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The new NoMo location of Charleston staple Butcher & Bee opened in May with a more evolved approach to dining. Instead of just lunch and late night, the restaurant added dinner and breakfast services as well as an adult beverage program. This week, both City Paper and Post & Courier took a look at how the new B&B holds up.
B&B’s menu offers a wealth of choices through ever-changing mezz plates, depending on what’s in season, so it’s not very surprising that the reviewers Hanna Raskin and Suzanne Cohen only overlap criticism on one item — the whipped feta.
Raskin: "… you’ve probably heard about the whipped feta. It’s a mound of peppery, custardy cheese, depressed at the center in traditional Middle Eastern dip style. The feta’s fine, but it’s really the honey that fills the hollow which deserves top billing."
Cohen: "The aforementioned feta was divine and silky, drizzled with a hint of honey and topped with a fresh crack of pepper. Soft, warm homemade pita complemented the mildly sweet whipped cheese."
How was everything else? There are hits and misses for each writer. Cohen recommends the roast beef sandwich, Israeli salad, crispy potatoes, lamb ribs, local fish, the "Perfectly crisp, bitter-free kale," and tagliatelle. She would tell you to stay away from the double cheeseburger ("a letdown") shakshuka ("intensely oily"), and the French toast ("dry and burnt").
Raskin says to go for squash, "blistered and puffy pita," falafel, the "old shrimp-and-calamari salad," and the "blueberry-topped pistachio financier." She does not recommend the porterhouse pork chop ("undermined by toughness"), kohlrabi ("nearly too firm"), and melon gazpacho ("unhappy medium between smooth and chunky").
The menu at B&B changes all the times, so by the time the reviews are out many of these items may have changed — though the restaurant should think about keeping the feta on at all times.
