Looks like the years-long local restaurant chatter is true. A new Irish pub has announced it will be opening in downtown Charleston more than two years after receiving a $5,000 Small Business Investment Grant from the city.
Located on the corner of Quarrier and Dickinson streets, Hagy’s Irish Pie Pub describes itself as a warm and casual Irish pub that will strive to deliver authentic Irish cuisine through a painstaking, time-consuming process. That same approach also applies to the space itself, which will be enhanced by a tin-roof ceiling and a large bar currently being crafted by Charleston’s Black Locust Custom Woodshop.
And while the thought of a real – like, truly real – Irish pub is exciting, I’m especially looking forward to the food they’re teasing.
There are no chicken wings and jalapeno poppers planned, folks. Instead, the pub’s impressive-sounding and hopefully authentic Irish menu boasts a selection of traditional Irish dishes that have my mouth watering.
Planned appetizers include gems like fondant potatoes with Irish-smoked salmon and chive sour cream; a flight of deviled eggs; beer-cheese soup with housemade pretzel; baked garlic Jonathon crab on a bed of spinach and leeks: and a spinach salad with walnuts, chopped eggs, shaved red onion and raspberry vinaigrette.
However, I’m most excited about Hagy’s menu of pasties, which totally takes me back to my youth. Although there’s not a lick of Irish in us, one of my mom’s favorite dinners was a creation she called “pasties,” which were hand pies featuring cubed steak, potatoes and onions wrapped and baked in a pastry shell.
They were, in a word, amazing.
And Hagy’s lineup of Irish pasties, which it calls a “traditional miner’s delicacy,” sounds every bit as good.
Looks like there will be options stuffed with steak and mushrooms; spinach, leeks and cheese; Shepherd’s pie ingredients; lemon chicken with capers and artichokes; Galway County organic salmon, potato and spinach; leeks, cheddar and potato; and mushroom, potato and caramelized onions.
If they’re anything like my mom’s were growing up, I can’t freakin’ wait.
Although no opening date has been set, the hours of operation they’re currently promoting will be 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch and 2 p.m. to close for dinner daily. Stay tuned here for updates!
Café Cimino returns! Well, sorta
The always-awesome food from the late Café Cimino in Sutton will make a one-night-only return here in a few weeks, but you don’t have to drive to Central West Virginia to enjoy it.
Chef Tim Urbanic and crew from that former popular restaurant and country inn will help prepare this year’s featured dinner at Habitat for Humanity of Kanawha & Putnam’s upcoming “A Taste of …” dinner at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 10, in the Elk River Atrium and the Charleston Coliseum.
Guests at this annual gala get to dine on delicious food from one of the state’s top restaurants without having to leave Charleston to enjoy it.
This year’s “A Taste of Classic Café Cimino” will feature garden salad, focaccia bread, bruschetta and meatballs, along with mushroom feta pasta, shrimp scampi and chicken parmesan.
A selection of desserts to cap off the night will be prepared by Chef Todd Jones of Centerplate.
Tickets for this year’s event are $125 each or two for $200. All proceeds help support Habitat’s mission of building strength, stability and self-reliance by providing housing to those who need it – and are willing to help work for it.
For more information and tickets, visit www.hfhkp.org/atasteof.
Noah’s Restaurant now open on Tuesdays
One of Charleston’s best restaurants is now offering even more of a chance to enjoy exquisitely prepared eclectic cuisine in a quiet, relaxing atmosphere.
Noah’s Restaurant & Lounge at the corner of Quarrier and Summers streets downtown is now open on Tuesdays as well, with lounge service from 4-9 p.m. and dining room service from 5-9 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.
Recent items on the restaurant’s changing menu have included crispy pork belly lettuce wraps with Korean BBQ sauce and sweet-and-sour slaw; lamb slider with smoked gouda, roasted tomato, yogurt and arugula; citrus-poached shrimp and peach salad with tahini vinaigrette; gruyere-crusted halibut with pomme puree, sauteed zucchini and lemon jus; and a rack of lamb with Dauphinoise potato, asparagus and mint pesto sauce.
And not only does the food sound good, it’s also perfectly prepared. Every time, without question. If you haven’t dined at Noah’s before, as they say, you’re really missing out.
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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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