Hank's Low Country Seafood & Raw Bar, a South Carolina gem, opens in downtown Columbus
With the toss of a sockeye salmon, the cuisine of South Carolina's Lowcountry arrived in Columbus on Tuesday.
But don't worry; that's not part of tradition in that region of the country. Servers carry your order to your table at Hank's Low Country Seafood & Raw Bar.
Hank's, the reigning best seafood restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, according to two local publications there, opened for dinner April 23 at 6 W. Gay St., in Downtown. It's the 25-year-old restaurant's first foray outside its hometown, and its Columbus location is in the middle of an expanding stretch of fine dining along North High Street.
Hank's is flanked by Speck Italian Eatery to its north and Veritas to its south. A French restaurant called Chouette is also set to open across the street this summer at the northeast corner of High and Gay streets.
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What is Lowcountry cuisine?
South Carolina's Lowcountry is a region that includes areas such as Charleston, Beaufort and Hilton Head, all along the Atlantic coast in the southern part of the state. Its food is influenced by its geography − it has an abundance of seafood, particularly shrimp, crabs, oysters and flounder − and the West African roots of people who were enslaved there prior to the Civil War.
Those two influences make Lowcountry cuisine distinct from southern food in general, according to Discover South Carolina, the state's tourism agency. Hallmark dishes and ingredients include shrimp and grits, oysters, crab soup, grouper, flounder and gumbos and other one-pot meals featuring shellfish, rice and vegetables.
"It's simple. It's seafood. Fresh as can be," said chef Frank McMahon, who oversees culinary operations for Hank's in Charleston and Columbus.
How did Hank's get to Columbus?
"Hank's is a coveted brand of ours," said Jim Merkel, CEO of Rockbridge, a real-estate and hospitality investment firm that bought the restaurant in 2017. Before and after the purchase, Merkel and McMahon said, they had been approached with pitches to expand to other cities.
What does Columbus have that other suitors didn't? Rockbridge is based here. The company also is involved with the development of a 32-story apartment tower next to Downtown's North Market and the Peninsula in Franklinton.
Well, there's a little more to it than proximity. But it obviously didn't hurt.
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"I wanted some big restaurant," said Jeff Edwards, whose Edward Companies owns the building that houses Hank's on the northwest corner of High and Gay streets.
Other Edwards developments in Downtown house high-end restaurants, too, including Veritas at the former Citizens Bank building just to the south and Butcher & Rose, a Cameron Mitchell restaurant set to open this summer at the Preston Centre on East Broad Street.
Rockbridge is set to manage some of the restaurant spaces in Edwards' Preston Centre, and the two companies are partners in the North Market development.
"They've got a great reputation," Edwards said of Hank's.
Merkel said Edwards has a great reputation, too.
"I knew what Jeff was doing was going to be first-class," he said.
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What's on the menu?
Go to Hank's for seafood. The Seafood Tower (market price, which was $86 April 23) includes oysters, mussels and shrimp with the requisite mignonette, cocktail and hot sauces. McMahon wasn't exaggerating when he said a hallmark of Hank's Lowcountry style is that its seafood is "fresh as can be."
It couldn't be fresher if it had been caught in the Scioto River, although seafood is probably the least catchable thing lurking in those waters.
Hank's raw bar offers a daily selection of oysters (prices vary), peel-and-eat shrimp ($12 for a quarter-pound to $36 for a full-pound), a jumbo-shrimp cocktail ($21) and a lump-crab cocktail ($26).
Its tuna tartare ($22), made with diced jalapeno, shallot olive oil and herbs, is a welcome upgrade to those of us who've gotten too used to poke-bowl spicy tuna. The ceviche ($19) features salmon, tuna and shrimp, along with jicama, onion, cilantro and crunchy dices of sweet potato.
Lowcountry classics on the menu include shrimp and grits ($32), made Cajuny with smoked andouille sausage and tomato jus; she-crab soup ($12), similar to a bisque with lump crab, roe and sherry; seared grouper with Carolina gold rice and a vinegary salsa criolla ($44); and sautéed flounder with a fried grit cake and roasted tomato-lemon butter sauce ($38).
If you're not a seafood lover, Hank's also serves seared beef tenderloin ($52), bone-in pork chops ($48), buttermilk fried chicken ($29) and chicken-fried tofu ($29).
If you go
Where: Hank's Low Country Seafood & Raw Bar, 6 W. Gay St., Downtown; hanksseafoodrestaurant.com.
Hours: 4 to 10 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 5 to 10:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays.
Instagram: @dispatchdining
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This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Hank's Low Country Seafood expands from South Carolina to Columbus
