Charleston Restaurant Week Middleton Place Restaurant--3 for $50 Well Worth It

It was a January evening at Middleton Place. Upon passing the softly lit entrance gate off of pitch black 61, in the far distance, you could see the brightly lighted North Flanker. It was about all you could see at this point in the darkness of the sunless landscape until the peering lights of your vehicle discreetly fell upon the branches of the tall oaks lining the drive leading up to the parking. Upon exiting your vehicle, the trailing smoke of the flaming wick lamps showed the way to the welcoming lights of Middleton's restaurant. The occasion, Restaurant Week, and Middleton Place Restaurant was featuring a 3 for $50 menu.

We did not have a reservation, so our choices were to either wait an hour and a half for an 8 pm seating or take a seat in the intimate bar area. We obviously chose the later option, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise. The large open room was warmed by an inviting, crackling fire, and we took a seat well positioned to take advantage of this welcoming amenity. Patron's leaving would make a final stop to warm themselves by the fire. One patron mentioning how cold it was sitting by the big windows of Middleton's elegant dining room. Also, the only thing you could hear over your conversation was the popping of the blazing wood, unlike the loud chatter of the main seating area. Check the box of another unexpected plus.

Our friendly server, who was also the bartender, promptly placed the restaurant's large menus on the table with two glasses of water, a full set of silverware for whatever, and two small plates for bread. First consideration was obviously our choice of opening drinks. My friend perused the extensive wine menu and I had already predetermined my choice, a Manhattan. Our server asked me my choice of Bourbon, and I said Knob Creek. My Manhattan was made just the way I like it, with a substantial kick, assuring me I got my moneys worth.

Our server stated the specials for the night, but we were there to partake of the 3 for $50 menu, which offered you a choice between two first courses, three second courses, and two third courses. For the first course, my friend and I chose the She Crab Soup made with lump crab and Sherry. For the second course, I chose the Chicken Perloo with the locally, famous Carolina gold rice, Andouille, bacon, caramelized apple, and fried parsley. My friend picked the Braised Lamb Shank with Carolina gold rice, Middlins risotto, roasted carrots, and red wine lamb reduction--sauce. The third course we both chose Apple Crumble with vanilla ice cream.

The bread was brought to the table and not long after the She Crab soup. We drank our drinks, buttered our bread, and conversed while we waited for the main course. The She Crab Soup was superb--a pleasant touch of Sherry and just the right flavor of crab, not overwhelming.

The main course arrived sizzling hot. Like the She Crab Soup, the different flavors in the rice dish was very balanced. The sausage and bacon did not dominate the hint of apple flavor and the texture of the rice had a soft crunch--enjoyable. The juicy chicken topped the rice and pulled apart easily. It was a satisfying portion for an entree. As to the Braised Lamb Shank, it was a first for my friend and she said she is now a fan of lamb. Finally, the Apple Crumble with vanilla ice cream was just that. When I think back on it, I should have tried the Southern Pecan Pie with caramel and whipped cream.

I give high marks to our server and bartender, Lucy. She was attentive, conversational, and humorous. Finished plates were cleared, so the table was never cluttered, and water topped off. She made drink inquiries as needed. She also had the added task of keeping the fire cozy, which she handled diligently.

Middleton Place Restaurant is elegant and historical. A good choice for Charleston Restaurant Week. For a table in the main dining room, be sure to make a reservation. However, the bar area is a pleasant surprise on a cold, January evening.

Middleton Place Restaurant

4300 Ashley River Road, Charleston, SC

Wednesday Garden Stroll and Wine Tasting at Middleton Place--A Collaboration of Nature's Bounty

Schedule for 2022

With the Ashley River lazily meandering in the distance, a peaceful easy feeling came over me as I sat on a wooden bench leisurely sipping on a plastic cup of red wine. I was in the company of one of the oldest oak trees in the Charleston Lowcountry. Greyed from age and bearing the scars of a sometimes tumultuous past, the Great Oak's long, broad branches majestically overshadowed the calming waters of the Rice Fields where fish launched themselves into the air like mortar shells and alligators prowled the surface like the H. L. Hunley in search of an unwary prey.

Clinging to the tree's weather-beaten bark, a cardinal curiously watched my every move. We weren't alone. With the Octagonal Garden to the right and the Sundial Garden behind, the soft, intimate chatter and light laughter of fellow strollers navigating the garden's preened pathways filled the warm evening air. The occasion is Wednesday Garden Stroll and Wine Tasting at Middleton Place.

