The Resy Guide to Dining in Cannonborough and Elliotborough

Dreamed up by the dream team behind Chez Nous, Malagon is a little slice of Spain on Spring Street. Iberico hams hang from the ceiling, the bar is the place to sit to watch all the bustling kitchen action, and everything is tight corners, like you’re tucked into a Barcelona alleyway, complete with a mini mercado, boquerones, a tortilla española, and enough Spanish wine to while the night away. If it’s a little more elbow room you want, book a seat on the patio, but remember that they might not be able to whisk you inside this small spot if bad weather shows up.

Speaking of Chez Nous, this restaurant also calls the neighborhood home. In fact, “home” is the operative word at this quintessentially quaint spot — everyone on staff, including chef Jill Mathias, consistently works hard to build an atmosphere that is much more like joining a relaxed dinner party rather than visiting a raucous restaurant. The menu is inspired by France, Spain, and Italy, and rotates with seasons and availability. The staff is relaxed yet informed on the menu, and there’s no shortage of charm, from the weathered wood benches and tables, to the Blueberry Baked Custard and the perfect sparkling wine suggested by the server to accompany it. 

The menu is divided into “Small, Shared, Large, and Sweets,” at this laid-back spot, thus inviting a relaxing of the traditional American courses, a trend many of us are craving more of in restaurants. We are also interested in knowing where our food comes from, and S & S does this in spades — right on the restaurant wall — listing the farmers who grow their produce for a charred acorn squash with Carolina Gold rice and persimmon jam, or the fishermen who harvest the scallops that are then served with butter poached turnips. This restaurant is very vegetable-forward, and many dishes can be amended vegan, so all palates are welcome. 

If it is time for you to go out again with a party of six or more, we suggest booking the chef’s table at Wild Common. While many of the restaurants in Cannonborough-Elliotborough run with a neighborhood focus, Wild Common goes its own way, presenting a decidedly upscale experience that includes tasting menus, modern decor, and plenty of artful plating. Chef Orlando Pagan is not serving style without substance, however. He goes his own way too, incorporating locally sourced products into both a “Common” and “Wild” menu for the chef’s table.

This vegetable-forward boîte already tends to appear with frequency on Charleston must-do lists, but it is truly one of the neighborhood stars, so we’d be remiss if we skipped it here. Why? Chef Kevin Johnson’s approach of using Mediterranean rim flavors with local foodstuffs is consistently delicious and always hyper-seasonal, such as a braised beef cheek, which is currently being served with in-season celery root, Swiss chard, and roasted radishes. And no matter the season, the seafood dishes make it one of the hidden gems for those looking to indulge in the freshest local seafood. 

A darling of the Instagram set, this small restaurant with the jaunty yellow umbrellas in the parking lot serves up Mexican favorites in an all-day menu. We recommend you have a cauliflower and salsa papanteca taco with some queso fundido at 3:30 p.m. if you like — there’s no closing the restaurant between lunch and dinner here. Which is a good thing, because life is good under one of those yellow umbrellas, especially if you’re sharing a pitcher of prickly pear margaritas with friends on a sunny afternoon. 

If you dream of duck-fat pomme frites (we’re especially looking at you locals who used to flock to La Fourchette), then make your Resy now because these fries are worth building an evening around — and they’re the same crispy treats you remember. Perig Goulet, owner of the now-closed, aforementioned La Fourchette, has revived the special spuds at Goulette, and if you ask us, you should pair them with his rotisserie chicken, a bird so good that it routinely sells out (make sure to reserve one before you even enter the restaurant). There’s a hanger steak and a shrimp roll for those who don’t want poultry, and a welcoming vibe from the whole staff no matter what your order. 

If it’s a fry tour of the neighborhood you want, then pop across the street from Goulette to Fuel, a restaurant housed in a former filling station that has excellent sweet potato waffle fries. They also have a rotating selection of margaritas, epic fenced outdoor seating that makes you forget you’re on a busy corner, and an all-around laid-back Caribbean vibe, which extends to well-behaved dogs too. From the veggie nachos to the shrimp tacos, Fuel has been a neighborhood favorite since 2008, and they are still going strong.