Tucked under street level in the shadow of the South Carolina State Capitol in Columbia, SC, is The Whig, one of the best bars (in my opinion) in the South. There are good cocktails, string lights, taxidermy decor, gouda mac and cheese and burgers if you get hungry, and if you happen in on the right night, co-owner Will Green will be behind the bar, mixing cocktails and keeping the vibe chill with a calm, assuring demeanor. Will was a MFA student at the University of South Carolina when he pulled his first shift at The Whig, and years later he’s moved into a leadership position as one of its owners, as well as also co-owning WeCo Bottle and Biergarten in neighboring West Columbia. He aims to elevate the dive bar personality of The Whig without making it lose its charm, and it's a tightrope he deftly traverses, while managing to keep a sense of humor about it all.
There’s something of a relaxed grace about Florence, AL. It’s approachable, artistic, yet with a definite deep South accent, and Odette, a restaurant nestled in an historic storefront in its downtown, is the culinary embodiment of that aesthetic. That style comes from owner Celeste Pillow and Chef Josh Quick, who’s been at the helm since it opened in 2013. Although Josh didn’t grow up in the town, his personality and style of cooking seem completely at home here. He came to Northwest Alabama by working at the Marriott Shoals, a popular hotel in the area, and before that, earned his culinary training through an American Culinary Federation apprenticeship at Walt Disney World. At Odette, his focus is on American food with Southern and International influences, and through the years, he’s earned the trust of loyal regulars, so he gets to be creative with the ever evolving menu. He’s earned my trust too, with one bite of crispy catfish in a flavorful broth, and I’m already ready to visit again.
It takes close to 1200 bees to make a 16-ounce jar of honey. Each one of those bees, through its choice of flower nectar, contributes to the unique flavor profile of a honey, a profile that can vary season to season, even if the location of the hive remains the same. That unique character -- the literal taste of a place -- is only preserved if the honey arrives to your kitchen pantry 100% raw, and for many cooks and chefs in Alabama, some of the best tasting and highest quality raw honey is produced by Eastaboga Bee Company. Beekeeper Justin Hill comes from a long lineage of farmers, and when he took up keeping bees a few years ago to diversify his farm, he really got bit by the beekeeping bug. He’s now one of the largest honey producers in the region, and you can find Eastaboga Bee Company honey on some of the best menus in the state. It tastes like sweet, liquid sunshine on the rolling Alabama fields in summer, pure liquid gold.
Coast Brewing has been making high-quality beer in the South Carolina Lowcountry for so long, it’s easy to take the availability and the quality of its beer for granted. It’s sincerely become part of Charleston, just as its former taproom -- really a few taps on the side of a walk-in cooler -- became sort of a community hub for a pint and a chat. That availability, quality, and community has been the driving force for co-owner Jaime Tenny, who along with her husband David Merritt, have just been head down, making beer, selling beer, and helping welcome and anchor a growing beer scene in the state for more than a decade. But as any entrepreneur knows, all that day in, day out hussle to support and build a business carries its own price and then some. After many challenges, Coast is poised on the edge of a new phase, about to open a new taproom and production building later this year. And that’s worth raising a pint to.
Trowbridge’s in Florence, AL is a happy place. It’s a place of cherries on top with extra whip cream, a menu of ice cream flavors readable from any seat in the house, children’s eyes lighting up to the phrase “whatever you want,” and a bowl of fresh bananas just waiting to be split. The stools and booths are a retro teal color, not because the owners are being nostalgic, but because they’ve been that color since they were installed last mid-century. Don Trowbridge remembers that era, and at 85, he still comes in every day to visit, assist, and enjoy the ice cream smiles. He grew up in this building on Court Street, once jumped off the O’Neal Bridge into the Tennessee River to impress some friends on a hot summer day, and spent years away working as a systems analyst, but ice cream and Florence always welcomed him home. He’s the fourth generation, and his daughter Pam the fifth-generation, to tend to this 104-old business, a North Alabama summer staple.
