Bertha’s and FIG Among ‘America’s 38 Essential Restaurants’

For nearly five years, Eater’s national critic Bill Addison has toured the country in search of the establishments that define dining in the United States. Each year, he releases a list of America’s 38 Essential Restaurants, and this year, two from Charleston hit the top. Welcome, Gullah staple Bertha’s Kitchen and farm-to-table fine dining spot FIG to the line-up. Here’s what Addison has to say about each in his 2018 guide.

Bertha’s

Sisters Sharon Grant Coakley, Julie Grant, and Linda Pinckney carry on the culinary traditions of their deceased mother, Albertha Grant, serving red rice and shrimp, garlic crabs, lima beans, okra stew, and other specialties of the Gullah, former slaves who made their home in South Carolina’s Lowcountry.

FIG

The first place you should eat in Charleston? And maybe the last? Mike Lata and Jason Stanhope’s ever-creative, always-consistent fixture, where the daily catch from Southern waters steers the nightly menu.

• America’s 38 Essential Restaurants [EN]
• All Bertha’s Coverage [ECHS]
• All FIG Coverage [ECHS]