Note: This review applies to McCrady’s RESTAURANT, not
McCrady’s TAVERN.
My spouse and I visited McCrady’s 18-seat tasting only
restaurant for dinner on a Saturday night in mid-November 2016. McCrady’s is
open for dinner only, with one seating on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays at
6:00 pm, and a second seating on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:45 pm. The
restaurant charges $125 per person for the multi-course tasting format, plus
tax and gratuity. You can reserve a seat one month in advance using the online Tock
ticketing system, which treats the meal like a concert, sporting event, or
theatre show, whereby you pay for your reservation at the time of booking. You
can “sell” or transfer your reservation to another guest if you must cancel,
but otherwise, the payment is non-refundable. Walk-in guests are not accepted.
Regarding beverages, you can order a la carte once you arrive at the
restaurant, or you can pre-order/pre-pay for the wine pairing (an additional
$85). If you choose the non-alcoholic pairing (an additional $50), you must order/pay
48 hours in advance. The restaurant charges a $50 corkage fee if you bring your
own wine. The restaurant has no dress code, although most diners treat it as a
special occasion meal and dress accordingly. With 48-hour notice, the chefs can
accommodate guests with allergies, and they can tailor the menu for vegetarians
(but not vegans). Children are welcome, although there is no special children’s
menu.
Note that McCrady’s is NOT the same restaurant as
nearby McCrady’s Tavern, although they share the same owners. The Neighborhood
Dining Group (NDG) owns Charleston restaurants McCrady’s, McCrady’s Tavern,
Husk, and Minero (where we dined in November 2016). The group also operates
another location of Husk in Nashville (where we dined in July 2014), another
location of Minero in Atlanta, and Chicago’s Steak and Seafood in Roswell
Georgia. Sean Brock is the chef/partner of all the NDG restaurants; he trained
at Johnson & Wales, and worked at the Peninsula Grill, the Jefferson Hotel
(in Richmond Virginia), and The Hermitage (in Nashville Tennessee) before he
landed back in Charleston. Brock’s accolades include finalist for the James
Beard “Rising Star Chef” in 2008 and 2009, James Beard “Best Chef Southeast” in
2010, finalist for the James Beard “Outstanding Chef” award in 2013, 2014, and
2015, “GQ” magazine’s “12 Most Outstanding Restaurants of the Year” in 2014,
and “Esquire” magazine’s “Best New Restaurants in America” in 2014. He appeared
on “Iron Chef America” in 2010 battling Michael Symon. In 2011, “Bon Appétit”
magazine named Husk “Best New Restaurant in America”.
McCrady’s Restaurant opened in
late September 2016 in the space previously occupied by Minero. (Minero moved
two doors down and one floor above). The McCrady’s space is long, narrow, and
spacious. Three small tables for two guests (which staff could
potentially join to form one large table for six patrons) occupy the front of
the space, but the showplace is the back room that contains a huge custom-made U-shaped wood counter that overlooks
the open kitchen. The maître d, servers, and chefs deliver your food from
the center of the U. The cool-looking counter features a wavy metal stripe
throughout that “pools” on the floor at the two ends. The bar chairs are
comfortable and well-spaced. (Previous tasting-counter restaurants have squashed
us against other diners, so we luxuriated in the commodius expanse allotted to
us at McCrady’s!) The owner has planned every detail of your experience
carefully, including the room design, food and ingredients, plating and
presentation, music, and the nattily dressed staff (which was all men on the
evening that we dined). Unlike other restaurants that fold your napkin if you
get up from your seat, McCrady’s replaces it completely (which means if you
have a small bladder, you could go through quite a few napkins during your
hours-long meal). Note that the restaurant does not waste space on a bar/lounge
area, which means that you should not arrive too early, because you will have
no place to wait. The Tock confirmation says that
doors open 10 minutes prior to your dining time, but if you are early, you can
enjoy a pre-dinner cocktail at any nearby bar (Minero and Pearlz Oyster Bar are
closest).
Service is terrific, and the food is excellent and uses
interesting and unique ingredients combined in creative ways and cleverly
plated. We will not go into detail about the food, not only because yours may
differ, but also because the element of surprise is desirable. However, we ate
the following courses:
1.
Eggplant jerky
2.
Pine needle aperitif
3.
Beet leather (beet, cocoa, lime), quail egg tart
4.
Ossabaw pork, wild red bay, sorghum
5.
Caviar, sunflower, brown butter, apple
6.
Virginia oyster topped with garden herbs/flowers
7.
Cobia three ways (broiled, roasted, poached) with
matsutake, green peanut, and sauce
8.
Charleston “ice cream” (rice) and shrimp
9.
Duck with watermelon and onion
10.
Beef with sweet potato atop black truffle and
sauced, served with bread and tartare wrapped with shiso leaf served on a burnt
charcoal log
11.
Uni and paw-paw frozen bite served atop crushed ice
and loosely wrapped in gold paper
12.
Chocolate, rooibos, huckleberry, melted chocolate
from test tub sets up within tuille crust
13.
Sea island milk, satsumas, woodruff
14.
Foie gras, strawberry, almond mini-lollipop/popsicle
15.
Breath freshener
Staff presents you with a menu
at the end of the meal in a take-home bag; our bag also included two mini-bottles of
McCrady’s-branded water, a delicious seed crust/rub (that we have since used on
chicken and pork), Sea Island red pea seeds from the chef’s private collection,
and a signed thank-you note from the chefs.
Our
only minor criticism is that we found the fruit (perhaps pomegranates?) that
was hanging to dry on the range hood visually unappetizing and confusing. If
the staff had used previously dried fruit as part of the meal, it might have
made some sense, but as it was, it merely presented an oddly unappealing
decorative touch.
Other than that one criticism, we thoroughly enjoyed our tasting dinner at McCrady’s!
It is not an inexpensive meal, but it is worth the memories.
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