RILEY JADE PATTERSON is here! Congrats Jennifer and Alex!

Old Village Post House-Restaurant Review

Oh how I love the Old Village Post House in Mt. Pleasant, SC. It’s located in the Old Village in the corner of Pitt and Venning. It’s a quaint little place on a strip with some other quaint little places. OVPH is not only a restaurant, but is also an Inn that has six rooms. Dinner is served every evening and brunch is served on Sundays from 10:30-2:00. Private rooms for parties are also available. May I recommend a reservation, as they do have certain times for seating.

 

Let’s proceed…

 

May 1 was my first encounter with the Old Village Post House. It was my birthday and a good friend recommended it to me. I’m so, so glad I listened to her! Let’s re-visit that night. My brother, sister and six of my girlfriends joined me there for a lovely dinner to celebrate my birthday! (I’m just going to be brief and right to the point here.) We sat upstairs (yes, two floors) at a beautifully set table with all the different appropriate silverware, wine glasses, water glass, plates, candles, high back chairs, cloth napkins etc. making the ambience very nice. If I’m remembering correctly, they had plantation shutters. This is probably not important to most of you, but I really like them and added a nice touch for me. The difference between ordinary and extraordinary is in the details. So there you have it.

 

For an appetizer I ordered the Cream of Crab Soup. This is not the same as She Crab. This soup was more of a stock base and not cream and it had no sherry in it. I love She Crab soup, but this was a nice change. It was light without all the cream, which was nice, and had such a wonderful butter flavor and large chunks of crab.

 

For my entrée I ordered the cornmeal crusted fried flounder with stone ground grits, steamed okra and field peas.  I, now, much prefer this type of fried flounder over the heavily battered fried flounder. It wasn’t heavy and it didn’t taste of oil that it was fried in. I tasted flounder and with the fiery red sauce that topped it, it was tender and flavorful. Stone-ground grits-I won’t say anything other than the chefs grind the grits themselves. That’s right-made in house and wow! Field were great and the steamed okra (I’ve never had it cooked that way) was crisp and not slimy (which is often the case with okra due to any moisture) and very delicious!

 

Dessert-do you think I’m about to leave a restaurant like this on my birthday without dessert? Um…no. Especially since dessert is on the house if it’s your birthday. I ordered the mixed berry cobbler topped with vanilla ice cream and a bourbon caramel sauce. The part of this dessert that branded my mind was the crust on top of this cobbler. Heaven in my mouth I tell ya. As I’m sitting here thinking about that dessert I’m thinking that next time I make a cobbler I’m going to make it with less fruit and more crust. I think other people would like that. I know I would! I mean, people usually want more crust, don’t they? Definitely the best part!

 

Different date:

This past Sunday my aunt and I took my Pop-Pop to the Old Village Post House to celebrate his 83^rd birthday. Again, let me say that brunch is only served on Sundays. Aunt Teresa and I both ordered a White Sangria and ordered Pop-Pop some coffee. We all shared the fruit platter that was drizzled in ginger simple syrup and the cornbread that is given upon arrival.

 

Pop-Pop ordered the French Toast which I think is worth mentioning here. The restaurant first makes a homemade brioche. I watched Julia Child make this the other day and until then had no idea what made it different from other breads. It’s butter. That’s the difference. Brioche is made with A LOT of butter, which is what makes it so light and soft and buttery. I feel as though it’s similar to challah bread in this respect. The brioche is cut into two 1-inch slices and cooked up into French toast. It’s served with a side of fresh strawberries and a warm maple syrup.

 

This being the second time I came to the OVPH for brunch I ordered what I love-Crab Cakes Benedict. And if you can just imagine two crab cakes (with no fillers) topped with two perfectly poached eggs, hollandaise sauce (one of the world’s best sauces) and fresh chopped chives. The crab cakes benedict is served with a side of stone-ground grits and fresh strawberries. I ate the whole thing. I couldn’t help myself! And you won’t be able to either.

 

Go here. I have three times in the past three pasts (which is a big deal for me) and I will be returning. The food is great, the service is great and the atmosphere is great. You can’t go wrong here! Try it out for yourself and just try to prove me wrong!

