted homemade and were a perfect complement to the burger. Basically, I overindulged and enjoyed every minute of it.

“X” marks the spot where I’m going to start shoveling food into my face.

Lauren got basically the same thing as me, only she (of course) got a salad as her side instead of anything fun or flavorful. The salad looked basically like one of those ready-pack salad mixes with iceberg lettuce and shredded cabbage. They threw on a couple of pieces of vegetables and some croutons to make it seem like something other than rabbit food, but there was really no disguising it (props for trying, though). But, that’s what you get for ordering a salad from a sports bar.

Honestly, I don’t even know why I bother.

Bottom line: Get a burger. Add bacon. Skip the salad and the pickles.

Apparently Mobile is creepily deserted no matter what the weather is like outside.

Heroes Sports Bar and Grill
273 Dauphin Street
Mobile, AL 36602
(251) 433-4376

1 Comments

Charleston, SC Restaurant Reviews

Slightly North of Broad

October 1, 2011

I dragged Becca with me to SNOB this past week to use a gift card someone had given my mom before it expired. I’d heard really good things about SNOB and I’ve always wanted to try it, so I was super pumped to have someone to go with. It was starting to look like I was going to have to go by myself, and then I would have ended up on that “People Eating Alone” tumblr, and I’m not quite at that stage of hermitude yet (I think I might copyright “hermitude” so that you have to pay me money every time you use it. I always make up the best words).

No cats allowed? In that case, Sydney. Party of one.

We started with the Curry Butternut Squash Soup, the Prince Edward Island Mussels, and the Tuna Crudo. The soup was amazing, and huge. We were sharing it and still didn’t manage to finish it all (although not for lack of trying). I didn’t care for the mussels. They were really chewy and didn’t really have any flavor. It’s hard to beat my dad’s mussels though, so they had really tough competition to start off with. The Tuna Crudo was really good, too. Simple yet delicious. It was basically a salad with tuna and arugula, avocado, radish, and this really delicious citrus vinaigrette. Superb. The waitress didn’t even judge us for ordering three appetizers like the guy at Poogan’s Porch (I’ll never go back there again. That guy was such a pretentious jerk). Our waitress at SNOB was not pretentious at all, which was unexpected considering the name of the restaurant (buh dum PSHHH).

“Just bring me one of everything, and no one gets hurt.”

For dinner I got the sautéed duck breast (medium well), with a confit duck, goat cheese & green pea risotto, carrots, turnips, topped with a honey thyme reduction. It was, without a doubt, the best duck I’ve ever eaten (don’t tell my Dad). The risotto I could eat for days and days. It was so good. I’m not sure my vocabulary is evolved enough to be able to describe how good it was. Becca got the grilled beef tenderloin, jumbo lump crab cake, béarnaise, green peppercorn sauce. I think it may have come with some potatoes of some sort, but I was too busy obsessing over how good my duck was to notice her food.

LOOK AT THAT DUCK. Sheer perfection.

Being the fatties that we are, we of course ordered dessert (and the waitress didn’t even judge us for it, which was nice). I got the apple crisp and Becca got the banana cream pie, which was actually pretty delicious considering the fact that I don’t usually like anything banana flavored or with bananas in it. It was pretty scrum-didli-umptious. All in all it was a pretty freaking delicious dinner.