Charleston

Cinco Tex-Mex

August 23, 2017 Posted in Charleston, Restaurants1 Comment

Thanks to our son’s busy schedule (seriously, he’s only three but already way cooler than us), we usually find ourselves in Mount Pleasant for dinner one night a week. We typically rotate among a handful of restaurants (Kairos, Papa Zuzu’s and Five Loaves are our standbys), but this week we felt like trying someplace new. Scrolling through Yelp, we came across a well-rated place neither of us had ever heard of: Cinco Tex-Mex. Since we’re always down for tacos and Cinco was less than half a mile away, the decision was a no-brainer.

As we learned from our server, Cinco opened early this summer with purposely-little fanfare. Run by a couple from San Antonio, the restaurant focuses on Tex-Mex classics – chip-and-dip appetizers, a handful of soups, salads and sides, and fajita, carnita, enchilada, quesadilla and taco entrées – all made to order. Cinco’s flour tortillas, which form the backbone of most of its dishes, are made from scratch and pressed in a small, glassed-in prep area in the dining room (a bit of a show with dinner!), allowing the restaurant to demonstrate its attention to detail and dedication to authenticity.

The drink menu tends toward Mexican beer and tequila-based cocktails, many of which are discounted during Cinco’s 5-7pm weeknight happy hour. We happened to be there on “Margarita Monday” and enjoyed a delicious, not-too-sweet peach marg for a mere $6 – reason enough to return!

The food also helped secure Cinco a spot in our Mount Pleasant restaurant rotation. To start, we ordered the totopos con salsa – a heaping basket of house-made chips with red, green, and pineapple habanero salsas ($5). The red and green were good, but the pineapple habanero was great; the chile’s kick was accompanied by a burst of sweetness from the pineapple, which proved to be the perfect counterpoint to the chips. And the chips – ohhh, the chips. Warm, salty and fried to golden perfection, they were simply outstanding. Our server offered to refill our basket multiple times; we reluctantly declined lest we not have any room for our main courses, but it’s doubtful we’ll be so restrained next time!

For our entrées, we ordered several tacos and the steak fajitas. The seven taco options are offered à la carte ($3-4.50 each), and we went with the asadero con rajas (cheese and pepper), beef fajita, and camarones (shrimp) – plus a chicken fajita taco for our son, who was none too pleased that he couldn’t have a chips-only dinner. The asadero and fajita tacos were a little underwhelming; the strong flavor of the asadero cheese overwhelmed the flavor of the sparse poblanos, and the fajita-based offerings were perfectly fine but nothing special. The camarones taco, however, was excellent, with nicely-fried shrimp, crispy corn salsa and a pleasantly spicy chipotle crema. We’d be curious to try the other taco offerings (beef barbacoa, chicken tinga and chorizo), but we’ll probably favor the more substantial entrées in subsequent meals at Cinco.

L-R: asadero con rajas, camarones, beef fajita

Speaking of the larger entrées, the fajitas ($16-18) ranked right up there with the best Tex-Mex Tyler has eaten in Texas. The beef fajitas came to the table in the classic style: a sizzling skillet of beef, peppers and onions, a separate plate of black beans and elotes (Mexican street corn), and a foil pouch of the awesome house-made tortillas. The fajita fillings were all grilled simply but perfectly, and when layered into a tortilla and slathered with crema and pico de gallo, they helped showcase Cinco’s strength and potential. The black beans and street corn were also excellent, though both played second fiddle to the deliciously simple fajitas.

Cinco does not offer desserts yet (though we hear some are in the works), but we were too full for more food anyway! We’re glad to have stumbled across this under-the-radar spot – it’s clearly still working out some kinks and refining its recipes, but we’re excited to see how it evolves and improves on an already-winning formula. Keep those chips coming, Cinco, and we’ll keep coming back!

