REVIEWS
The Post and Courier, Thursday, April 29, 2010
For Wild Olive Restaurant, this was a culinary dose of lemons that became limoncello for its latest chef, Jacques Larson. The best of all worlds comes into the cucina at Wild Olive as Larson is a French-trained but Italian-inspired chef. He has much in common with Michael White, another Midwesterner, who found his culinary accent in the Italian cucina at Fiamma (New York). Both benefited from a Mario Batali stage. For Larson, Otto and Lupa have been well-served.
You may have tasted Larson's pasta prowess at Mercato (Charleston) and stretched the telephone wires of "mozzarella" with his suppli alla telefono appetizer.
Wild Olive opened in 2009. It now sports a neon green Wild Olive Cucina Italiana sign on Maybank Highway, making it easier to find. The fragrant herb garden that nestles up to the wild olive tree in all its gray and gnarly splendor has matured. The restaurant itself has found its own groove and ripened in its commitment to local and seasonal ingredients. In Larson's capable hands, the complexity of plate composition is rendered with the simplicity of the Italian canon. There may not be a Nonna in the kitchen, but it sure does taste like there is.
The antipasti selection is smartly varied in its offerings and modestly tweaks the classics. A Caesar salad ($7) is served with grilled Grana Padano cheese and topped with a stringent marinated white anchovy. The cucina's namesake is featured in a warm bowl of olives ($5), where saltiness is tempered by sweet orange zest. Arancini ($8), Sicily's version of Roman suppli alla telefono, stuffs saffron-seasoned risotto with smoked pork and house-pulled mozzarella. Fried to a crispy finish, the puckered surface is said to resemble an orange, thus its name. Baked gnocci ($8) intrigued us as you do not see it on menus around town. It was similar to sformato di Parmigiano, a cheese-based custard, garnished with speck (kin to prosciutto but both salted and smoked) and topped with an herb salad. A tasty and filling starter best shared. You can let your appetite dawdle among the appetizers -- tricolor mussels ($10) with salsa verde, marinara and white wine sauces; bruschetta ($7) topped with roasted beets and pistachios; or carpaccio ($10) drizzled with horseradish-flavored aioli.
Normandy Farms supplies the bread, and it is served warm with pools of fragrant olive oil for dipping.
Soups and pastas are wisely offered in two portion sizes. Our order of penne con salsiccia e pollo ($9, $15) flaunts the ultimate simplicity of Italian cooking. The slightly resilient quills of pasta are topped with chicken pieces and nutty arugula. The sauce is stippled with house-made sausage "pebbles," and the dish is showered with parmesan cheese and pine nuts. Delizia.
A neighboring diner's square of lasagna ($14) had the ordered appearance of ricotta, mozzarella and marinara. And for those for whom the red-sauce nation is their dominant DNA, spaghetti and meatballs ($8, $13) eschews the luxe ingredients of our current Meatball Madness and honors the trifecta of flavors borne by simply ground beef, pork and veal. Drizzle some of that olive oil over them and finish with the parm freshly grated at tableside. Gnocchi ($11, $16) are made with sweet potato, and squid ink stains the linguini with shrimp ($10, $17).
The secondi are complete meals in themselves, and the simply prepared flounder ($23), surrounded with "raisins" of peeled and oven-roasted grape tomatoes and local ramps, was first rate. A culinary flaunt to spring!
Veal skirt steak ($17) married tender veal with garlic- and spinach-seasoned mashed potatoes, earthy cremini and diminutive enoki mushrooms glazed with a nutty Marsala sauce and a side of Taleggio fonduta. It demonstrated how essential the ingredients are to the composition and flavor of any dish.
The chestnut grouper ($21) remains on the menu along with the Chicken Parmesan ($15) and Chicken Picatta ($15). There is a lot to like on this menu, and you will quickly be planning your return visit. For a restaurant at the gateway to the tourist traffic, the pricing is remarkably lenient.
Pastry chef Lindsay Cooke has just produced her spring dolci menu ($6.95). Tiramisu has returned along with the elixir of chocolate and pistachio custards served with thin and crunchy orange and nut biscotti. The seasonal granita was pineapple-basil, and her take on the classic of strawberry shortcake glances toward Italy with its sweet balsamic finish.
The wine list is cost-conscious with a house carafe available for $25. Not to mention those Sunday and Monday $19 specials.
Larson has returned carrying the culinary torch for Italia. His cooking demonstrates sprezzatura, the concealed art of Italian finesse at the table. Wild Olive asserts its orientation to the largess of the Lowcountry. Free range, at its best
.................................................................................................................................................................................
Charleston City Paper, Wednesday, Dec 9, 2009
If you don't think chefs matter, ride out to the Wild Olive this Friday night, where Jacques Larson has taken the helm. Here is a man with impressive experience, a delicious track record of real Italian prowess, and the ability to turn out creative fare at reasonable prices. For the Wild Olive, Larson may be just what the doctor ordered.