The Wednesday Garden Stroll and Wine Tasting was started as a way for visitors to experience the beauty of Middleton Place in the early evening light and a more relaxed atmosphere--no tour guides needed. It is just you, the gardens, and a world renowned vino. The Wine Strolls are an invitation to drink in the incomparable natural beauty of the plantations 274 year old gardens--the oldest landscaped gardens in America. Each week, samples of specially selected wines from around the world are uncorked by the Middleton Place Restaurant for you to savor. A different wine region and beautiful garden location in bloom is chosen for the stroll.

Enjoy the following story of a previous wine stroll.

This week's selected location was the southern magnolia-lined walkway along the spring-fed Reflection Pond. The four white-cloth covered tables were evenly spread out under the tall trees the full distance of the pond and strategically located at pathway entrances for easy access into the sprawling gardens. On each table were two bottles of wine--one red and one white. Each setting was accompanied by a basket of crackers for cleansing the palette between tastings.

The wine region selected was South America. At Table One, Tomero Torrontes 2013 from Mendoza, Argentina was the white offering and Malma Malbec 2012 from Patagonia, Argentina was the red. At Table Two, the white offering was Cautivo Chardonnay 2014 from Mendoza and the red was Errazuric Max Reserva Carmenere from the Villa de Aconcagua, Chile 2011. Moving to Table Three, Arido Moscato 2013 from Mendoza was the white and Colonia Las Liebres Bonarda Clasico 2013 from Mendoza was the red. Table Four topped off the selections with a Sangria Blanco and a Sangria Roja.

The correct pronunciations I leave to you to figure out--some Spanish required. The Cautivo Chardonnay was my white wine favorite and the Bonarda Clasico was the red I sipped under the Great Oak. After a few glasses of the South American vino and a dash of imagination, I found myself rubbing shoulders and clinking glasses with Henry and Mary as a guest of their garden party. Blame my whimsical tryst to the past on the wine.

If you want to get that peaceful easy feeling, Middleton's Wednesday Garden Stroll and Wine Tasting is where you want to be. It is a perfect blend of fine wine and floral gardens accented with the aroma of magnolias and oaks interlaced with a tremendous concentration of gentle sunlight. This event is elegant and well-balanced. Extend the evening with an overnight stay at the Inn at Middleton Place and/or dinner at the Middleton Place Restaurant .

Now, create your own story with a visit to Middleton Place on one of the scheduled dates.

Tickets are $30 online and $35 at event.

Time: 5:30 pm - 7:00 pm

Middleton Place's Rice Mill--Once a Tea Room Managed by a Summerville Matron and the Digs for a Famous Southern Chef

Halcyon Place was the name of a Southern Style house on South Main Street owned by Mr. and Mrs. George S. Weed at this pivotal time in Summerville's history. It would become the Halcyon Inn during the town's Golden Age.

The inn was not known for accommodating famous guests like the Pine Forest and Carolina Inns, at least I am not aware of any. Framed by the property's groves of magnolias and oaks, its sprawling two-story white-columned porch was a welcoming reminder of space and calmness for its seasonal patrons. A strategically placed joggling board offered an amusing session of relaxing contemplation. If the moment was right and the sojourner willing, the inn's host would retell the endearing story of the fateful circumstances that brought the wooden apparatus to the house.

Mrs. Caroline Parameter, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Weed, was well known for her delicious entrees. Mrs. Parameter also showcased her culinary expertise at the springtime Tea Room on Middleton Place for the Junior League of Charleston during the late 1920s. The Tea Room was the first of the Junior League's fundraising enterprises.

Middleton's rice mill, situated next to the butterfly lakes and the rice mill pond, underwent weighty alterations during its transformation into the "tea room." The revamped two-story building, topped with a mansard roof, offered a tranquil setting for sipping locally grown Southern tea and sharing meaningful Lowcountry conversation. In its second-floor kitchen, League volunteers prepared okra soup and made sandwiches that they served to guests seated at tables overlooking the Ashley River. The first-floor eating area, adorned by a fireplace and andirons, was outfitted with a dumbwaiter the staff used to transfer food from the kitchen.

The Tea Room remained in the Rice Mill until 1949 when it was moved to a new location and became the Middleton Place Restaurant. It was converted to a museum in 1956, featuring a spinning wheel and "Brown Bess" over the fireplace.

The Restaurant building was designed by W. Bancel LaFarge in 1933, based on research done in Barbados, and has the same roof lines as the Rice Mill. Originally used as a guest house, it had two bedrooms and a sitting room upstairs. The cypress-paneled room downstairs was a living and game room surrounded by a screened porch. The Cypress Room, now used as a private dining room, was originally a series of storerooms leading to the plantation office.

In 1985, the owners of Middleton Place persuaded Edna Lewis, one of the country's ten most influential women in the food industry and one of the founders of Cafe Nicholson on Manhattan's East Side, to join them with a goal to inspire a menu based on historical records of early Carolina plantation cooking. She took up residence in the Rice Mill and became their head chef and consultant.