Info:

Cinco Tex-Mex website
1035 Johnnie Dodds Boulevard #B7, Mount Pleasant, SC
Hours: 5-10pm Monday-Saturday; closed Sundays

Charleston Restaurant List

June 1, 2017June 1, 2017 Posted in Charleston, Restaurants2 Comments

Since one of us (ahem, Nina) likes making lists almost as much as she likes making dinner reservations, we’ve kept a running list of Charleston restaurants we’ve tried since first visiting the city in 2009. The list is far from scientific, but we have a few rules: (i) we include any restaurant we’ve tried in Charleston County, (ii) we don’t include bars unless (or until) we’ve tried their food offerings, (iii) we don’t double-count restaurants with more than one location or that have closed and re-opened (e.g., Taco Boy, The Granary), and (iv) we don’t include large chain restaurants (where we rarely eat anyway) but will include smaller chains with only one or two Charleston outposts (e.g., Mellow Mushroom, Urban Cookhouse).

Our pace has slowed since Jack was born (between restaurants 138 and 139, if we remember correctly), but we’re nearing 200 individual restaurants. Our list ranges from the finest dining the city has to offer to the most casual dives and covers just about every price point and cuisine in between, which is as much a testament to the breadth and diversity of Charleston’s food scene as it is to our love of eating out! Discussions as to which restaurant should be #200 are underway – hopefully we’ll hit that milestone later this summer!

We’ll keep this list updated on the “Charleston Restaurant List” page (see sidebar) – we like to add to it as often as possible!

