Breakfast at Lell’s Cafe in Rock Hill, SC

Millstone Pizza And Taphouse

May 7, 2013 By Christin M 2 Comments

Pizza and Beer. Almost as great a combination as peanut butter and chocolate.

Brendan Kuhlkin and David Clapp have opened a new restaurant in Rock Hill named Millstone Pizza and Taphouse that focuses on this popular combination of food and beverage.. Their wood-fired pizzas and 40 craft beers on tap will make this place a regular on your dining out schedule.

The City of Rock Hill has made great efforts in recent years to revitalize the downtown area which is referred to as Old Town Rock Hill. Millstone Pizza and Taphouse is located on the backside of the building on Caldwell St which will be housing the brand new indoor Old Town Market, which incidentally opens for the 2013 season this Thursday. (Previously Old Town Market operated out of a parking lot.)

The interior of the restaurant is warm and hip with soaring industrial ceilings, exposed brick, and a bar made out of reclaimed wood. Large garage door windows line the side of the building, letting in lots of light into what would otherwise be a very dark space. They can be opened on a nice day to let fresh air in. There is also a spacious outdoor eating area along the side of the building.

The owners of Millstone Pizza and Taphouse did extensive research before opening, traveling around New York and Chicago sampling some of the best pizzas these cities have to offer. Their efforts paid off. The pizza at Millstone is superior in quality to any made in the area. This is due to their carefully sourced ingredients and 900 degree custom hickory-fired oven.

Cooking the pizza at such a high temperature creates a very crispy crust. The restaurant ships in Caputo OO flour from Italy, custom-made meats from New York, and uses local farm to table cheeses. All ingredients are superbly fresh.

Perhaps my favorite thing at Millstone is the choose your own beer flight. You pick 4 from their 40 beers on tap. There are lots of good choices and a plenty of variety, including many IPAs which tend to be my favorite. They also have a preselected beer flight of the week for a little less money. Our waitress, who was exceptionally friendly and attentive, took the time to write the name of each beer on a coaster. A big plus since between my husband and myself, we had ordered 8 different beers and never would have remembered which beer was which.

For an appetizer, the Salt and Pepper Calamari was very delicious and not at all greasy. After a little debate, we settled on the Meat Pizza with Italian sausage, meatballs, pepperoni, Prosciutto di Parma, and buffalo mozzarella. It proved to be a good choice.

Other pizzas include a Seafood Pizza with white garlic sauce, shrimp, clams, calamari, sea salt, pepper, basil, and red pepper olive oil and the Funghi Pizza with white garlic sauce, cremini and portobello mushrooms, and local goat cheese.

For dessert, you can’t go wrong with the giant chocolate chip cookie cooked in a skillet in the wood-fired oven. Yum!

If you tend to be a late eater, every Monday-Thursday night from 9pm to midnight, pizzas are $2 off and all draft beers are $1 off. I’m sure this deal is popular with nearby Winthrop University students.

Millstone Pizza and Taphouse seems to be doing lots of business. It’s so nice to see some locally owned restaurants doing well in a city that is way too overloaded with chain restaurants. Be sure to also check out Erin’s Restaurant located a few buildings down Caldwell ST, as well as The Yolk which serves up delicious breakfast foods on Mt Gallant, and Culina Modern Comfort Food over by the hospital.

Millstone Pizza and Taphouse

121 Caldwell St

Rok Hill, SC

Mon-Sat 11am-12am

Sunday 11am-10pm

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Old Town Market Opens with Large Crowd

Filed Under: Restaurants Tagged With: pizza places, places to eat, Rock Hill Restaurants

Erin’s Restaurant is a Local Treasure

March 27, 2013 By Christin M 2 Comments

My husband and I had one of our best dining experiences in recent years last weekend in Rock Hill of all places. We had an absolutely fabulous meal at Erin’s Restaurant in Old Town Rock Hill. Erin’s Restaurant opened at 129 Caldwell St about 6 months ago. Previously it shared restaurant space with Kinch’s. But it was Owner/Chef’s Erin Mcmanus’s dream to have her own space.

