Category: The Moveable Feast

By Mindy Lucas Chef Anya Chase and pastry chef Emily Benson first met while working at the old Herban Marketplace, a popular health food store on Boundary Street. The pair shared a love of food, healthy eating and cooking for others. So when the store’s owner Greta Lynne decided to retire in 2018, the two decided almost immediately to start their own business together.

New Port Royal Restaurant Raises The Culinary Bar North of the Broad Story and Photos by Mark Shaffer The story goes that not long ago Chef Evan Hallinan’s young daughter, Madison, asked if he would buy her a horse. He laughs at the memory. “We’re living in a rented beach house at the time. We don’t even have a yard.” He smiles. “So the story I tell is that I bought her a restaurant because it’s cheaper. Told her a horse costs money, at least with a restaurant we might be able to make some back.”

The unlikely success story of Hank’s Low Country She Crab Soup For most families Saturday is a day of ritual – baseball practice, dance lessons, fishing, picnics on the beach, shopping, golf, a trip to Charleston or Savannah, but for many the ritual is to head to the Port Royal Farmer’s Market at the Navy Heritage Park, open 9 – 12 Saturdays, rain or shine, to get the best food in the Lowcountry. Tents are set up and loyal customers arrive on schedule to check out the freshest vegetables, eggs, shrimp, oysters in season, wonderful homemade breads, cheeses to die for, fruits, scones, pasta, bagels, plants, coffees, cookies, birds of prey to be admired, and, of course, she crab soup.

Anchorage 1770 Serves Up a Saucy Side of History Story and Photos by Mark Shaffer €œA recipe is a story that ends with a good meal. Pat Conroy, Author & Cook There ought to be a law, was something I heard a lot as a child growing up in the South. My best friend’s mother used it constantly and applied it liberally. €œThere ought to be a law, she’d say, €œthat anyone with a butt that big shouldn’€™t be able to buy pants that tight. A brief pause for effect and, €œBless her heart. €

Chef Penn Ten Eyck Spins New Meaning for “Local Plates” Story and photos by Mark Shaffer To say Penn Ten Eyck is passionate about food and cooking is like saying Shakespeare was a decent writer. As a child he knew the chef’s life called him. It’s in his blood. The family’s got a long history in the local food scene going back decades. The Ten Eyck’s can even claim a bit of local film history, having catered the buffet spread during the post-funeral scene in “The Big Chill.”

Chef Penn Ten Eyck Spins New Meaning for “Local Plates” Story and photos by Mark Shaffer To say Penn Ten Eyck is passionate about food and cooking is like saying Shakespeare was a decent writer. As a child he knew the chef’s life called him. It’s in his blood. The family’s got a long history in the local food scene going back decades. The Ten Eyck’s can even claim a bit of local film history, having catered the buffet spread during the post-funeral scene in “The Big Chill.”

Story and Photos by Mark Shaffer Myrtle Beach, 1977: Jimmy Buffett’s “Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes” is the soundtrack for the summer. “Margaritaville” floats on the ocean breeze. A little movie called Star Wars packs theaters and I’m working at a famous seafood restaurant on the Strand. I’m supposed to be busing tables, but mostly I break dishes, or that’s how I remember it. But in spite of all the crashing and yelling, I fall in love with the restaurant business. I love it still and I owe that to a lesson learned that summer, and that lesson was that I did not belong in the restaurant business.

Venerable Port Royal Eatery Deserves Her Stars Story and Photos by Mark Shaffer Going to MoonDoggies always seems like visiting an old friend’s home – the fun one where everyone hangs out in the kitchen. Maybe that’s because it’s a family affair or maybe it’s because the building is an old converted house. And like any authentic Lowcountry home of this vintage, it is steeped in character. Most of the first floor is wrapped in a rambling screened porch covered in English Ivy from floor to ceiling. The main dining room – the Lodge Room – is a vaulted chapel of exposed beams and windows, wonderfully rustic and airy. Even the floors have character. It’s all tongue and groove heart pine the original owner salvaged out of old boxcars, polished by the cargo of time. And to complete the Lowcountry ambience, it’s all nestled snugly beneath towering live oaks dripping in Spanish moss barely a stone’s throw from the salt marsh and Sandy Point in the heart of Port Royal.