Buccaneer-Restaurant Review

Last Thursday was a night out on the town so to speak. Beau and I went out to Buccaneer on Faber St. in Charleston, SC. We had high hopes for the place based on the menu and the fact that Beau had heard great things from the radio. But well…hopes aren’t necessarily always reality are they?

 

We parked the car, feeling confident that we were in the general vicinity of the restaurant. I don’t know about Beau, but I definitely felt like a tourist walking along East Bay St. searching for Faber St. I’m pretty sure we looked at the map on his phone more than twice. So tucked back behind some other restaurants and in front of a parking garage we found Buccaneer. We entered…

 

My initial thoughts were good. I really liked the brick walls with high ceilings, dark wooden beams in the ceiling and the dim lighting. The walls were decorated with all sorts of swords and rifles and what not. Interesting to look at while you’re waiting for a table.

 

The hostess took a bit of a long time to figure out what table we were to be seated in, especially since we were the only ones waiting. I wonder what she was doing really. Regardless, we were taken to the table closest to the kitchen. And oddly enough there were only two chairs at a four-top table and those chairs were facing the kitchen. Beau and I quickly moved the chairs to face the other direction. Who wants to be staring at the kitchen through dinner? No biggie. Quick change.

 

Did I mention that you get free bread? I mean, any place that gives some delicious free bread before you actually order wins some points on my list. And let me add that this bread was pretty good. This crusty bread had some nice sesame seeds and poppy seeds on top. Yum! And we made it in time for Happy Hour-15 minutes spare! “I’ll have the house red please!” What a nice little bonus to the evening!

 

Let’s see, what was my waiter’s name? Micah-that was it. He was very good. He gave us a lot of attention and was good about refilling drinks and bringing us what we needed. And let me briefly touch on the bathrooms. For you men out there, this may not seem important, but to women this could be a big deal. You see, when women enter a place, whether it be a restaurant, church, an art studio, the movie theater, etc. they are looking for the bathroom. The women hit up the bathroom first and therefore that is the first place of judgment for them even before they see the performance or taste the food. This is huge! The bathroom at Buccaneer was pretty normal if you will. It was very clean, which was good. It was quaint with two stalls, but pretty blah as far as the décor went. So nothing really feminine about it. But I will say that I really liked that the bathroom doors when all way from the ceiling to the floor. It gave a very nice sense of privacy. Every woman can appreciate that. J

 

Now on to the food!

 

Like I said before, we had high hopes for this place because the menu looked promising. There is a section on there that you can order four different types of seafood cooked four different ways and it just depends on what seafood they have on hand that day. So anyway, Beau ordered that. I ordered the seafood platter, mainly because my heart and soul were set on scallops and grits and that was the only dish that had both. Now, normally I don’t go into a new place with a craving for something specific, especially two things. And so I feel like I can order my dish a little bit better than I did that night. But it is what it is. I wanted scallops and grits and so I got it.

 

When Micah brought our food out I was a little dumbfounded as to what was sitting in front of Beau and I. The two plates looked like they came from two different kitchens. My plate looked like it walked out of Gilligan’s or the Crab House. Beau’s looked like it would have come from Blossom or something (maybe not exactly, but close). So as you can imagine, quite different looking.

 

From the one bite that I had off of Beau’s plate and the fact that his plate was clean when he finished, I think his was quite good. Oh, he ordered the mahi-mahi over mashed potatoes topped with green beans and a white truffle sauce. I really enjoyed my bite for sure. That sauce! (You know how I am about sauces!)

 

The seafood platter was ho hum. First off, it was $21! The grits needed salt, which as I’ve said before, I don’t use much salt in my food so if I’m adding salt it’s definitely bland. The scallops were good and the fish was okay, but the shrimp were way over cooked.

 

Overall, not too impressed with Buccaneer. I admit, I was satisfied as far as my craving went, but will still not be returning. Just thought you all out there should know. But feel free to make your own judgment. This is just my attempt to save everyone from a waste of a meal and at the same time steer you towards a meal that will keep your mouth watering for more!

 

Proceeding on ahead to the next place…