Erin’s Restaurant is a community-supported restaurant and donations from members of the community helped make this new space a reality. You can see some of their names painted on the backs of chairs in the dining area.

Entry to the restaurant is from the side door. The interior space is decorated with local artwork on the walls. An eclectic mixture of lights hang from the ceiling, many of them vintage looking. The seating is a mixture of tables and wooden chairs and booths which run down one side.

Erin’s Restaurant bills itself as “Fresh-Local-Organic. The way food should be.” Erin personally scouts out the freshest, local ingredients and has formed relationships with many area farmers. On Erin’s website, you can view a list of farmers from which the restaurant sources its produce as well as a description of what they grow and links to their websites.

One of Erin’s major goals in operating a restaurant is to educate and to “encourage an awareness of where foods come from, and how they are grown and prepared.” The menu at Erin’s Restaurant changes frequently. On the website, you’ll find only a sample menu. You have two choices as far as ordering food. You can order a la carte off the menu or choose the Chef’s Choice Menu served family style. Call ahead if you desire the Chef’s Choice. They like to have a 2 hour notice.

Strawberry Salad

We went with the Chef’s Choice option and were blown away by the quality and quantity of food. I seriously think we ate enough for the entire week. Chef’s Choice typically consists of 2 meats, a selection of salads and/or soups, side dishes, and 2 desserts plus coffee or tea. The cost I believe is around $25. We were offered a container to take home our leftovers (I had dibs on them for lunch the next day). The food is mainly down-home southern cooking. That and the fact that it is served on mismatched old china, will make you feel like you’ve gone back in time, dining at your grandmother’s house. That is, if your grandmother had popped a few amphetamines and spent a whole day turning an entire garden into a table full of home-cooked culinary delights.

Tomato Mozzarella Salad with Fresh Basil

We were served 4 salads, all so good we couldn’t pick a favorite. They consisted of a tomato-mozzarella salad, a cucumber salad with a spicy Asian-twist, an apple -goat cheese salad with cashews (or maybe it was feta?), and a strawberry salad with crunchy ramen noodle thingies on top. We were also served bread with olive oil and balsamic. I could have stopped eating right then, but we were only getting warmed up.

Next we were served the main course. I think I counted 2 meats and 7 sides. The meats consisted of a rich beef dish braised in wine and served on mashed potatoes and a chicken dish served with a fresh tarragon sauce. Among the sides were pineapple casserole, mac and cheese, collard greens, black-eyed peas, hoppin john, roasted vegetables, and mashed sweet potatoes.

The amount of food served and the exceptional service made us feel like royalty. Truly, I’ve never experienced anything like it

For dessert we were served a pumpkin cake with fresh rosemary from Erin’s garden and a chocolate sheet cake with frosting. Loved the combo of pumpkin and rosemary! And of course we finished every bite of our dessert.

The real treat at Erin’s Restaurant isn’t the food, it’s Erin. Don’t get me wrong, the food is fabulous. But part of the reason the food is fabulous is because it’s so evident that it’s prepared with passion and love. During our meal, Erin came out of the kitchen and spoke to every table. She is completely endearing and delightfully told us where each one of the foods was sourced from. I would have had to taken notes to remember it all. This is a second career for Erin and she’s enjoying every second of it. She even claims that she enjoys her days at work more than her days off.

A big thank you to Erin and her fabulous staff for making our evening feel so personal and special! What a wonderful and inspiring example of someone living their passion!

Erin’s Restaurant

www.erinsrockhill.com

Lunch Monday-Friday 11-2:30

Dinner Tuesday-Thursday 5-9

Dinner Friday-Saturday 5-10

Sunday Brunch 10-2

Reservations: 803-493-9428

129 Caldwell St in Rock Hill

Filed Under: Restaurants Tagged With: Erin's Restaurant, old town rock hill, places to eat, Rock Hill Restaurants

Culina Modern Comfort Food

March 22, 2013 By Christin M Leave a Comment

As locals who are interested in food know all too well, Rock Hill is pretty desolate when it comes to restaurants serving delicious, well thought out food. There are a couple of fantastic breakfast places (The Yolk and Lell’s) but when it comes to dinner, the pickens are slim.

