13 hours Ago
In almost every way, The Harlow on James Island is a thoroughly modern restaurant. It has a big Instagram wall just to the left of the front door, with “Be Kind and Unwind” in glowing yellow script on a green faux-boxwood panel. An outlet with USB ports awaits at each of the high tops along the dining room wall.
The servers punch in orders and swipe credit cards tableside on handheld devices. The menu can be categorized as “Contemporary American,” or perhaps “Very Contemporary American.” It’s compact, with oysters and burgers front and center.
Are there dishes inspired by Nashville hot chicken? Check. Fried Brussels sprouts? Check. Salsa macha and comeback sauce? Check and check.
But trendy doesn’t necessarily mean run of the mill. Take those Brussels sprouts, for instance ($12). They’re plated atop a thick pool of “white sauce” (i.
e. Alabama-style mayo-based barbecue) with more squiggled over top plus a generous dusting of red za’atar. The vinegary tang of the white sauce is perfect against the charred, earthy sprouts, and a scattering of bitter greens, shriveled and wilted from the heat, adds a pleasantly astringent finish.
Let’s run down the raw oyster options, which are plentiful. You can order them cold on the half shell from the daily list of a half dozen or so varieties ($3 to $4 each). The majority hail from Carolina waters, including the house’s own medium-sized Harlow Cups from Bogue Sound, N.
C. Social media is obsessed with this Charleston seafood restaurant. Here’s our ‘raw’ take.
Brussels are served at The Harlow, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Charleston. Those Harlow Cups can be “house dressed” ($8 each) with a dollop of black caviar atop another of cultured cream, a fine combination that adds an extra fishy punch and a layer of smooth richness to the oyster’s briny bath.
They can also be gussied up with a rotating “seasonal dressing” ($6 each), which in late November was inspired by the aforementioned Nashville hot chicken . I was skeptical going in, but one slurp won me over. The tender oyster is topped by a red pool of pickle-infused hot sauce then a generous layer of fried chicken skin crumbles.
You get a surge of capsicum heat, but it’s balanced by the oyster’s cool brine and the wonderful crunch of the crispy skin bits. As the minerally, slightly spicy flavor faded on my tongue, I began to rethink my long-running animus toward everything inspired by Nashville hot chicken. On a subsequent visit, brimming with newfound magnanimity, I ordered The Harlow's "Charleston hot chicken" sandwich ($15).
It arrived blazingly hot, as in straight-from-the-fryer hot. After giving the brown, thickly-battered cutlet a minute or two to cool, I took a tentative bite. All my prior antagonisms came flooding back in a slick surge of spicy orange grease.
The spice-level isn’t scald-your-tongue hot (though there is a free “make it extra hot” option for those who really want to suffer), but among the thick, hard-fried batter, the sharply spicy mayo and the oozing pepper-laced oil, it’s just not a pleasant bite. A fish sando is served at The Harlow, Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024, in Charleston.
One can, however, get the best elements of the chicken sandwich — the soft brioche bun, the thick-sliced house-made pickles — with a more admirable centerpiece by ordering the Fish Sando ($22). The fish is local and varies — it was two long strips of corvina when I tried it. More lightly battered than the chicken, the filets are fried a lovely golden brown.
It’s a sloppy sandwich, to be sure — you have to smoosh the soft bun and hold it tight to keep the tender fish and tartar-soaked lettuce shreds from tumbling out onto the plate — but it’s delicious. The Harlow occupies a former dry cleaning shop on Harborview Road, about midway between the James Island Expressway and Fort Johnson Road. It’s the creation of James Island residents Katie and Josh Drewry and named after their daughter, Sloan Harlow.
For their executive chef, the Drewrys recruited Brett Riley, formerly of Maya and Delaney Oyster House, and his fine dining pedigree shows in the dishes’ many accents and flairs. The contemporary menu and sleek but casual setting was designed explicitly for the neighborhood’s residents (John Drewry described it to Food Editor Parker Milner as, “our love letter to James Island and its culture”), but I suspect others will find it worth a drive over the Expressway to check out. Oysters, burgers star at laid-back James Island restaurant, now open on Harbor View Road Mahi-mahi is served as the market fish at The Harlow, Wednesday, Dec.
4, 2024, in Charleston. CUISINE: Seafood, burgers REPRESENTATIVE DISH: House dressed oysters, Royale burger with cheese ADDRESS: 1015 Harbor View Road, James Island PHONE: 843-459-2867 BAR: Full bar WEB: theharlowchs.com DINING ROOM HOURS: 5-9:30 p.
m. Monday through Wednesday; 5-10:30 Friday-Saturday; 11 a.m.
