Day 4: The Beach (finally) & The Glass Onion

You may be wondering about now why we even bother to go to the beach when it took 4 days to even step foot on it.  That's a good question.  Really, we're perfectly content with a pool, the sun, and good restaurants!  Apparently our boys feel the same way because neither of them have been enamored with the sand or ocean.

Colin almost refuses to get in the water now because he's been smacked in the face one too many times by a wave crashing in and Sawyer didn't even want to be held while someone else's feet touched the water.  I guess one time a year isn't enough to get them acclimated. 

Colin did like the sand this time and was excited to build a sandcastle.  That involved a lot of direction from Mommy.  I tried to find him a little friend, and I did, but the kid was more interested in the water than building.  Colin tried, bless his heart, but in the end it was just he and I slaving away.

Meanwhile, this is what Sawyer thought of the beach.

And then Wes decided to get a little more comfortable.  Be sure you notice the shoe in the picture above!

*****

Tonight's dinner was at The Glass Onion.  I loved all the places we ate down there but this was one of my favorites for sure.  It's off the beaten path and I venture to guess that most tourists don't know it exists.  My Charleston friend was surprised I had heard about it.  Ha!  Me?  Research much?

They bill themselves as a fresh, as local as possible, Southern-style cooking restaurant.  The way your grandmother might have cooked (if you were lucky) with very modest price tags.  Like I said, the tourists don't know about it so it doesn't have the tourist price tags.

We ate here on Tuesday so that Wes could take advantage of their fried chicken dinner special.  This has gotten so popular that you can now reserve your chicken!  Apparently once it's gone, it's gone, so this guarantees you some delicious chicken.  Plus, it's brined in buttermilk for 24 hours, so it's not like they can just get some more.

They were kind enough to advise us to get an appetizer to tide us over while we waited for the chicken.  Wes ordered the pickle sampler and my mom got a "fresh from the garden" salad.  The pickle sampler consisted of pickles (obviously), pickled okra, dilly beans, and 1 carrot.  They were slightly spicy but very tasty.  I love the beans, Wes loved the okra.  It would convert any non-okra lover, I'm pretty sure.

Mom's salad tasted like they had just plucked the bibb lettuce after she placed her order.  They didn't though because Colin and I walked around back to see if they had a garden and they did not.  It had some of the same pickled vegetables on it and was lightly tossed in a vinaigrette.

Colin's food arrived early as well and he had his fried shrimp eaten before Wes could finish his pickles!  Colin learned that he loves shrimp!

Did I mention the portions were large?  Our entrees arrived and we all realized we would never be able to eat all of that food.  Wes' fried chicken was a huge breast and maybe a wing or thigh, mashed potatoes, and collard greens.  One thing is for sure, Wes is a fried chicken expert.  If he says it's good, it's good.  Period.  And he said this was really good!  The sides were great too.

I ordered the Crispy Fried Eggplant with Blue Crab Creole.  Sometimes an entree description makes the dish sound better than it really is.  This dish was the exact opposite.  The description sounds good enough but the actual dish was far superior.  It was 4 or 5 large eggplant rounds, breaded and fried, topped (generously) with a corn relish, studded with blue crab claw meat.  The eggplant was crisp and flavorful, which is saying something considering eggplant tends to be somewhat tasteless in my opinion, but the corn salad concoction was fantastic.  As my stomach began to fill up, I knew I was going to have to make a decision as to what I wanted my last couple of bites to be.  I scraped all the corn mixture off and gobbled it up.

This place is a diamond in the rough.  I am SO glad I searched this place out and followed through with it.  There was a moment when I was nervous about it, fearing I had made the wrong choice.  Not so.  This will go on our permanent list of restaurants for Charleston.  I can only hope it remains low on the radar and thus, a hidden bargain!