Welcome back, old friend! The newest iteration of one of Charleston’s most iconic restaurants is bonafide gem. The “new” Quarrier Diner offers almost everything you could ask for in a classic diner setting.
A timeless retro décor with tables, booths and counter seating. A warm and inviting feel with fantastic, friendly service. A nice offering of homey diner breakfast and lunch staples. And really, really good food. I’ve tried nearly a dozen items on the menu so far and have been seriously impressed with most of them.
Run by Martin Riggs, Jr. (you may know him as “MJ”) this resurrected downtown landmark is finally filling the big shoes the original restaurant left behind decades ago.
Since Charleston has so few diners – especially ones serving breakfast – locals are embracing “The QD’s” return with open arms and heaping praise.
Reviews of the new restaurant’s food and service have been stellar so far, and the place was packed during my latest visit this past weekend.
Tucked on Quarrier Street in downtown Charleston between Leon Sullivan Way and Dickinson Street, the restaurant serves breakfast and lunch from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday, with breakfast served all day during those hours. Lunch service begins at 11 a.m.
Breakfast options include the usual suspects like omelets, waffles and various platters and sandwiches (including a popular breakfast burger) but there are also hearty steak-and-egg dishes flanked by a baseball sirloin or porterhouse.
The lunch menu brings a couple of salads, soups and wings to the table, along with a bevy of sandwiches like the hot bologna, classic club, a BLT, fried or grilled chicken, a prime rib Philly and juicy burgers.
Or you can go all in on “The Big Bad John.”
Consisting of three beef burger patties, kielbasa sausage, bacon, cheese and your choice of toppings on a brioche bun, this thing scares me just thinking about it.
There are few things in life I like more than breakfast, so that’s what I wanted to try the first time I visited. There’s also no greater diner go-to than biscuits and gravy in my book, so there was no question I was starting there.
I’m extremely picky when it comes to sausage gravy and the Quarrier Diner’s is the real deal. Creamy, rich, thick, perfectly seasoned and generously ladled over two fluffy buttermilk biscuits, it’s the best I’ve had in a while.
We enjoyed a nice eggs benedict with eggs, seared ham and hollandaise over an English muffin, which was served with true hash browns (not that abomination known as “home fries”) that were perfectly crisped and salty.
We also dug into the massive guest-favorite kielbasa hash, a giant plate of sliced kielbasa, potato wedges, sauteed peppers and onions plus two eggs your way blended with gravy and a blend of three cheeses. Mercy, it was good.
A few days later for lunch, I truly struggled over so many good options before settling on two different dishes. Yes, just for me!
The popular “West Virginia-style” all-beef hot dogs served on split-top English buns smothered in chili, slaw, mustard and onions were ridiculously tasty.
The Rueben panini was stuffed with a thick layer of sliced corned beef topped with sauerkraut, Thousand Island and Swiss, which I enjoyed with sweet potato waffle fries.
My wife dug her fried catfish sandwich featuring a large filet with pickles and tartar sauce on a fluffy croissant, and we also shared a savory bowl of chili that was thick, meaty and spiced just right – far better than the soupy, tomatoey, watered-down versions you find many places.
Better yet, all of the satisfying food above was prepared by hard-working cooks in a partially open kitchen, then delivered with a smile by efficient, accommodating and thorough servers and managers making sure every table was taken care of.
So what would I change about the food we had?
Honestly, not much. I prefer onion rings made with larger thick-cut onions in a flaky beer-battered coating, whereas these were more like minced onions coated in a thicker crust.
The eggs benedict would’ve benefitted from more hollandaise and I would love to see the items in that breakfast hash chopped into smaller pieces, like a true hash.
The combination of kielbasa, potatoes, peppers and onions was excellent, but the ingredients were left in such large chunks that you couldn’t really enjoy a bite offering a little bit of everything at once. If you could get all of that flavorful goodness in one bite, I’d order it time and time again.
But seriously, if these are the worst things I can point out in terms of food execution, the Quarrier Diner has little to worry about. This place is a home run and I hope the community will support it.
I’m so grateful the new owners have not only retained the building’s historic charm and art deco integrity, but that they’ve also given it new life as a place we need today. And a delicious one at that.
IF YOU GO: The Quarrier Diner at 1022 Quarrier St. in Charleston is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Breakfast is served during all hours and the lunch menu begins at 11 a.m. The restaurant does not have a currently active website or Facebook page.
Charleston Restaurant Week menus are here
In case you missed my article earlier this week, all 16 menus for Charleston Restaurant Week are now out and tables are filling up fast.
If you want to take advantage of this annual culinary celebration offering special three-course menus at set prices, you’d better start making those reservations quickly.
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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.