Eight months ago, you couldn't have gotten me to step foot in the place, which was overrun with vacationing Yanks and the food they like. I found it loud and full of missteps, with forgettable basics: polenta the texture of cream of wheat, veal the consistency of shoe leather. So I have watched with interest as Larson took over and slowly massaged the menu into a Roman dream. Now I want to go every week, just to sample a bit more of what this guy has to offer.
The place still props itself up on the Kiawah traffic, and the traditional fare still haunts the menu (he serves the best Caesar salad in town right now and a killer lasagna), but you'll find nary a misstep in the execution, and none of the overwrought Francophile action that ruined the last attempts at real Italian food. The braised meats used to come with concentrated reductions so refined as to be cloyingly thick — delicious downtown at the Charleston Grill perhaps, but totally inappropriate at a mid-priced Italian bistro on the scruffier side of the barrier islands.
These days you can order the polenta and know that you'll get a respectful example, creamy and golden, ground at Anson Mills, and stirred until it gives up its deep earthy flavor. You can start with the aforementioned Caesar ($6.95), which sports a lighter dressing than most, almost sprightly rather than creamy, without an overpowering onslaught of cheese and rich oil. The lettuce is cold, as are the wonderful marinated white anchovies that provide a delicate acidity to the whole. The dishes reveal the thoughtful simplicity that makes Italian food sing.
And you can afford to eat here. Handmade pastas (and all of the primi) come in two sizes, as they should. The sausage lasagna will only set you back 15 bucks, and the current ravioli dish ($7.95/$14.95), filled with potato and fontina and bathed in sage butter could star at any place in town.
My personal favorite comes from the forest — light, fluffy ricotta gnocchi and wild boar ragu ($8.95/$15.95), a carnivore's feast. Quality gnocchi are notoriously hard to produce in quantity — only West Ashley standby Al Di La can seem to get them right — but Wild Olive's are just as good. They're featherweight beauties with just enough chew not to disintegrate at the first touch of a fork and enough heft to wield a sheave of shredded pork to the waiting tongue. The ragu is thick and warm, without an overpowering of meat or tomato. It is a Goldilocks dish, balanced and just right.
There is linguine and clams ($8.95/ $14.95) for Uncle Eddie, and sweet potato gnocchi and scallops ($10.95/$17.95) for me. My grandma can get the eggplant parm ($12.95), while I tuck into some delicate little South Carolina quail ($21.95) that have been grilled until just pink and juicy, draped across a small stack of the most delicious butternut squash farro that you have ever put into your mouth and drizzled with a warm balsamic deal that makes the whole mysterious thing one of the great dishes in Charleston this fall.
A cursory look at the Wild Olive won't reveal the enormous shift that occurred over the last few months. There are still the pretty strings of holiday lights, the same shabby chic aesthetic, and the jars of pickles on the old sideboard that must be getting rather old by now. The plastic grapes still hang from the ceiling, and eating in the little enclosed porch is like being stuck inside a reverberating base drum for two hours. But when every bite satisfies, one can put up with such minor trivia.
To make a restaurant, one needs a great chef, one that really understands the cuisine and makes it his or her own. The Wild Olive has found its master, and with him, a prominent future. It's hard to avoid comparisons to the likes of Al di La and Mt. P's Bacco here — even the typeset of the menu seems strangely familiar — but that's some damn fine company. The price is right, the atmosphere welcoming, the food an incredible, affordable experience. It's the kind of spot that cultivates regulars waiting for the next seasonal menu to drop because they've eaten every last dish on the last one. I've already picked out the arancini ($7.95) — "fried saffron risotto fritters stuffed with smoked pork and house made mozzarella" — they're first on my list for next week.
.................................................................................................................................................................................
The Post and Courier,
Thursday, May 14, 2009
These recessionary times likely have made you aware of "staycations." You stay at home and vacation in your own hometown. We would like to suggest that you issue your own culinary passport and tour the international and local cuisines available in this bounty we call the Lowcountry.
The cuisine is rustic Italian and executive chef Todd Mazurek translates the regional idiom with skill.
The former Live Oak Café has been transformed into a familial yet stylish cucina. The majestic live oak sparkles with white lights and your passage to the restaurant is framed with olive trees, Mediterranean herbs, vegetables, and a gurgling terra cotta orcio (urn). You are embraced by aromas of the Italian countryside.
Dining options include the intimate porch, the kitchen view room, the comfortable front dining room, or the community table. Whitewashed wood and a chandelier of grape clusters demonstrate both whimsy and terroir.
David Boatwright's murals add the patina of age to this modern renovation. The lighting casts a warm, cozy spell and the surround-sound of laughter is an apt barometer for the evening ahead.
The accent is Italian but progression and portion are decidedly American. The pasta courses are generous and can easily serve as your meal. Limited primi options are available in half and full portions.
Integrity (their commitment to local, seasonal and green) and imagination meet on the plate.
