Review: Post & Courier

November 4, 1999, by Peter Herman

If you want to have an excellent meal in a cozy, inviting Charleston singlehouse where you can hold a conversation, then Hominy Grill is the place. Located on Rutledge Avenue a few blocks from MUSC, it is truly neighborhood restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, dinner and Sunday brunch. It has an attractive Web site and good reviews from national publications, so I suspect it gets its share of tourists who care about good Southern food without all the downtown hoopla.

Originally a barbershop, Hominy Grill has nine tables and, in good weather, outdoor seating on the patio. The ornate white pressed-tin ceiling , the overhead fans and comfortable big and heavy chairs, along with attentive service make an attractive package. Chef/owner Robert Stehling sees to all the details.

I’d label the food contemporary southern -- you can clearly taste the ingredients and there are no heavy sauces here. We ate a lot (it was good) but left without that overstuffed feeling.

From the appetizers offered, we tried the okra and shrimp beignets with salsa and cilantro lime sour cream which was a perfect example of contemporary Southern cooking. The three beignets were cooked New Orleans style with modern sides no Southerner ever knew as a kid. Done with a light hand, the beignets were crispy and well complemented by the salsa and cream.

We tried two of the six small plates. The three-mushroom salad had the mushrooms on the bottom with a mound of mixed green son top and a light dressing; the sauteed chicken livers with shiitake mushrooms and red peppers served over angel hair was a generous portion that was scrumptious for any chicken-liver lover.

We had equally good results with five of the 10 main plates. Several dishes were superb. The McClellanville crab cakes with Hoppin John and pickled cucumber salad was light and full of interesting contrasts in taste and texture. The cakes had a little kick to them and you could clearly taste the individual ingredients. No mushy patties here.

The grilled boneless pork chop was topped with a blackstrap molasses barbecue sauce and served with sweet potato pone and sauteed greens. Other than a tiny but too much salt, here’s another example of an attractively plated dish with many delicious flavor contrasts. The sesame-crusted catfish with sauteed okra, baked cheese grits (using a light touch of white cheddar) and Geechee peanut sauce was lightly done; the sauteed shrimp had a spicy kick to them and were served with mushrooms over cheese grits.

My wife had one of the specials, seared fresh tuna cakes with lentil salad, marinated arugula and olive vinaigrette and again, other than a bit too much salt, the cakes had very distinctive fresh tuna flavor.

Other choices include fresh salmon cake with hominy, Southern fried chicken with spiced peach sauce (that does sound good), grilled breast of duck, and pan-seared ribeye steak with mustard butter.

The wine list is undergoing some change. There are about eight bottles each of white and red, that are good quality wines and nice variety. All but four are available by the glass. Among the reads, I liked the Gordon Brothers Merlot.

Ah, the desserts (reasonably priced at $3.75). They were terrific. We tried four of the five. Four plates were crisscrossing our table as we all sampled and cleaned the plates. The nod for best goes to chocolate pudding, a deep dark, thick, rich chocolate. This one’s an award winner. Close behind was the bread pudding with raisins and caramel sauce, the buttermilk pie and the carrot cake. The attentive waiter refilled our cups several times with quality coffee. For $66 per couple with tax and tip, this was a fine meal. Hominy Grill is a real asset to its neighborhood.

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