-9 p.m. Sunday PRICE: $$ COSTS: $3-$22 PARKING: Ample parking in the shopping center lot What was once the front curb and drive-thru pickup lane has been transformed into an outdoor patio that wraps around the front and one side of the building.
The old plate glass windows have been replaced with big bay doors, which roll up on warm evenings to create an inside/outside oyster bar with the shucking counter front and center. Being a modern neighborhood restaurant, The Harlow of course has good cocktails. With spiced pear liqueur balanced by bitter Aperol and a little bubbly, the Perfect Pear ($11) is a crisp autumn day in a glass.
Darker and more intensely flavored is the Maine Harbor View ($14), which tempers the sweetness of bourbon, Luxardo and vermouth with herbal Benedictine bitterness. My visits happened to straddle the seasonal changeover in cocktails, and the holiday-themed list includes a beguiling Fireside Old Fashioned ($14) infused with maple and cinnamon and the tall, sparkling Sugarplum Spritz, which cuts the earthy sweetness of plum wine with dry prosecco with a lemony kiss. It’s no longer surprising to find a short but solid wine list in a neighborhood restaurant, and The Harlow has one of those, too.
It includes a minerally, pear-accented Piquepoul from Face a la Mer ($11/$44) and, yes, a skin-contact orange wine — in this case, the biodynamic Orange Gold from Gérard Bertrand ($12 glass/$48 bottle). The latter proves an oddly delightful pairing for the fried Brussels, for its dry apricot notes somehow draw out the inherent bitterness of the sprouts. The slate of five house-ground burgers ranges from the basic Harlow (American cheese, comeback sauce, $16) to the Black & Bleu (blackened patty, garlic blue cheese, crab, $21).
One’s eye is naturally drawn to the “Royale With Cheese” ($22). There’s the name, for starters, plus it’s set off on the menu in its own little box adorned with a stylish burger icon. Our food editor's 5 favorite Charleston-area restaurants to enjoy in December — under $25 edition Royale with cheese is served at The Harlow, Wednesday, Dec.
4, 2024, in Charleston. It lives up to the hype, too. A tiny paper French tricolore flag on a toothpick is planted in the center of the bun, but it’s a thoroughly American burger.
The thick wagyu patty brims with fatty juices, and it’s draped in yellow American cheese and finished with good old ketchup and mustard plus onions and — best of all — those thick-sliced pickles. Amid such bold flavors, surprisingly, the accompaniments could use some workshopping. The fries mounded alongside the burgers and fried seafood are competent if not remarkable: moderately skinny, crisp brown skin on the edges, fading to salty plainness as they cool.
Making coleslaw from collard greens is certainly a cheffy Southern twist, but the results — more chewy than crisp, more creamy than tart — is a reminder why cabbage is the traditional base. But never mind that. The real center of gravity is the selection of smaller plates, or “snacks,” as the menu has it, and oysters are again front and center.
A half dozen in the shell ($22) are blanketed in luxurious horseradish cream and cheese then grilled until everything is melted and gooey. Beneath a wonderfully light, crisp batter, the fried oysters ($14) are plump, chewy and as good as any in town. The Crab Mac ($22) is as gooey and cheesy as the grilled oysters.
After taking a few bites off the top, I wondered why I wasn’t tasting much crab amid the tender orecchiette. But as in the marshes and creeks, the crab lurks at the bottom, and subsequent dredging of the lower half of dish proved wonderfully sweet and rich. Crab mac is served at The Harlow, Wednesday, Dec.
4, 2024, in Charleston. There’s even an admirable dessert — namely, a chocolate tart ($12) with a neatly-fluted house-made crust. It’s filled with a thick layer of chocolate then piled high with fluffy whipped cream, chocolate shavings and crisp coconut flakes.
The best part are the finishing drizzles and droplets of sweet passionfruit puree. The Harlow isn’t the kind of restaurant you are going to find downtown, at least not anymore. As the old dining strips give way to restaurant chains and upscale palaces from out-of-town hospitality groups, the really interesting stuff increasingly seems to be found out in the suburban neighborhoods.
Beefy burgers and well-dressed local oysters, orange wine and fragrant cocktails: if that’s the future direction of neighborhood dining, it’s a trend I can sure get behind. Former Macintosh space in Charleston is now a Mexican restaurant. Here's where it misses the mark.
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