The August Hit List: Magnolias, Chasing Sage, CudaCo, and More

Originally started as a food truck in 2015, the team quickly earned a reputation for consistently providing highly flavorful food fusions built from local ingredients. The menu rotates with the season, but you can always find what we can only describe as craveable food: ramen, beef salads, a quesadilla, and a really delectable bahn mi, made even better if you go for the marinated fried tofu as the protein option. There’s counter service, cocktails, local kombucha and breads, wines for sale, and hardly ever a parking spot out front. 

Chasing Sage is just downright beautiful. With bubbly, bright cocktails, locally grown vegetable-forward small plates, and a design aesthetic (and coffee program) that comes from the Pacific Northwest, it’s a straight stunner of a space tucked in close to the Crosstown in Cannonborough. Herbs are grown right on property and plucked daily for dishes, the menu is ever-evolving depending on the produce coming from The Farm at Smoaks, and the service is kind and knowledgeable. It’s just as accommodating for date night as for a friend catch-up dinner, especially if you’re doing so over summer squashes with pistachio, mint, and pesto. 

Get your Southern style on at Magnolias, where fried green tomatoes, pimento cheese, and deviled eggs topped with lump crab meat never go out of style. Located on iconic East Bay Street, it’s common to see families gathering around these tables in their Sunday Brunch best, and date night darlings tucked into a dark corner in the evening. Whatever the occasion, we just have one question for you: if you don’t get the Down South Egg Roll — collard greens, chicken, and tasso ham — did you even dine at Magnolias? 

To know Hurayli is to love Hurayli, which is one part coffee shop, one part smoothie bar, one part healthy breakfast or lunch, and all heart. The teal exterior makes it easy to find, and selections from the Summer Breeze — a smoothie with raw local honey, pineapple and spirulina — to the Healthiest Nachos in Town (really, that’s the dish’s name) — made with black beans and cashew nacho cheese — make it easy to return to for that fresh and healthy feeling. In a town that’s often celebrating fried food and bourbon a-flowing, we’re happy to know Hurayli, and we think you might be too. 

South meets Southwest at Red Drum, and has been doing so successfully for years. There is a loyal following of locals who come for the laid-back vibe and consistently good food that includes the crispy fried shrimp and the refried black bean skillet with chorizo. There’s often live music, there’s always a welcoming patio for those summer vibes, and if you want to get fancy, a 2005 Luigi Bosca Malbec by candlelight in the Wine Room to accompany the Crab Meat Tostaditas. Chef Ben Berryhill is a great part of the low country culinary community, and he knows how to remind diners of the joy of good food and drink in a welcoming place. That’s living like a local.

Acme has a dinner menu with plenty of choices (and plenty of fans) but many folks can’t imagine a beach trip to Isle of Palms without a brunch at Acme. Pecan chicken and grits, a menu of eggs Benedict options, and fried seafood is a great way to start the day when you don’t need to “do” much but sun and sand, especially if it comes with one of their local pickle vodka Bloody Marys. There’s a kids’ menu, biscuits and gravy, and you know, that famous sea-breeze-in-a-beach-shack atmosphere might lure you to return more often. 

Located in the former Huff’s Seafood on Folly Road, CudaCo is Chef Shaun Brian’s love letter to seafood. A fish and oyster market with one killer fried fish sandwich, guests are invited to watch the staff butcher local seafood through a large window. They’re slicing select cuts for crudos of the day that are made to order, tackling triggerfish for a customer who is looking to grill it poolside for dinner, and also divvying up delectable sides, from seaweed salad to pickled red onions. Smoked, raw, or fried up on a po’boy, seafood this good isn’t going to remain an island secret for long. 

Classic fine dining for fancy dinners is what this restaurant does best, coursed out perfectly from Oysters Rockefeller to Black Skillet Bone-in Ribeye, with perhaps a wedge salad and goat cheese gnocchi in between. At this restaurant, Chef Patrick Owens unabashedly celebrates the great American high-end steakhouse tradition. Dark woods, a deep wine list, and the ability to add lobster to your entree are the sparkle to this Champagne glass of celebratory food. 

A new island outpost from a company that has locations in Atlanta and Virginia Beach, as well as a distillery in Savannah, Georgia, this 11,000-square-foot brewery is hard to miss on Island Park Drive, especially when there is live music flowing from its immense patio. Beer is also flowing, with 27 taps and multiple bars which serve other selections as well, and there’s plenty of places to sit and relax once you’ve made your choice. In true New Realm style, the menu is also “go big or go home,” with a wide selection ranging from blistered shishito peppers to sandwiches, soups and salads, and even an ahi tuna poke bowl and some sweet treats. 

Local institution Ye Olde Fashioned is hopping this time of year, scooping up old fashioned ice cream flavors from Banana Pudding to Butter Pecan and Brownie S’Mores, whipping milkshakes, building banana splits, and serving hot dogs and sandwiches to round it all out. Ice cream flavors can vary depending on the low country location, but they all have the famous BLT, which sports a whopping 10 slices of bacon per sandwich. No one said this is diet food, y’all, and no one seems to be complaining. Get an extra dash of whipped cream and more cherries to celebrate summer South Carolina style.