But last week my husband and I ate at a (fairly) new restaurant in Rock Hill, Culina Modern Comfort Food, focusing on small plates and shareability. I would not have even known about it if I hadn’t seen a stack of their business cards at Faith Fitness Studio during one of my workouts.

Our dining experience at Culina was wonderful. The food, the drinks, the atmosphere, the service- it all works, making it a welcome addition to Rock Hill. I cannot wait to go back. Culina Modern Comfort Food is perfect for date night or a special occasion.

Culina is located in one of the newish little strip malls clustered together on Herlong Ave near the hospital. The restaurant interior is a little on the small side and has an intimate feel. There is not a whole lot of seating and you will definitely want to make a reservation if dining at Culina on a weekend. The seating consists of a mixture of booths, tables, high-tops, and a small bar area. We sat at a high-top table which I’m usually not a fan of, but the seats were plenty comfortable.

Chef J Michael Melton has created a menu with just the right amount of offerings. Start your meal off with one of their signature cocktails and you won’t be disappointed. The Dark ‘n Stormy, a mixture of rum and ginger beer, was so awesome, we couldn’t resist ordering a second round. Try one and you’ll be hooked. It’s cool and refreshing, with a tingly taste. Sweet and Spicy with a little citrus taste from lime. Almost like a citrus gingerbread cookie.

Dark ‘n Stormy

On the food menu, the dishes all fall within a comfort food theme that is focused on global flavors made with locally sourced food. You’ll find Asian, Spanish, Italian, and American influences on the menu. For a small bite, choose from Ginger Beer Mussels, Glazed Sweet Potato Fries with a honey bourbon glaze, and if you’re feeling adventurous, deep-fried Frog Legs with spicy brown honey mustard.

We had the Chicken Bun and the Creamy Crawfish Mac and Cheese. The mac and cheese was good, but the chicken bun was the standout. Tasty chicken enveloped in a house made steamed bun. The perfect combination of sweet and spicy. I would have eaten 10 of them. The waitress explained they had recently switched out pork for chicken in this dish. I’m sure the pork would have been excellent too.

Crawfish Mac and Cheese

On the Cold Plates Menu, the Bok Choy Salad is popular, consisting of charred bok choy, mung bean sprouts, kimchi pancake, slivered almonds, fresh green onion, and sweet soy vinaigrette.

Chicken Bun

For a main course, we were tempted by the Cheerwine Fried Chicken, but decided to try the Flat Iron Steak with tomato jam, feta, and country ham potato cakes and the Crab Stuffed Lobster. The presentation for both was excellent and the ingredients were superbly fresh. The tomato jam on the steak was very sweet, but I loved it.

Crab Stuffed Flounder

For dessert I highly recommend the Bread Pudding. We licked our plate clean.

What makes Culina Modern Comfort Food even more appealing? As a business, they are taking steps to ensure their business practices are as “green” as possible. Their used fryer oil is converted to bio diesel. Grease trap waste is turned into plant food and all glass, paper, and cardboard products are recycled. Rechargeable candles are used to cut down on plastic and oil use and each table has a glass bottle filled with chilled water and topped with a cork-like stopper to minimize water waste.

Flat Iron Steak

Bread Pudding

Bottles of wine are half-priced every Wednesday and Thursdays are $5 martinis. Culina also serves Brunch on Sundays, is considering opening for lunch in the near future, and is in the process of revamping their menu for Spring.

Culina Modern Comfort Food

295 Herlong Ave

Rock Hill, SC 29732

Tuesday-Saturday 5pm-10pm

Sunday 10am-2pm

803-323-5000

Filed Under: Restaurants Tagged With: Culina Modern Comfort Food, places to eat, Rock Hill Restaurants

Places to Eat: McHale’s

November 24, 2012 By Christin M 1 Comment

Hungry for some good bar food and a nice cold beer? Check out McHales’s Iris Pub with 2 area locations in Fort Mill and Rock Hill. The Fort Mill Restaurant is on Gold Hill Rd as you drive into Tega Cay. The inside is dark, but inviting with plenty of seating. Outside there is an expansive deck that overlooks the driving range next door. During the warmer months there is a Tiki Bar open. There’s lots to do while you wait for your food or down a couple of beers- pool, horseshoes, and cornhole.