Many ideas for Edna's menu came from a book called "The Carolina Housewife" published in 1847 by Sara Rutledge, a cousin of the Middletons. Although the recipes in the book are incomplete by today's standards, Lewis drew the essentials from them and developed dishes that the well-to-do Middletons might have eaten. Dishes like panned quail with julienne of country ham and spoon bread, rabbit pate, broiled oysters on the half shell with buttered crumbs, pan-fried flounder, watercress soup, grits, shrimp paste, whole strawberry preserves, chocolate souffle, and caramel layer cake.

There are two choices for seating at the restaurant, the dining room or the garden. The view from the dining room is stunning. Lined with large windows, it overlooks the old rice mill pond and picturesque Azalea Hillside. If available, the garden seating offers an intimate, quiet space with a view of the spacious field in front of the South Flanker.

Enclosed by a three-foot brick wall and draped overhead by Spanish moss, a variety of potted plants accented the space--a perfect setting for sipping on an afternoon sweet tea, or if you are feeling a little more fruity, a glass of wine.

Despite the varied menu, I kept it simple and chose the special of the day, a roast turkey sandwich topped with green fried tomatoes and field greens picked from their on-site garden partnered with a side of French fries--sublime.

The casual lunch was sufficient. I was at Middleton Place for its historic surroundings and the garden atmosphere offered by its restaurant. With the warm Charleston sun shining overhead, the setting was perfect for basking in the aura of an antique building and savoring a delicious meal under the shadowy canopy of an ancient oak tree.

In the distance, basking in the soft rays of the Lowcountry sun on the other side of Rice Mill Pond, stood the old brick building that was a rice mill, a tea room managed by a Summerville matron, a museum, and the digs for a famous Southern chef. The halcyon scene was picture-perfect.

Lunch At A Plantation With The Oldest Landscaped Gardens In America--Middleton Place

The felled bricks strewn across the ground are all that was left--burned by the 56th New York Regiment in 1865, the Great Earthquake of 1886 finished off the remaining shell leaving the present heap of ruins. A black, iron-gated fence opening unto a chained walkway cuts through its middle. Beyond, the terraced landscape sloped gradually downward to the shore of the rising and falling tidal waters of the Ashley River. Looking landward, a spacious field of green grass accommodated gigantic oaks and grazing sheep. Little lambs scurrying about amused watching patrons. Moments later, a horse drawn wagon filled with tourists pulled up and paused outside the gate. The guide began her narrative, "This was where the main house of Middleton Place once stood."

Born in a time when trips into Charleston were excursions and the Ashley River was a thoroughfare, Middleton Place was a panorama of southern grace and opulent gardens. The Duke de la Rochefoucault, who visited in 1789, wrote, "the garden is beautiful." In 1941 the Garden Club of America conferred on Middleton Place the Bulkley Medal and declared the landscaped gardens not only to be the oldest, but also "the most interesting and important in America."

The original estate complex consisted of the afore mentioned main house flanked by two other buildings. The South Flanker, built in 1755, served as a gentlemen's guest quarters and the North Flanker, a library and conservatory. The South Flanker was the only to survive the Civil War conflagration with its structure in tack. It was restored and served as the families living quarters from 1870 to 1975. It is now a museum. Another building added in 1933, served as a guest house and later became the restaurant--the main reason I visited Middleton Place on this beautiful Charleston day.

 

There are two choices for seating at the restaurant--the dining room or the garden. The view from the dining room is stunning. Lined with large windows, it overlooks the old Mill Pond and picturesque Azalea Hillside. If available, the garden seating offers an intimate, quiet space with a view of the spacious green field in front of the South Flanker. Enclosed by a three-foot brick wall and draped overhead by Spanish moss, it is accented with a variety of potted plants--a perfect setting for sipping on an afternoon sweet tea or if you are feeling a little more fruity, a glass of wine.

Recipes from one time resident southern Chef Edna Lewis are featured with emphasis on authentic Lowcountry cuisine. Selections like she crab soup, SC collard greens with ham hock, corn bread, Hoppin Jon, pulled pork, fried chicken and corn pudding. Despite the varied menu, I kept it simple and chose the special of the day, which was a roast turkey sandwich topped with green fried tomatoes and field greens picked from their on site garden partnered with a side of French fries--simple and sublime.

On this April day, a casual lunch is all I was interested in. I was at Middleton Place for the historic surroundings and garden atmosphere its restaurant offers. With the warm, Charleston sun shining overhead, the setting was perfect for basking in the aura of an antique building and savoring a delicious meal under the shadowy canopy of an ancient oak tree. Well worth the visit.