1. Taco Boy	101. Mex 1 Coastal Cantina
2. SNOB	102. Three Little Birds
3. Blossom	103. Crave
4. Fat Hen	104. Xiao Bao Biscuit
5. Wild Olive	105. Crust Wood Fired Pizza
6. Hominy Grill	106. Liberty Tap Room
7. McCrady’s	107. The Craftsmen
8. The Mustard Seed (closed)	108. Butcher & Bee
9. Husk	109. Lana (closed)
10. Cru Cafe	110. Barsa
11. Social (closed)	111. YoBo Cantina
12. Poogan’s Porch	112. Coda del Pesce
13. Black Bean Co.	113. Closed for Business
14. Five Loaves	114. Cory’s Grilled Cheese
15. Zia Taqueria	115. Charleston Harbor Fish House
16. JI Pizza	116. Black Magic Cafe
17. Coleman Public House	117. Opal
18. The Glass Onion	118. Sweeney’s (closed)
19. Bushido	119. Mercato
20. Cork Bistro (closed)	120. Al Di La
21. Kaminsky’s	121. The Rarebit
22. Jim n Nick’s	122. Graze
23. Red’s Ice House	123. CO
24. Vickery’s	124. Indaco
25. Poe’s Tavern	125. Verde
26. East Bay Deli	126. Mosaic
27. 39 Rue de Jean	127. Early Bird Diner
28. Woody’s Pizza	128. Leyla
29. Caviar & Bananas	129. The Square Onion
30. Melvin’s Barbecue	130. SALT at Station 22
31. 17 North (closed)	131. Madra Rua
32. Old Village Post House	132. Papa Zuzu’s
33. Red Drum	133. The Granary
34. 82 Queen	134. The Obstinate Daughter
35. Tristan (closed)	135. Sunae’s (closed)
36. Triangle Char & Bar	136. Edmund’s Oast
37. Jack’s Cosmic Dogs	137. Egan & Sons (closed)
38. Sesame Burger	138. Mondo’s
39. Osaka	139. Boxcar Betty’s
40. Coconut Joe’s	140. Park Cafe
41. High Cotton	141. Whtie Duck Taco Shop
42. Fuel	142. Bowen’s Island
43. Coast	143. Brown Dog Deli
44. Fish	144. The Pickled Palate
45. EVO Pizza	145. Pane e Vino
46. Amen Street Fish & Raw Bar	146. Brasserie Gigi (closed)
47. O’Hara & Flynn Wine Bar	147. Chez Nous
48. Heart Woodfire Kitchen (closed)	148. Swig & Swine
49. Carolina’s (closed)	149. The Bluerose Cafe
50. Sabatino’s Pizza	150. Circa 1886
51. FIG	151. Leon’s Oyster Shop
52. Oak Steakhouse	152. Leelee’s Hot Kitchen (closed)
53. Basil	153. Two Boroughs Larder (closed)
54. Eli’s Table	154. Spero
55. Anson	155. Junction Kitchen
56. O-Ku	156. The Drawing Room
57. Bull Street (closed)	157. Basico
58. Magnolia’s	158. Island Grill & Bar
59. Folly Beach Shrimp Co. (closed)	159. Stereo 8 (closed)
60. Nirlep	160. R Kitchen
61. Baguette Magic	161. The Americano
62. Monza	162. Cafe Framboise
63. JB’s Smokehouse	163. Thai Elephant
64. The Macintosh	164. Burton’s
65. Charleston Crab House	165. Ellis Creek Fish Camp
66. Boathouse at Breach Inlet	166. Lost Dog Cafe
67. Lucky’s (closed)	167. Maybank Public House
68. Tattooed Moose	168. Apartment A (closed)
69. Starfish Grill (closed)	169. 5Church
70. Pick Thai	170. The Watch
71. El Bohio (closed)	171. The Darling Oyster Bar
72. Bin 152	172. The Westendorff (closed)
73. Tomato Shed Cafe	173. Vintage Coffee & Cafe
74. Athens Grill	174. Congress
75. Angel Oak	175. Feathertop
76. Peninsula Grill	176. Parlor Deluxe (closed)
77. Sunrise Bistro	177. Bistro Toulouse
78. Halls Chophouse	178. Charleston Grill
79. Pearlz Oyster Bar	179. La Nortena
80. Maria’s Mexican Grill	180. Marina Variety
81. Ted’s Butcherblock	181. Jack’s Cafe
82. Stars	182. King Street Grille
83. Lowcountry Bistro	183. Little Jack’s Tavern
84. Ms. Rose’s	184. Le Farfalle
85. The Sloppy Cow (closed)	185. Artisan Meat Share
86. Fire Street Food	186. McCrady’s Tavern
87. Mellow Mushroom	187. Goat Sheep Cow North
88. The Lot	188. Joey Tomatoes
89. La Fourchette (closed)	189. Stella’s
90. Bacco	190. Hen and the Goat
91. The Grocery	191. Urban Cookhouse
92. The Ordinary	192. Kairos Greek Kitchen
93. Cypress (closed)	193. The Shelter
94. El Mercadito
95. New Moon (closed)
96. Rosebank Cafe (closed)
97. Southern General
98. Rutledge Cab Co.
99. Osteria La Bottiglia (closed)
100. Trattoria Lucca

First Things First: Taco Boy

May 22, 2017June 25, 2017 Posted in Charleston, Restaurants, Uncategorized1 Comment

Way back in October 2009, we made our first trip to Charleston. Leaving the airport, we were greeted with a blast of heat (a welcome change from chilly New York!) and one of our best friends, who immediately took us to Folly Beach and one of her favorite restaurants, Taco Boy. Sitting on the back patio, soaking up the sun and a few margaritas in the middle of a weekday, we instantly fell in love with the restaurant. That love extended to Charleston as a whole over the course of the weekend, and a little less than two years later, we were back in the city as residents instead of tourists. We’ve been to almost 200 restaurants in the city since then, but Taco Boy will always hold a special place in our heart as the first – and so it seemed only fitting that it should be the subject of our first real blog post!

Taco Boy is a funky taqueria/cantina that fits perfectly with Folly Beach’s laid-back atmosphere. It has both indoor seating – which offers a nice respite from the scorching beach heat in the summer – and outdoor seating on its front and back patios (with the latter being dog-friendly). Even the restrooms are quirky; each unisex stall is wallpapered in magazine covers featuring the head of “the Taco Boy” superimposed on the original cover model’s body.