McHale’s has over 100 selections of beer and they frequently change their beer offerings. Live music on the weekends.

Patty Melt

Menu consists of Irish pub food including Bangers and Mash, Shepherd’s Pie, and Fish & Chips, plus typical Bar Food. The Irish Spring Rolls with corned beef, swiss cheese, and sauerkraut are delicious and the Burgers and Fries are pretty good too.

Irish Panini with corned beef

The Rock Hill location on Main St has more of the feel of an Irish Pub. This location has a second floor that can be used for private parties.

McHale’s

1820 Gold Hill Rd

Fort Mill, SC 29708

803-548-2151

Filed Under: Restaurants Tagged With: Fort Mill restaurants, places to eat Fort Mill, Rock Hill Restaurants

It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than Breakfast at The Yolk

July 16, 2012 By Christin M 4 Comments

Word has definitely gotten out about the fabulous food The Yolk is serving up in Rock Hill. If you go on a Saturday or Sunday morning, their busiest days of the week, expect to wait for a table.

We first visited The Yolk during their opening week back in March. We knew based on that visit that they would be successful, but we had no idea how quickly that success would come. Chef Gregory Collier seems surprised as well. A recent article in The Herald and lots of word of mouth has a steady stream of customers entering the door.

Owners Gregory and Subrina Collier, originally from Memphis, decided Rock Hill would be the perfect place to open their new breakfast restaurant. The focus at The Yolk is on breakfast, but they also started serving a limited lunch menu. Recently they have begun offering one sweet and one savory breakfast special each weekend. This past weekends specials were S’mores Pancakes and Bacon Biscuits with Tomato Gravy. It is with these specials that Chef Gregory really shows off his culinary skills.

The specials have been a huge success and if you go too late in the morning, you may find that they have sold out. We were fortunate several weeks ago to get the last order of Tiramisu Pancakes. I’m fairly confident that they are my favorite pancakes ever. If you see me ducking out of church early, you’ll know where I’m headed.

My favorite place to sit at The Yolk is at the bar watching Chef Collier do his thing.

Bacon Biscuits with Tomato Gravy

S’mores Pancakes

TN Fries- Yukon Gold Potatoes fried to crispy brown perfection

Chef Collier at work

The Colliers set out to create a restaurant that ”focused on local food resources but with a contemporary flair”. They have done that and much more. The personalities of the owners are just as big a draw to The Yolk as the food itself. They radiate warmth and friendliness and I look forward to seeing them as much as I do eating their delicious food.

The Yolk

Closed Mondays

1204 Mt Gallant Rd

Rock Hill, SC

Filed Under: Restaurants Tagged With: places to eat breakfast, Rock Hill Restaurants, The Yolk

Restaurant: The Yolk in Rock HIll, SC

March 25, 2012 By Christin M 3 Comments

I often hear people complain that there are not enough restaurants in the Fort Mill, SC area that specialize in breakfast. With the opening of The Yolk just last week, breakfasts options have expanded. The Yolk is located on Mount Gallant Rd in Rock Hill in a small strip mall part way between Cherry Rd and Celanese Rd. It is a small restaurant with a few tables, a few booths, and ample counter seating.

When we went on Saturday, we opted to sit at the counter and watch chef/owner Gregory Collier do his stuff. We watched him cook for a while before we placed our order. All of the food is prepared by Chef Gregory. With each dish we watched him prepare, our order changed. Each one looked better than the last one. I finally settled on an order of chorizo chili, a crisp tortilla, fried eggs, and salsa verde and was not disappointed.

The Yolk is a family business, being run by Collier, his wife, and sister. Something that is nice to see in this day and age. All three were attentive and friendly in their service.

