Lowcountry Cuisine Spring 2018

lowcountry cuisine LC 38 www.LowcountryCuisineMag.com | www.CharlestonRecipes.com is shrimp tumbling among wheels of fried green tomatoes atop a bed of pimento cheesy grits. Once a visitor came to Acme and ordered all eight variations in one sitting. He was only in town for the night and wanted to taste them all. Just any grits or shrimp won’t do. In a city that lives off the profitability of high-quality Southern food, ingredients matter. “If a shrimp is from the gulf, I can normally taste it,” Simons said. On this, Stehling agreed: You can taste the difference in a good, local shrimp. “I’ve been really spoiled over the last two decades here in Charleston,” said Stehling. Most Charleston diners and tourists don’t have gulf-detecting taste buds. But everyone knows when they take a bite of heavenly shrimp ‘n’ grits. It’s an experience that has changed lives. “I wasn’t a big grits fan until this place,” said co-owner Rodger Tully, who moved to Charleston from Tennessee. Origin is key for Acme’s kitchen. The shrimp come from Rutledge Leland in McClellanville or Tommy Edwards on Shem Creek. The grits are stone ground from the Adluh Flour Store in Columbia and time- consuming to make, Simons said. Being picky pays off when it comes to shrimp ‘n’ grits. On an average night in July – the “highest of the high season,” as Simons put it – Acme will serve around 300 plates of shrimp ‘n’ grits. The kitchen can grill up to 100 pounds of shrimp a day, and in December they ordered 5,000 pounds to get the restaurant through the off season. “We serve shrimp ‘n’ grits from when the door opens at 8 a.m. until it closes at 10 p.m.,” Simons pointed out. Not much has been left unchanged in Charleston over the last decade; shrimp ‘n’ grits is one of the rare exceptions. This is Southern hospitality at its best: warm and comforting enough to seduce even the pickiest outsider, adaptable to any time or place, and most of all full of soul. “This is a special place, and I want to do this justice,” said Stehling of crafting his Southern dishes. Over at Acme, Arena agreed: “A lot of love goes into our grits.” You can taste it. Photo by Krysta Chapman.