Subtle changes are made to the antipasti to keep them both familiar and intriguing. The Parmigiano-Reggiano is grilled in the Caesar salad ($6.95), the ubiquitous mussels of Rue de Jean fame are served with fennel and sun-dried tomatoes ($9.95) and the platter of cured meats ($13.95) are Italian in name but of local (CawCaw Creek) provenance.
The bruschetta ($6.95) was a real treat. Thin slices of bread are buttered, oiled and grilled to a sturdy finish and served with a puree of white cannellini beans and chestnuts (think Tuscan humus), speck (a cured and smoked ham ), house-made mozzarella, grilled escarole and tomato. The flavors and textures complement each other and the "make your own concept" works.
Wild Olive Cucina Italiana
The pastas are offered in entree-sized portions. The mushroom risotto and linguini in cream sauce were available as half and full portions. This surprised us; we expected pastas portioned Italian-style (small). To their credit you will find pastas here that are not on the menus all over town.
Gnocchi are made with sweet potato and ricotta and topped with a sun-dried tomato and spinach ragu with a halo of seared scallops ($17.95); pappardelle, usually finished with heavy sauces of meat or game, are flavored with saffron and sauced with mussels, lemon, escarole and garlic butter ($14.95). You will find Taleggio (cheese) in the tagliatelle ($14.95), fettucine cut from black pepper pasta sheets ($13.95). Your tastebuds will not
experience Italian fatigue here.
The agnolotti ($15.95) are made in-house and are Italy's answer to pork and beans. A puree of white beans is seasoned with bacon and fills a toothsome pasta pillow. Shaped into half-moons and topped with a vodka-tomato cream sauce and tender shrimp, this dish was a study in gusto and finesse.
The portata (short for portata di pranzo — a "course") keep the strengths of the Italian specialties diners have come to love: lasagna, eggplant parmesan, chicken cacciatore and veal cutlets. Here you can eat simply and well.
But Wild Olive also offers veal skirt steak ($16.95) with Gorgonzola mashed potatoes and rainbow Swiss chard, osso bucco of venison ($24.95), chicken under a brick ($14.95) and chestnut flour-encrusted grouper. The latter demonstrated the vigorous attention to fresh seafood. Its minor fault — the beans were part tender, part al dente.
Warm baskets of bread accompany your meal and its crust, flecked with salt and pepper, partners well with a pool of herbal olive oil. Main courses come with generous accompaniments and contorni (vegetable sides $3.95-$5.95) are easily shared.
Save room for dessert as Wild Olive's dolci ($6.95) are some of the best conceived I have seen this year. The traditional form is respected but their tiramisu, panna cotta, semifreddo and granita are reconstructed with just the right ingredient twist. The chocolate and pistachio layered custard married decadence and innocence in every bite.
The servers were engaged; informed and worked the dining room as a team.
If the crowds of ballet flats and flip-flops, Choos and Chanels are any indication, Wild Olive is taming the appetite for Italian for Johns Island residents and beyond. Time for your passport and appetite to hit the road.
.................................................................................................................................................................................
Let me just say this...it was absolutely wonderful. We have found our new favorite restaurant. I hope the Wild Olive continues to prosper. I work in the medical field and plan to sing your culinary praises to all.
Debbie Brown
.................................................................................................................................................................................
My husband Steven and I have been several times and really love the restaurant. We were with his parents and brother last night and they had never been--enjoyed everything. The food is great and the service is as well.
I have to say: I just love the chocolate pistachio mouse. It is unreal and so delicious. Such a treat.
Molly Ellis
.................................................................................................................................................................................
The new spot, opening Tuesday, hosted a “dry run” preview dinner last weekend where special “I know someone important” guests were taken through the rustic-chic décor to experience a cozy, relaxed vibe that Wild Olive hopes to convey.
Besides the importance of a big name chef, good ambiance and décor, there is another critical component to opening a Charleston-worthy restaurant. And that of course, is the food.
A standout of the evening was the bruschetta, interestingly enough. In a surprising twist to the traditional toasted bread with chopped tomatoes and basil, this is more of a “build your own” bruschetta, with toppings such as a lusty marinara, hazelnut pate and a generous slice of prosciutto. For a real manly man’s dish, get the veal chop stuffed with sausage and pecorino, accompanied by braised Swiss chard and creamy delicious mashed potatoes. This will cause any meat-eating man to descend upon his plate like a turkey vulture and vow to continue ordering it every time he returns. For dessert, the light-as-a-cloud tiramisu is refreshing after such a meal.
Not to be overlooked is the restaurant’s use of local ingredients, which ranges from 75% local usage in the winter to 95% local usage in the summer. Everything celebrates local – from the area farmers and seafood purveyors it uses down to the pictures hanging on the walls. The Monterssori School of John’s Island even keeps a garden for the restaurant, those sweet things.
Take your appetite and discriminating palate to Wild Olive and let CHARLIE know what you think.
|
