A Dreamy Kind of Night

Saltus River Grill is one of my favorite restaurants in the world. I’m sure partly it is sentimental: it is a special spot in a very special place for us. But there are other, more objective reasons as well. The food is a fusion of Lowcountry/Sea Islands/Gullah and Haute-Cuisine American/French. This is my kind of place: a place that isn’t afraid to fuse grass-roots, hard-core, local/”ethnic” food with very high end cuisine, the most cutting-edge trends and techniques, and the highest quality ingredients. This place does not shy away from complexity. I also have a soft spot for any place that uses locally grown and seasonal ingredients. And… of course… there is the wine list. The wine list at Saltus is short and sweet. I’d prefer a short list of carefully selected bottles than a huge book of labels that lose meaning. Lastly, location location location — Saltus has a location to die for, right on the Beaufort waterfront, with a beautiful interior and even more beautiful exterior patios with gorgeous outdoor dining furniture. Oh, and the service is excellent. Basically, it is, for me, the whole package.

In the five weeks we’ve been in South Carolina I’ve done a lot of cooking. We have eaten out rarely on this trip, so we decided to splurge for one of our final nights here. Last night the five of us went to Saltus for dinner. I was hoping our kids would be able to handle themselves there, and that we’d not totally embarrass ourselves at such a high-end establishment. I was hoping it would be a lovely night.

It was lovely, dreamy, and free-of-embarassment. It was spectacular. It was, for me, a Top 10 night out with our family ever. I loved every minute of it. From meandering down the sleepy streets of Beaufort to wind our way to Saltus…

To the lovely conversations… (while we waited for our food the bambinos were able to come-and-go freely from the table and play on the playground at Waterfront Park; the playground is within eyesight of the Saltus patio– a win-win for the whole family!)…

To the family bonding… (these two, in particular, were especially lovey-lovey)…

The food…

The whole thing. It was dreamy.

After dinner we walked along the waterfront. The boys found some friends to play stickball with (of course). They could have stayed there all night — it was pitch dark when we finally pulled them away to head back to the beach house for our 2nd-to-last-night in South Carolina.