Owner Gregory Collier’s goal is to do breakfast foods, and do them well. He wants to use as many local food sources as possible. Currently, The Yolk is serving farm fresh eggs, Aunt Rachel’s sausage(Lancaster, SC), Clover Organics Mushrooms and Wild Turkey Farms Chorizo (China Grove, NC). You will find all of the basics on the menu: buttermilk pancakes, southern waffles, cheese grits, omelets, and bacon. The plan is to also do one lunch special a day. Last week’s special was chicken and waffles.

The Yolk is located at 1204 Mount Gallant Rd in Rock Hill, SC. Closed Mondays.

Read Fort Mill SC Living’s follow-up review here.

Filed Under: Restaurants Tagged With: places to eat breakfast, Rock Hill Restaurants

Breakfast at Lell’s Cafe in Rock Hill, SC

February 25, 2012 By Christin M Leave a Comment

This morning after a run in Cherry Park, Ted and I headed down Cherry Rd to Lell’s Cafe and had the best breakfast I can remember. Lell’s Cafe was opened by Lell Trogdon in the fall of 2o10 and I’m regretting that it took us this long to try it. We’ve missed out on a lot of good breakfasts.

Lells’ Cafe is unique in that it is a community supported restaurant (CSR). Not having enough money to open a restaurant on her own, and being turned down for loans by multiple banks, an article on the rising popularity of CSR’s in Gourmet Magazine presented a plausible solution. Lell was fortunate to have a number of friends and associates who believed in her and her business concept and invested from $50 to $5,000 in return for a credit for food and drink at the cafe.

Making Lell’s Cafe even more unique is Lell’s focus on using local farmers as her suppliers. Lell’s Cafe is dedicated to using only in-season, local produce. You won’t find tomatoes on the menu in the winter. The menu also changes frequently based on what is available. The best way to know what they are serving on any given day is to check their Facebook Page.

Lell’s Cafe is located on Cherry Rd across from Earthfare in a small strip mall. The space is nicely renovated with an exposed brick wall and an assortment of local artwork. It’s a small space, but a mirrored wall on one side and the fact that the kitchen is open to the dining area make it appear larger.

The atmosphere is on the cosy side- you seat yourself, someone will come to the table and take your order, and you pay at the counter. Your breakfast will cost you a little more than if you go down the street to I-Hop, but remember- you are paying for quality, fresh, organic ingredients and supporting local farmers. Furthermore, this is a meal that will fill you up for an entire day. Don’t think of it as spending $9 for breakfast. Think of it as $9 for breakfast and the lunch you won’t need. (Next time we will have to do 3 laps around Cherry Park instead of 2 before heading to Lell’s.)

Lell’s Cafe has information on their suppliers on both a bulletin board in the restaurant and their menu. They serve Intelligentsia Coffee, sourdough bread from Breadsmith in Fort Mill, pork from CawCaw Creek in Columbia, SC, chicken and beef from Baucom’s Best in Monroe, NC, and eggs from Manor Oaks in Chester, SC. Lell’s Cafe also sells chocolates from The Secret Chocolatier in Charlotte, NC.

The menu at Lell’s is small, but everything is enticing. We decided to order Caramel French Toast, the special for the day, and the 66 Pile-Up, potatoes. eggs, bacon, cheese and green chilies all layered together. The idea was to split them. I really wanted the french toast, but a whole plate of something sweet can be too much. I like something savory for breakfast too. Ted took one glance at the menu and knew he wanted the 66 Pile-up but he was game for the French Toast too. Well about 2 minutes into the meal Ted said, “Next time I’m just getting this.” And I said, “What do you mean? You’re not sharing next time?” He replied, “Next time I’m just getting this. It’s really, really good.” I’ve never in all my years of being with my husband, had him announce that he’s not going to share his food the next time. Of course, he’ll say he didn’t say that – but that’s what he meant.

So there you have it- Lell’s Cafe , food so good it turned my husband into a nonsharing, food hoarder.

And for the record, the Caramel French Toast is excellent too.

66 Pile-Up