Hominy Grill

When Food Network recommends a restaurant, I try my best to make sure that I go check it out. Hominy Grill is located in a quaint little house with a covered courtyard patio and the infamous grits artwork on the side of the building. They only take reservations for dinner, but the brunch is what everyone was raving about...especially the shrimp and grits. It was recommended that you get there right when the opened because there would be a pretty long wait. We arrived before they opened and sure enough there was already a line of about 20 people. With that being said though, this places knows how to get people in (once they opened we were seated in less than 5 minutes) and out and the efficiently! The inside it like you are sitting in a cottage with lots of windows and and eclectic set of furniture...definitely very homey feeling though. As we were working our way to the door, I noted that there was another delicious sounds cocktail with honeysuckle vodka, lemonade and raspberry - SO YUMMY!

Feeling a little abnormal, I opted to try some of the smaller brunch offerings so that I could try more. Plus the shrimp and grits were already being ordered, so I was definitely getting to try those. I chose pumpkin gingerbread and a egg, cheese and bacon biscuit sandwich. The pumpkin gingerbread reminded me of fall and would be perfect on a chilly fall morning with a steaming cup of coffee. It wasn't too sweet and there was hints of cinnamon, nutmeg and nuts. I am no determined to find a way to recreate that because it just made me feel warm and fuzzy. I am not the biggest fan of biscuits, but probably because most of the ones I have tried have been small and thin. These were big and cloud like and hot out of the oven! The eggs and bacon would have been yummy on their own, but all together it was like a breakfast symphony...exactly what a breakfast sandwich should be.

Like all the shrimp and grits we tried, this one was completely different from the others. The grits were pure white and the shrimp didn't have any sauce. What I found to be interesting was that this dish seemed to have an Asian influence to it. The spices were definitely more prominent, but that may have been because there was not sauce. In addition to the shrimp, there were scallions, mushroom and bacon. And yes since it's the South bacon is pretty much in everything (and I am definitely not going to complain about that). Just for another comparison, there was an order of just cheese grits. These grits had a consistency that was similar to oatmeal. I really liked that they used real shredded cheese instead of cheese sauce. The cheese added a touch of salt to the grits and gave it a creamier texture.

Though I know that is it not necessarily customary to eat dessert at brunch, the dessert lover inside all of us came out and so we had to give it a try. They had several yummy options like hummingbird cake, a coconut layer cake, and a lemon icebox pie. I am not a huge pie person, but we decided to try the lemon icebox pie. It was light and fluffy with a very lovely fresh lemon taste. The whipped cream on top added some sweetness to the pie. However, in this pie it was was really the crust that was the star. It was the perfect combination of buttery graham crackery goodness. It didn't crumble into a million piece and yet still managed to have a fair amount of crunch to it. Hominy Grill should definitely be on your restaurant list when you visit Charleston whether you make it for breakfast, lunch or dinner because I am sure that you will be impressed.