“Supply chain” is a buzz phrase right now, but let’s not forget that one, there isn’t just “one chain,” and two, that it’s not a faceless thing -- it’s people. Mark Overbay of Big Spoon Roasters in Durham, NC was inspired by the unavailable supply of peanut butter when he was stationed in the Peace Corps, and it led him down plenty of paths to sweet success. Big Spoon’s philosophy is based on the belief that food matters when it comes to health, happiness, and the well-being of our planet, and that planet includes all those who are working to produce his product. Simply by doing what they love, the company, which Mark named in homage to his dad Gary, has created numerous product innovations, including being the first to incorporative creative ingredients --from chai spices to freshly toasted coconut -- in nut butter recipes, being the first to offer membership clubs, and currently still the only nut butter company with a completely transparent supply chain. Big Spoon Roasters is available in close to 800 US retail outlets, and Mark? He’s still eating peanut butter on the daily.
At this point, Chef Tim Hontzas of Johnny’s Restaurant in Homewood, AL is used to mistakenly being called Johnny by folks who don’t know him. His restaurant is proudly named after his grandfather, Johnny, who migrated to New Orleans in 1921 with $17 in his pocket and went on to open three successful restaurants in Mississippi, the last being his namesake. Members of Tim’s family, including his father, opened Nikki's in Birmingham in the spring of 1954, but while it was always evident that restaurant work flowed in young Tim’s veins, he left Alabama to work in other kitchens, including that of past guest and famed Southern chef John Currence of City Grocery in Oxford, MS. Tim returned to Homewood to pay homage to his family’s heritage by opening a new iteration of Johnny’s Restaurant in 2012, and he describes it as a Greek meat-and-three. After four years as a Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best Chef: South, this year he’s a finalist for the awards next week in Chicago. The...
Stories abound everywhere in the culinary South, even tucked into business parks in Pelham, AL. That’s where Alex Sherman and Jeff Daniels, who, along with the other members of the team of Non-Fiction Coffee, are changing the coffee scene for central Alabama. They view the supply chain from a bottom-up perspective, where producers are elevated and every contributor is seen as a stakeholder. See, in my world, where local food systems and farmers are often lauded, those doing the hard work of growing coffee in other countries are often dismissed, disenfranchised, and forgotten. Alex and Jeff are changing that in their corner of the world with every cup, not only training their wholesale cafe and restaurant clients how to brew exceptional coffee for their guests, but how the way it’s produced matters. At Non-Fiction, the scent of freshly roasting some seriously good specialty coffee is just the beginning.
If you’re doing your first visit to Red Orchids China Bistro in Charleston, SC correctly, you’ll walk in a guest and leave as a friend. Owners Kelly and Tony Chu, two-first generation Chinese Americans, fell in love sharing a single dream of opening a restaurant. They opened Red Orchids in 2003, taking on family style Chinese-American cuisine in a city with a decidedly Southern palate. The restaurant has been voted Best Chinese Restaurant in Charleston City Paper’s Best of Charleston for 19 years straight, and they’re also the owners of Cirsea Craft Ice Cream, a premium by-the-pint ice cream company, which began when Kelly wanted to offer Charleston something more interesting than a fortune cookie for dessert. They are committed to the power of hard work and perseverance as much as they are committed to having fun together, and they’re often a presence at special culinary events in the Lowcountry.
Chris Coleman was never far from Southern food. He spent summers on his grandparents farm in Mississippi, and was 14 when he started his first industry job at a local fish camp in a suburb of Charlotte, NC, working his way up through the ranks from busser to kitchen expediter. While a culinary student in Central Piedmont Community College’s =, Chris took a job as a line cook at the McNinch House, one of Charlotte’s most storied fine dining restaurants. He was quickly promoted to head chef at the age of 21, and he’s continued to build on that success in the Charlotte region, now the chef and a partner at The Goodyear House in Charlotte’s NoDa neighborhood, and the recently opened Old Town Kitchen & Cocktails in nearby Rock Hill, SC. He brings technique and creativity to a local food sensibility, has supported area farmers and food producers throughout his career, and his cooking is familiar yet always with a twist, like the deviled egg toast topped with smoked NC roe I mention in this episode. I’m always interested in what he’s going to cook next.