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Cordavi Named One of America’s Best New Restaurants
Esquire Magazine’s November issue just named Charleston restaurant Cordavi, located at 14 Market Street in downtown Charleston, one of America’s top 20 new restaurants. Cordavi’s location was originally Market East Bistro, owned by Mark Danbax. RestaurantBrokers.info sold it to Kevin Kelly, who developed Vintage Restaurant and Wine Bar. After Kevin went into the wine wholesale business he asked RestaurantBrokers to list the business for sale. The restaurant was bought by David Szlam and Corey Elliott (pictured on the left), who developed it into today’s Cordavi. Together, they have created a truly unique culinary experience enjoyed by visitors and locals alike. Congratulations to everyone at Cordavi! To read the full Esquire article and see who else made the list, just click here.
What’s all the Fuss With Fusion?
Fused foods are a fast-growing trend popping up in restaurants and bars throughout the country. Fusion can literally mean fusing. It can also mean melting, joining together, or blending. Okay, but what does that mean? Fusion is trendy. Fusion is tasty. Fusion is today. Fused foods are a fast-growing trend popping up in restaurants and bars throughout the country. There’s no question that fusion foods are in demand. To read more about the history of fusion foods and their current popularity, just click here.
From the November 2006 issue of Esquire Magazine
From the outside, Cordavi, whose name is an amalgam of partners Corey Elliott and David Szlam, looks like your typical South Carolina eatery, with clapboard siding and a small wooden doorway. On the first floor, there is a bar with a few tables; a set of wooden stairs leads to a dining room configured not for the maximum number of seats but for the correct number the kitchen can handle. The decor is simple, with deep red walls and a single flower set on white linens adding a burst of color. Far more risqué is the food. Dreamy foie gras sits atop thick, crisp brioche toast, with a blackberry compote and tangy fruit sorbet. Lobster is poached gently in butter, retaining its satiny texture and natural sweetness, then accompanied by a rich pork-belly ravioli. For dessert, there is a Key-lime panna cotta with blood-orange jelly and graham-cracker crisps, and warm banana crepes with chocolate ice cream and blueberry compote. In a town that still loves its meat and taters and fried fish, Cordavi is a maverick. And that's something Charlestonians should be proud of.
Gourmet Magazine just released their list of the Top 50 Restaurants in America in the October, 2006 issue. This list is proof that American food has never been so exciting, and the judges said the decisions have never been so difficult. There were plenty of newcomers to this year’s list – more than half of the restaurants were making their debut on the list. Several Southeastern and Gulf Coast establishments made the cut and, interestingly enough, most of them were first timers. To see the entire list, just click here.
Top 50 U.S. Restaurants in Order:
*denotes first time on the Top 50 list
1. Alinea – Chicago, IL*
2. Chez Panisse – Berkeley, CA
3. The French Laundry/Per Se – Yountville, CA; New York, NY
4. Spago – Beverly Hills, CA
5. Joël Robuchon at the Mansion – Las Vegas, NV*
6. La Rêve – San Antonio, TX
7. Masa – New York, NY*
8. Alan Wong's Restaurant – Honolulu, HI
9. Daniel – New York, NY
10. Le Bernardin – New York, NY
11. Magnolia Grill – Durham, NC
12. Michel Richard Citronelle – Washington, D.C.
13. Charlie Trotter's – Chicago, IL
14. Arrows – Ogunquit, ME
15. Cyrus – Healdsburg, CA*
16. Striped Bass – Philadelphia, PA*
17. Babbo – New York, NY
18. Locke-Ober – Boston, MA*
19. Canlis – Seattle, WA
20. L'Auberge Carmel – Carmel, CA*
21. Bartolotta Ristorante di Mare – Las Vegas, NV*
22. Restaurant August – New Orleans, LA*
23. The Inn at Little Washington – Washington, VA
24. The Dining Room in the Ritz-Carlton Buckhead – Atlanta, GA*
The beautiful fall weather you’ve been enjoying can only mean one thing – fall harvest in wine country. Wineries throughout the country have started their annual harvest, some in early September, but most just this past week, with pickers and winery staff now planning long days to bring in all the grapes. This year’s harvest is predicted to be bigger and better than last year’s, with most wineries seeing an increase in quantity – up from 2005 by as much as 30% for some wineries. To read more just click here.