Story and photos by Mark Shaffer I’m checking my email recently and there’s note from Chef Beth Shaw at Breakwater Restaurant & Bar. “Our new dinner menu is out,” she writes, “and we’ve also gone back to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday specials. I thought it would be a great time for you guys to come in and try some new stuff.” There are a lot of things I love about my job, but this sort of thing is pretty close to the top. Hell, this is the sort of thing that makes me sink to my knees and give thanks that I had the good sense to get out of the hard news racket. I mean seriously, I could be out there on the campaign trail slogging after the “presidential” candidates (the horror, the horror).

Up & Coming Sushi Chef Justin Patton Takes On the Roll at Saltus Story and photos by Mark Shaffer A brisk Tuesday night in late January at Saltus River Grill, the only place you’ll find sushi in downtown Beaufort. My wife Susan and I, along with filmmakers VW Scheich and Uyen Le, stake out prime seats in front of the sushi station. Lorrie and David Anderson join us after they lock up NeverMore Books right around the corner on Carteret. Tonight we’ve come for sushi and to experience the unique fusion of art, food and passion for which young Justin Patton is quickly building a buzz around town. Tonight he’s teamed up with buddy John Blood behind the bar. The two grew up together hanging at the skateboard park back in the day.

1635 On The Avenue,Restaurant & Spirits Story and photos by Mark Shaffer Lorett Hayes says she ended up in the restaurant business by accident. She met her future husband while working as the director of marketing and sales at a big hotel in St. Louis. The couple ended up settling in his hometown of Central, South Carolina where they opened an old-fashioned ice cream shop. And from there, she says, things just got out of hand.

The little town of Beaufort can now boast that it has not one, but TWO chocolate factories. The makers of Le Dome Champagne Truffles have set up shop in Beaufort Town Center.

Whether you’re coming by land or by sea, new chef/owner Penn Ten Eyck & company make it well worth the trip. Story and Photos by Mark Shaffer

Southern Living’s Top Cook Heads to HabershamBy Mark ShafferPhotos courtesy of Time, Inc. For untold decades the Southern Living Test Kitchen has churned out recipes, perfected techniques and tortured equipment all for the benefit of the magazine’s dedicated readers. With the advent of the digital age anyone can go online and get step-by-step instruction on how to make creamy grits, crispy cornbread, fluffy biscuits and just about anything else you can think of that’s good to eat south of the Mason Dixon. Running “The South’s Most Trusted Kitchen” is one of the most coveted culinary positions in the nation and one Chef Robby Melvin approaches with a certain academic sensibility.

The Moveable Feast gang finds that membership has its privileges… Story & photos by Mark ShafferLet’s cut to the chase. Right now you’re wondering, “So how’s the spaghetti at the Spaghetti Club?” It’s the obvious question. The short answer is assolutamente fantastico, un lavoro d’amore. And as my colleagues noted many, many times during this meal, both the meatballs and the Alfredo Sauce are “to die for.” To. Die. For. But we’ll get to that.

Some Nights Most nights I try to lie in the comfort of the cockpit and gaze at the stars until I lose my earthly grip and fall into them . . . some nights, when the wind whistles off the stays and the stars feel like pinpricks in the frigid air, I am forced below.

A dynamic new partnership breathes new life into a Frogmore landmark… Story and Photos by Mark Shaffer “We want to make this a destination, worth the trip for the food, the scenery, the beautiful sunset view. It’s all about enjoying the marsh and the smells and the wildlife. It’s about sitting back, relaxing and staying a while instead of rushing in and rushing out.”- Chef/Owner, Will McLenagan “We want to give people that Southern feeling. Take your time. Enjoy. We’re not going to mind. We’re here to make people happy.”- Owner/General Manager, Cris Morrison

Fall’s FlavorsFall hits like a heavyweight, with a ham-handed knockout punch that drops me on its canvas of fallen russet leaves. My head spins with thoughts of homecomings and harvest moons – of bonfires, blankets, and the warm soft lips of my autumn girl.