The Hi-Lo Food Show features acclaimed chef Erik Anderson (a Food & Wine Best New Chef, founding chef of Nashville’s The Catbird Seat, and chef-owner of the forthcoming Brut in Minneapolis) along with me, the editor-in-chief of this website and a semi-professional eater. Here’s the simple concept: We visit a city and eat at two restaurants, one very expensive and one very cheap, but each highly recommended by professionals and our local friends. We’ll speak to the high-end chefs about their cuisine and vision, and we’ll talk to each other about the food. (That’ll be mostly me asking Erik questions.) For this first series, we visited three cities. Last week was Chicago’s high-end wonderland El Ideas and Jim’s Original, a Polish sausage stand that has operating almost continuously for 76 years. This week we’re in Charleston, South Carolina, where we started with multi-course magnificence at McCrady’s. Today things are much more down to earth, or rather down to sea: Nana’s Seafood & Soul serves fresh seafood out of a tiny storefront on Line Street, with homegrown preparations of crab, shrimp, and more. Mother/son team Kenyatta and Carolyn McNeil stuffed us full of incredible food, most served on Styrofoam instead of china. Next time, we’ll visit a pair of delicious destinations in San Francisco.