As you might guess from the name, Taco Boy’s specialty is tacos. Over the years, we’ve tried almost all of tacos on the menu – from a standard American taco to more creative options like kimchi beef and chorizo & potato to great vegetarian options like tempura avocado and roasted cauliflower – and have been impressed with their breadth and creativity. Our absolute favorite, though, is the grilled fish taco: grilled mahi, greens, cilantro dijon sauce and salsa crudo wrapped in lettuce or a flour or corn tortilla. More often than not, our order is simply eight of them (four for Tyler, three for Nina and one for the boy), and on our most recent visit, our waitress referred to us as the “Fish Taco Family” – we’ll choose to take that as a compliment! The truly brave (or foolish) can add “Danger Sauce” to any taco for an extra fifty cents; we’re not sure what’s in it, but it is no-fooling HOT. All of the tacos are a la carte, so you can mix and match as much as you want.

Processed with VSCO with c1 preset — Grilled fish taco

Taco Boy’s appetizers are also solid. The salsa trio (jalapeno tomato, tomatillo and salsa crudo) is our favorite, and the queso and nachos are good, if heavier, options as well. Our one gripe with Taco Boy is that their guacamole is offered at “market price,” which we once discovered to be almost $10 – we’re not sure how much that varies, as that was not-so-coincidentally the last time we ordered the guac.

Mexican beer and margaritas dominate the drink menu. An ice-cold Sol, pineapple margarita or Taco Boy’s special “frozen screwdriver” is a perfect complement to a fish taco after a day at the beach!

FullSizeRender_2 — Skinny pineapple-infused margarita

Taco Boy is about as kid-friendly as you can get for lunch or an early dinner. The kids’ menu offers basic cheese and black bean tacos and quesadillas, but if you have a semi-adventurous eater, we’d recommend ordering from the regular menu. All of the “adult” tacos cost around $4, which is on par with the quesadillas on the kids’ menu, and are much more interesting! Jack will happily deconstruct a grilled fish taco and devour all of the mahi and tortilla (still working on the greens!). The restaurant also has plenty of high chairs, and the noise level is always high enough to drown out the occasional toddler freak-out. Taco Boy is visually stimulating as well, with colorful lamps hanging from the ceiling and Oaxacan masks adorning the walls. Jack always asks us to “name” the masks – now if only we could remember what we’ve called them between visits!

A few years ago, Taco Boy opened a second location on Huger Street downtown, with a similar vibe and an expansive outdoor area. It’s definitely worth a visit, though for sentimental reasons we’ll always prefer the original Folly spot!

So there you have it: our first post about our first Charleston restaurant. Cheers to many more!

Restaurant Info:

Taco Boy website

15 Center Street, Folly Beach, SC

217 Huger Street, Charleston, SC

V-Dub Grub’s kid-friendly rating: A

Welcome to V-Dub Grub!

May 20, 2017May 20, 2017 Posted in CharlestonLeave a comment

Thanks for visiting our brand-new blog! Here’s the skinny:

Who: Tyler and Nina, food and wine lovers who’ve called Charleston, South Carolina our home for the last six years, and our three-year-old foodie-in-training, Jack.

What: We’ll share our thoughts on restaurants, recipes, cooking gadgets, food-centric books and films, and whatever else strikes our foodie fancy. As parents hoping to pass our love of food (no wine yet!) to our son, we’ll also highlight casual, family-friendly spots.

Where: Like the blog description says, Charleston and beyond. We love living in the preeminent food city in the South but are always eager to expand our horizons (culinarily and otherwise)!

When: As often as possible!

Why: Tyler loves to cook, Nina loves to write, and we both love to eat and drink! The “experts” always say to do what you love, so we thought we’d combine our interests into a new creative outlet.

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Happy reading, and bon appétit!