Hominy Grill (Lunch) – Charleston, SC – December 27, 2005
Posted January 6, 2006 at 11:06 am
Since Chef Robert Stehling opened Hominy Grill with wife Nunally Kersh in 1996, has garnered countless accolades, including Matt and Ted Lee’s four-part profile in the New York Times. I ate breakfast there years ago, and didn’t understand why national publications were raving. It took a recent lunch there to revise my opinion. Food writers have heaped thousands of words of praise on Hominy. Here are my 595.
Robert Stehling endorses “fresh, seasonal, locally grown fish and produce,” utilizing local suppliers whenever possible. He apprenticed under the late great Bill Neal, chef/owner of Crook’s Corner in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Before moving to Charleston to open Hominy, he cooked in New York at Home, Arizona 206, and Monkey Bar.
The restaurant is situated on the ground floor of a three-story edifice that dates to 1897, in a space that used to be a barbershop. Diners are greeted in the parking lot by a huge mural, featuring a bygone waitress named Rosie, carrying a steaming bowl of grits, pronouncing: “Grits are good for you.” Indoors, the walls are cream-colored, the floors dark wood, and the ceiling pressed tin.
A triptych of blackboards list the day’s specials, vegetables, and desserts.
We ate on the outdoor patio, which is warmed by heat lamps when needed and features its own triptych of blackboards.
My family started by splitting a vegetable plate ($7.95). From the blackboard, we selected silken squash casserole; savory mac & cheese; fresh picked collard greens; and Hoppin’ John, a local delicacy of black eyed peas and diced tomatoes, ladled over rice. The plate came with a square of incredible, sweet cornbread.
I ordered one of Stehling’s signature dishes, cheese grits with grilled shrimp, scallions and bacon ($11.95). The grits were clean tasting, untainted by the usual globs of cheese.
My step mom ordered the curried chicken salad sandwich with vinegar-based cole slaw and an okra pickle ($.7.95).
Cucumbers should be very afraid. The fuzzy, powerful okra pickle slapped around my tastebuds. I mean that in the best possible way.
My brother ordered a fried catfish sandwich with homemade tartar sauce, hand-cut fries and vinegary cole slaw ($8.95). He seemed pleased.
His wife ate a grilled chicken ranch salad with fried green tomatoes, bacon and chopped egg. The fried green tomatoes were a nice twist on a fairly standard salad.
We passed around four different desserts. I couldn’t resist the appeal of the buttermilk pie, which I’d eaten previously and was just as sensational on second taste. It still had the same thin, moist crust I remembered.
Chocolate pudding is a signature dessert at Hominy, with good reason. The pot of wicked pudding was topped with a dab of homemade whipped cream. Sensational.
Of course my chocoholic brother selected chocolate chip pound cake with a rich chocolate glaze and vanilla custard sauce. It was dangerously moist and delicious.
His wife ordered “hummingbird cake.” I don’t know how the cake got its name, but the moist slice of banana cake with citron, nuts, and cream cheese frosting was unreal.
As much as I enjoyed lunch, I’m convinced my Southern food education will be incomplete until I eat at Hominy for dinner, when my parents claim Chef Stehling really shines. The menu reads like first-rate food porn: okra & shrimp beignets with cilantro lime sour cream; Upland chicken bog with sausages, chicken livers and jasmine rice in a rich brown stew spiked with mustard; and pecan crusted roast pork loin with spicy peach bbq sauce, sweet potato spoonbread and collard greens. Dinner has to happen on my next visit.
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