Bistro steakhouse going in where The Block was on Capitol Street in downtown Charleston plans to open in early August. Plus South Charleston Dairy Bar announced its reopening as well!
I’m coming at you this week with three local food scoops!
Single scoop: South Charleston Dairy Bar is reopening soon.
Double scoop: DT Prime is just days from opening in downtown Charleston.
Triple scoop: That DT menu? I’ve got it.
Let the flipping of newspaper pages, the clicking of websites and the scrolling of phones pause for a hot minute. You don’t want to miss this.
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Owners of the much-anticipated restaurant (read my scoop here) going in where The Block was on Capitol Street say the wait is almost over for the bistro steakhouse they’ve named DT Prime. The sign has already gone up outside and final positions are being filled.
“We’re close,” said Todd Moore, who with Dave Andrews owns DT Prime along with Ichiban and Bar 101 downtown, plus The Lookout Bar & Grill up at Eagle View.
“We have staff training this week and a few things to finalize at the restaurant, then we’ll be ready to open late next week or the week after.”
Piling on the anticipation, he also sent me a sneak peak at the nearly final menu that will greet diners once DT’s doors officially open.
Let me preface this by saying it’s still being tweaked and some of the items below may not make the steakhouse menu’s final cut. (See what I did there?) But to get your mouth watering …
Planned apps include fried calamari, Cajun-seared scallops with mango salsa, lollipop lamb chops, fried oysters Rockefeller with creamed spinach, French onion and she-crab soups, plus wedge, caprese, grilled Caesar and other salads.
Entrée options are lemon pepper sea bass with beurre blanc caper sauce and mushroom risotto, a brown sugar double French bone pork chop with apple-onion chutney, garlic-rosemary airline chicken with truffle butter, salmon three ways (maple bacon, Mediterranean or cilantro-lime) plus seasonal pasta and vegetarian options.
Steaks and potatoes are the stars of the show here, however, holding a prime front-and-center spot on the menu.
You can enjoy a center-cut filet, New York strip, Kansas City bone-in strip, sirloin, or cowboy or Delmonico ribeye paired, if you’d like, with either a one-pound baked potato, medley of fingerling potatoes, garlic mashed potatoes, steak fries or Reggie’s “Tarragon Room” potatoes (scalloped Yukon Gold layered with fresh shaved Parmesan, Italian seasonings and cream) harkening back to that beloved former fine-dining spot at the Charleston Marriott Town Center.
You can add lobster tail, shrimp, scallops, mushrooms or a goat cheese stacker to your steak, along with shareable sides like bacon mac ‘n’ cheese, creamed corn, sweet Thai Brussel sprouts, Parmesan asparagus and others.
But the piece de resistance is “Steak on a Stone,” featuring steaks that are seared and served sizzling on an 850-degree lava stone that you can slice and cook exactly to your liking. Once you’re ready to dig in, you can enhance your finished steak with housemade chimichurri, garlic ponzu or JQ Dickinson salt and pepper.
That’s not just a meal, it’s an experience.
Based on that menu and entrée prices ranging from $24-67, I’d say the experience at DT Prime is going to be decidedly more Chop House than Texas Steakhouse, but with an casually upscale vibe that meets somewhere in the middle.
And I am so here for it.
Stay tuned to The Food Guy for DT Prime’s exact opening date coming soon!
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Meanwhile, just a few miles west, South Charleston Dairy Bar announced it will soon be reopening in its same location at 120 D Street, just a few blocks down from the Mound near Appalachian Café.
An old-school short-order grill and ice cream stand serving hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ, chicken sandwiches, fries, onion rings, ice cream, milkshakes and more, the Dairy Bar initially closed in 2020 after the start of COVID, briefly reopened later that year, then eventually closed again to wait out the pandemic.
But fans of this former “Best in the Valley” winner can now rejoice that tasty grilled eats and ice cream treats are coming back to the south end of D Street.
No reopening date has been released yet, but posts on the restaurant’s Facebook page say that announcement is coming soon.
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Steven Keith is a food writer and restaurant critic known as “The Food Guy” who writes a weekly column for the Charleston Gazette-Mail and has appeared in several state, regional and national culinary publications. Follow him online at www.wvfoodguy.com or on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. He can be reached at 304-380-6096 or at wvfoodguy@aol.com.
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