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Beaufort The Beaufort Inn Widely considered the top restaurant in town is this elegant establishment that owner Debbie Fielden likes to call "Beaufort’s Inn – because it’s so popular with locals." The dining operation was given its cachet by founding chef Peter de Jong, who was featured on PBS Television’s Great Chefs of the South series before leaving in 1998 to open his own restaurant (see below). Much of the menu and spirit remained under new chef Chip Ulbrich and kitchen crew. Forty-eight wines are offered by the glass or flight (a tasting of three) in the mahogany-paneled wine bar and grill room, original site of the inn’s restaurant. In 1998, two guest rooms at the front of the house were converted into fancy dining rooms. They more than doubled the restaurant’s size to the point where it takes up most of the inn’s main floor. The wine bar and grill menu is strong on starters, salads and flatbreads, and offers about six special entrées. The main dining room offers fewer appetizers and more main courses at heftier prices. Look for starters like she-crab soup flavored with sherry, a blended crab and crawfish cake with roasted red pepper rémoulade and pan-fried tomatoes filled with goat cheese. Typical main dishes are whole crisped flounder served with a warm gazpacho sauce on yucca chips, grilled scallop and bacon satay served on lemon-pepper penne with a banana-mango ketchup, sliced duck breast on a blueberry gastrique with "forbidden black rice" and grilled ribeye steak flamed with cognac. Dessert could be key lime tart, lemon sorbet coupe or coconut-banana crème brûlée. (843) 521-9000. Entrées, $15.95 to $25.50; wine bar and grill, $14 to $19.25. Dinner nightly, 6 to 10, wine bar from 5. Sunday brunch, 10 to 2. Bistro de Jong After putting the Beaufort Inn on the culinary map, Dutch chef Peter de Jong left in 1998 to open this European-style bistro showcasing modern Southern cuisine. It also consists of a patisserie and a sushi and satay bar, and is known for its cooking classes and wine dinners. The look of the long and narrow downtown restaurant is vaguely Mediterranean, with arty local murals painted on the walls and sculptures and fish gracing the entry. Dining is by candlelight. The feeling is warm and casual. Dinner might begin with a bowl of sherried she-crab soup, shrimp and jalapeño grit cakes or a caramelized apple and pecan chicken pâté with peach chutney. Or you could sample a dozen kinds of five satays from the bistro bar. Fresh blue crab sushi was a sensational special the night we dined. Main courses ranged from a crisp whole flounder with caramelized banana and a watermelon-strawberry chutney over basmati rice to grilled beef tenderloin with a wild mushroom ragoût over fried green tomato and sundried tomato-basil mashed potato. We liked the crusty bread better than the house salad, but were most impressed with the grilled chicken served with a superior cilantro-mango sauce over roasted fennel couscous and teamed with ratatouille. Dessert from the patisserie was a light cheesecake garnished with raspberries and blueberries. Wednesdays are ethnic nights at this happening place, where you can stop in for coffee and dessert after an evening walk or take out sushi from the bar. At our visit Peter was about to launch limited lunch service. (843) 524-4994. Entrées, $13 to $18. Lunch, Thursday and Friday 11:30 to 2:30. Dinner, Tuesday-Saturday from 5:30. 11th Street Dockside Everybody’s favorite for fresh seafood with a water view is this out-of-the-way, atmospheric place beside Port Royal Seafood Inc., about six miles south of town. Shrimp boats are tied up at the docks near the confluence of Battery Creek and the Beaufort River. They vie with the sunsets to provide interest for diners at window tables or the clusters of waiting patrons outside. The place is cavernous with a rustic bar, a nautical dining room and, our choice, an enclosed porch with a tropical look. The menu is fairly predictable, from fried shrimp and farm-raised catfish to grilled swordfish and sautéed crab cakes. Baked grouper topped with lump crab and a special of pan-seared tuna with mango-pineapple salsa and soy-ginger sauce appealed at our visit. A couple of steaks and southwest chicken are the only non-seafood items. Start with a pot of steamed oysters, steamed shrimp or fried green tomatoes. Finish with chocolate mousse cake or homemade pecan pie. (843) 524-7433. Entrées, $10.95 to $15.95. Dinner, Tuesday-Sunday 4:30 to 9:30 or 10. Plums Hidden down an alley behind stores and backing up to the waterfront park is this casual establishment, favored for lunch or a casual dinner on the rear porch looking toward the river. It’s next door to Plumage, an elegant boutique, but otherwise the name is obscure. Interesting salads and sandwiches are offered in a nondescript high-ceilinged yellow dining room open to the bar and on the back porch. The extensive dinner menu has international flair, as in starters of Tuscany antipasti, Cuban nachos, black bean quesadilla and steamed Prince Edward Island mussels. The adventure continues with such main dishes as a special of rare yellowfin tuna over Asian noodles with a Vietnamese chili sauce topping and Chilean salmon on a painted plate with wasabi, pineapple, rum and curry sauces. Lump crab cakes are topped with a cool key lime-jalapeño tartar sauce. Angus filet mignon is sauced with spiked béarnaise. Pastas, substantial salads and sandwiches round out the dinner menu. Desserts come from the owner’s ice cream factory in Port Royal. (843) 525-1946. Entrées, $11.95 to $17.95. Lunch daily, 11 to 5. Dinner nightly, 5 to 10. The Bank Waterfront
Grill & Bar Behind the columned facade of the old Beaufort Bank is this two-story establishment with a wraparound mezzanine and a neat rear courtyard patio. Tables topped with globe candles and lots of greenery help fill the high-ceilinged space. Tables of choice are the twelve on the patio surrounded by hibiscus, oleander and crape myrtle. The enormous all-day menu offers something for everyone. There are two dozen appetizers, an equal number of specialty salads (from blackened salmon caesar to "grilled chicken healthy"), countless sandwiches and burgers, fried seafood baskets and platters, pastas, and ten black angus steak dishes. The choices nearly overwhelm, and some are farfetched as in pastas called caesar salad, catch of the day and stir-fry. But locals like the Bank for its variety and value. And it remains rock-solid amid a changing array of downtown eateries. (843) 522-8831. Entrées, $10.95 to $16.95. Lunch and dinner daily, from 11:30. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in the Southeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2000. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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