When I was in my mid-20s, I became a Food Network junkie.  We had just moved into the first home we owned, a 1,100 sq ft townhouse, and I had my own kitchen after living in my in-law’s basement for a couple of years while Jeff finished his undergrad degree.  I had a lot of pent-up creative energy and I was very excited about painting, decorating, cooking, and baking.  I had also left my corporate job and committed my days to being a stay-at-home wife and supporting Jeff in his first full-time ministry job as a Youth Pastor.  It was a rare season of life when I didn’t have to work and wasn’t yet occupied with caring for babies.  So, I relished in all things domestic!  Of course, I painted the walls, refinished furniture, installed trim, and wood floors, and worked on our small house, but I watched the Food Network, read cookbooks, and learned to cook and bake almost everything from scratch.

That interest in food eventually transitioned into watching competitive cooking shows that featured fine dining like Top Chef.  When Jeff asked about my interest in those shows, I told him that I liked watching the food.  It all looked so interesting and creative and I wished I could try it.  Over the years, we ate at some really nice restaurants, but we never intentionally sought out ones that were run by former Top Chef contestants or those that have won James Beard Awards and Michelin Stars.

Last year, I was watching an older season of Top Chef and a lightbulb went off when I saw one of the contestants was from Frederick, MD.  I bet he has a restaurant there!  And he does!  So, Jeff and I had a dining experience at Bryan Voltaggio’s Thacher & Rye last year for his birthday.  We splurged and ordered two things from every course so we could experience the full range of the seasonal menu created by a renowned chef.

And, it was such a delight!  I didn’t love everything, but I discovered a lot of foods I really loved that I had never tried before.  It was such a fun experience that we decided we would do something like that once a year either for a birthday, anniversary or another special date.  Fine dining, especially when you do a full-tasting menu or order all of the courses, can be very expensive, but we feel like it’s worth it.  We’re paying for the experience and not just to get a full belly.

(The dish above was burrata cheese with citrus, basil, red peppers, peanuts, and sourdough toast.  It was one of my favorite dishes of the night.)

So, for our 25th anniversary, which happened to fall when we were on a family vacation at Isle of Palms, we decided to dine at a restaurant with a menu created by a James Beard Award-winning chef – Circa 1886.

Circa 1886 is a restaurant housed in the carriage house of the Wentworth Mansion in historic downtown Charleston, SC.

We arrived about an hour ahead of our dinner reservation so we could walk around the grounds and surrounding area.  I love the old homes in Charleston and it was fun to see a part of the city that I didn’t see a few years ago on a carriage tour.

The Wentworth Mansion is pretty spectacular and is now used as a luxury hotel.

Since we had some time to kill and it was a beautiful early Spring evening, we walked about 2-3 blocks around the Wentworth to do some house-peeping.

    Here were some of my favorite homes and “moments” I spotted on our meandering.

If you haven’t seen the homes in Charleston before, they have a very unique architectural feature – two-story porches that run along one side of the house with the front door leading to the lower porch instead of the interior of the house.  The two-story porches were designed to take advantage of the lot sizes as well as the ocean breezes during the hot South Carolina months.  The front door leading to the porch is known as a Hospitality Door and I read it’s a “Southern thing.”

You can see more old houses of Charleston HERE.

So, let’s get to the food of Circa 1886…

Jeff and I both ordered the Cooper tasting menu.  We usually try to order different things so we can taste more dishes but that was the menu that appealed to both of us the most, so we went with it.  The only issue was that Jeff is allergic to peanuts and peanuts were in one of the dishes.  In addition, the menu states that no substitutions or changes would be made to dishes on their tasting menus. Jeff called ahead, though, and asked if they would just remove the peanuts on one dish for an allergy and they said they would speak with the kitchen to see if they could make that change.

When we arrived, our waiter came to the table and said with a cheeky expression, “You cheated. You looked at the menu ahead of time!”  He then addressed Jeff by name, “I understand you have a peanut allergy and would like to have the quail on the Cooper tasting menu without peanuts.  We would be happy to do that for you.”

Before the first course, they bring out an amuse-bouche from the chef.  An amuse-bouche is a one-bite appetizer to build anticipation for the meal.  Ours was actually two bites – a duck pâté mousse and a creamy mushroom soup in a tiny cup.  But that was just the beginning.

