My spouse and I enjoyed drinks and dessert at the Peninsula
Grill on a Friday afternoon in mid-November 2016. We stayed nearby at the
DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and Guest Suites Charleston – Historic District,
which shares the same block bordered by Meeting, Market, Church, and Hayne
Streets. The Peninsula Grill accepts reservations online using the Open Table
reservation system, but you do not need a reservation to dine at the Champagne
Bar in the lounge area. The Peninsula Grill is open daily for dinner only. The
restaurant requests (although does not require) that men wear jackets. The
Peninsula Grill and the Planters Inn are members of the prestigious Relais and
Chateaux group; in addition, Esquire
magazine has called the grill one of America’s Best New Restaurants, and the
restaurant has received the AAA Four Diamond award.
The Peninsula Grill is located in a restored circa-1844
building. Enter from Market Street, and follow the winding brick pathway
through a wrought-iron gate, past palmetto fronds, boxwoods, fruit trees, a
fountain, and a garden courtyard to a green door adorned with a gold
fleur-de-lis and flanked by gas-lit copper carriage lanterns. Inside, the
Champagne Bar offers several bubblies by the glass, in addition to wine, beer,
and cocktails. The bar seats about eight patrons, or guests can dine at three
booths in front of the hand-painted mural of a Lowcountry rice harvest
(however, you may need a reservation to dine at one of the booths in the bar).
The formal dining room features cream-colored velvet walls, woven seagrass
accents, cypress molding, and custom-made chandeliers. You can also dine al
fresco on the patio in the courtyard.
The Peninsula Grill serves sophisticated Southern cuisine.
The executive chef has worked in
New York City, including for Anthony Bourdain. He attended Le Cordon Bleu in
Paris, and became the first American to apprentice at the Michelin star-rated
Hotel Lutetia in France. He has worked at the Peninsula Grill since it opened
in 1997.
We did not sample the reportedly delicious cuisine except
for a slice of their famous coconut cake. The trademarked “Ultimate Coconut
Cake” towers at five inches high and requires intricate preparation. After the
pastry chef removes the cake layers from the oven to cool, she trims the brown
tops (called “offshoots”) so that diners see only snowy white layers without
any brown crumbs. She then toasts and crumbles the offshoots to use as the base
for piecrusts. The chef cuts two round cakes into three layers each, which are
eventually stacked atop each other. Fluffy vanilla filling divides each of the
six layers, creating an additional six layers for a total of twelve. Cream
cheese icing covers the entire cake, and toasted coconut coats its sides to add
a slight crunch. Bon Appétit, Saveur, Martha Stewart Living,
The New York Times, TODAY Show, and Vogue have praised the cake. Demand
for whole cakes created a mail-order business. The restaurant ships cakes overnight;
each weighs approximately 12 pounds. Beginning at 6:00 am each day, the pastry
chef and her assistants make at least a dozen cakes a day, 52 weeks of the
year, with even more requests at the holidays.
The coconut cake
at the Peninsula Grill lived up to its hype! Next time, we will also try the
coconut cake martini, and we’ll be sure to stay for dinner!