Szlam and Elliott, the masterminds behind Cordavi's award winning concept.
Call Jim Moring at
(843) 343-5757
Wine Harvest Continued:
The quality of this year’s harvest is also promising to be outstanding for many wines. Joe Zuppiger, Arrowleaf Cellars’ proprietor notes on their 4th vintage, “The harvest is going really well. The quantity is up – by 20% from ‘05, but the quality is also up.” Nirmal Gidda, proprietor for family owned Mount Boucherie Estate Winery, echoes Zuppiger’s enthusiasm, “the harvest has been A1. The sugar levels are high, the Ph and acid levels are where we want them – the quality of the grapes is exceptional. If it keeps going the way it is we’ll have a superb harvest.”
“The beautiful week and the warmth have been great, as the flavors invested in the grapes will now be coming through,” says Howard Soon, winemaker for Sandhill Wines. With harvest yields up, and crush just beginning, the wineries are crushing the grape varietals used to make white wines as sparkling wines were put to bed in September. Varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Gris, Gerwurztraminer and Chardonnay have been crushed or are currently on the presses. Roger Wong, co-winemaker for Gray Monk Estate Wineries notes as he loads 8 tons of Gerwurztraminer onto their presses, “we haven’t started the reds yet, we want to make sure the flavors are where we want them, rather than picking by numbers.”
The varietals for red wines get picked after the whites, but as Howard Soon notes, “we’re still in the mid to early stage of the harvest and crush. We’ll be starting Merlot next week.” There are about another 4 – 6 weeks left in the grape harvest, “but that could be shortened because of the current warm weather,” says Evelyn Campbell, proprietor of Blasted Church in Okanagan Falls. “The fruit is looking perfect but with 15 varietals to pick in total – we have more than a dozen to go.”
Peggy Athans, executive director for the British Columbia Wine Institute, representing 90% of all wine production in that particular area likes what she hears for the 2006 harvest, “it’s a good thing that the crop yield is up as sales are also up. This year we saw demand exceed supply as consumers increasingly drank better quality wines.”
With a never-ending battle to attract patrons and increase sales, restraunters, chefs and food managers are constantly looking for new trends to attract the masses. However, we have always had fusion cuisine; it is not a new concept. Cooks and chefs, as well as food product designers, have always adapted foods for special occasions and to utilize new ingredients. To stay on top, they must cater and appeal to people of all types and ages with their differing desires for variety, taste and texture.
First it was pretty food, then it was big food, and then tall food, and now it is fusion food. But what is fusion food? Is it a regional cuisine or is it a collection of seasonings, spices, flavors and textures entwined with meats, seafood, salads, pastas and soups from far off and exotic locales such as Morocco, Italy, China, the Bahamas and Spain? Fusion food is all this and so much more. We see Asian-Italian entrees such as stir-fried mahi-mahi, fresh vegetables, Hoison sauce, coconut milk and infused oils served over curried farelle noodles. Or we see Latin-style marinated chicken, fresh vegetables and citrus served over baby greens garnished with mandarin oranges and toasted coconut. We even see Pizza topped with goat cheese, Portobello mushrooms, caramelized onions and grilled shrimp.
We see articles about fusion foods in popular magazines and newspapers. We see it on television. The Food Channel even devotes a whole show on fusion foods called "East Meets West." The host of the show, Ming Tsai, demonstrates that he is a new style of Asian chef on the cutting edge of sophisticated American cuisine. He presents his cuisine in an accessible way, revealing the basic flavors from Western and Eastern traditions and how they can be pared successfully. Viewers salivate through themed shows such as "East Meets West Steak with Potatoes" featuring delectable dishes such as grilled rib-eye steak au poivre with Dijon-roasted garlic aioli panko fries and tomato salad. Or "East Meets Southwest" with achiote marinated pork loin with pulled pork tamales and Hoisin key lime syrup.
The tastes and textures may come from familiar places, but fusing them together creates a new cuisine. So, what do you call this cuisine? There is strong historic precedent to refer to past dishes and techniques by using them to describe new creations. By doing so, diners can imagine what they will be eating. But no matter what the fusion entrée is called, it’s almost certain to be a hit. And it doesn’t matter if the meal is fabulous or not; it’s new, it’s fashionable, it’s fusion and it’s here to stay – at least for a while.