The first course was a roasted garlic and artichoke brulee.  First of all, I expected this to be hot, and second, I expected this to taste something like a spinach artichoke dip.  My expectations weren’t met, but they were exceeded.  The dish was refreshingly cold and had a very mild, creamy garlic and subtle artichoke flavor.  The chive tweel on top was a work of art and even tasted nice when broken up and mixed into the brulee.  The hazelnuts and pieces of crispy ham under the lacy chive dome added tons of flavor to the subtleties of the dish.  It was a winner and a great way to start.

We moved on to the second course – a Crab Bake with lump crab meat, cauliflower, celery, celery greens, swiss cheese, and corn.  To me, this dish tasted like a warm crab salad, mostly due to the strong celery flavor.  It was absolutely delicious.  We used to go crabbing when we were at the beach with my Opa and my mom and Oma would cook and pick the crabs to make crab salad for dinner.  They said they would put a piece of crab in the bowl for every one that went on my high chair tray.  One in the salad and one in Marian’s mouth.  This dish was made for a crab-lover like me.

The third course ended up being the unanimous favorite of the night.  It was quail breast with avocado crema, cucumber relish, radish, and peanut.  I have never had quail before and was skeptically curious to try it.  I’m not a big meat eater, so I doubted this would be a favorite, but it was so expertly prepared that it won me over.  I expected it to taste like chicken breast, but it reminded me more of a tender veal schnitzel.  All of the components looked gorgeous and tasted as good as it looked.  Even something as small as the little slice of radish was perfection.  I enjoyed trying a bite with all of the components together and then trying them each separately to get a sense of the parts that made up the whole.

The fourth course was an antelope steak with braised cabbage, poached pears, chestnut barley risotto, and peppercorn sauce.  As I said, I’m not a big meat eater and I’m even less of a red meat eater.  If I could’ve made an alteration to the menu, I would’ve asked for a vegetarian version of this dish, but I just went with it.  How often do you get to taste antelope?  Maybe it would be a new favorite.

Well, it wasn’t a new favorite.  I tried a small bite and it wasn’t my thing, but Jeff loved his.  I did enjoy everything else on the plate.  The nutty risotto was hearty and comforting and the braised cabbage was mildly sweet and buttery. The sauce was clearly made by an expert and had a wonderful, warm depth of flavor.  Everything combined reminded me of Christmas for some reason.

When our waiter collected our plates, he looked at my uneaten antelope and frowned.  I could see him silently asking why I didn’t eat it.  Was it not the right temperature?  Was it tough?  Did I have my first criticism of the meal?  Before he could ask, I hopped in and said, “The dish was wonderful.  I’m just not a big meat eater, but I’m glad I had the chance to try antelope.”

And, last of all, we had the dessert course.  It was a white chocolate cheesecake with pomegranate seeds, petite cubes of poppyseed cake, bright pink cranberry consume, and candied apricot.  It was a little piece of dessert heaven on a plate.  The candied apricot was like the high-end version of a gummy sugared orange slice!  The rest of it was so light and tasty with a variety of textures to combine.

The portions were a nice size for five courses, but we still left full and completely satisfied with the experience.  We didn’t just eat dinner.  We dined.

Somewhere in the rise of TV dinners, fast food, and eating on the go, we have lost the art of dining.  We sat together for over two hours, savoring each bite and chatting about our favorite parts of each dish.  It was a reminder to me that we don’t have to go to a fancy restaurant to experience that.  We can do it with the things we eat at home.  Sit, dine, talk, and savor.

It was also a reminder that food and flavors are a gift to us.  As someone who has been on a diet since I was 15 years old, food can sometimes feel like the enemy and there have been so many times I’ve hopped on the styrofoam-eating diet train.  Good food should be miserable to some extent.  But, all of this food was real, flavorful whole food, prepared with every attention to detail, and it was anything but miserable.

So, as always, I hope this post provides some inspiration for you in some way or another.  Perhaps you’ll just enjoy a fine dining experience vicariously through this post.  Perhaps you’ll find a Michelin Star restaurant in your area and enjoy a multi-course experience created and prepared by culinary geniuses.  Or perhaps you’ll just be inspired to sit at a table and savor your lunch, enjoying each bite for the gift it is.