Brett McKee has put his Facebook friends to work for him.
The co-owner and executive chef of Oak Steakhouse in Charleston, S.C., asked the roughly 5,000 people who follow his online social network to send him family recipes.
He received more than 200 suggestions in a single night. He tweaked the best of them and came up with the first menu for 17 North Roadside Kitchen, on Route 17 in nearby Mount Pleasant, S.C.
“I’m trying to force people to go back in time a little bit and learn about their history, and then we try to incorporate that on the menu,” McKee said.
The result is a menu that appeals to locals and also gives them a sense of ownership and loyalty, he said.
He asks for more suggestions every month, both to keep his customers engaged and to change the menu based on what’s in season. McKee and business partner Steve Palmer have an organic garden, and he lets his customers know what they’re harvesting. He also informs them what seafood his purveyors are selling and what meat he’s getting at good prices, and he challenges them to find family recipes containing those ingredients.
From there he finds a story to tell about each dish. “If I make a fennel-and pepper-encrusted swordfish over sauce puttanesca and quenelles of eggplant caponata, I like to tell the story of the origins of puttanesca,” McKee said of the sauce, whose name, according to some accounts, refers to the prostitutes who invented it.
DATE OPENED: Nov. 2, 2009LOCATION: Mount Pleasant, S.C.WEBSITE:
McKee, who is a well-known chef in the Charleston area, intentionally doesn’t spend much time at 17 North, so guests don’t expect to see him there.
“If they want the whole dog-and-pony show” they know to find him at Oak Steakhouse, he said. The Mt. Pleasant restaurant, a former barbecue joint, looks like it’s in the middle of nowhere.
“It’s the only building anywhere around,” McKee said. “But tucked around there are all these multimillion-dollar houses.”
So the customers are a combination of local “good ol’ boys” and Charleston millionaires. They gather at the restaurant’s former smoke pit in the evenings for s’mores and other fireside goodies.
MENU SAMPLER APPETIZERS Tomato bisque with mini grilled cheese — $5 17 North Salad — Mesclun greens, tomato, artichoke heart, asparagus — $8 Deviled eggs — 2 traditional, 2 with duck confit, 2 with smoked salmon — $6 Fried chicken livers — cheddar grits, fried basil — $8 Jumbo sea scallop, braised lemon butter, leeks with tomato and basil — $9 ENTRÉES Boneless buttermilk fried chicken with tasso gravy — $13 Coriander-crusted cedar plank salmon — $15 Shrimp and crawfish Creole — $15 SIDES — $5 Macaroni and Cheese Braised greens Parmesan, truffled pommes frites Sweet potato purée Carolina Gold rice
The concept has been successful enough that McKee and Palmer are looking to expand. Palmer recently signed a letter of intent to purchase a 40-year-old smokehouse in Charlotte, N.C.
After that the team has its eyes set on Nashville; Washington, D.C.; and Raleigh, N.C. Each new restaurant’s name will be its address followed by “Roadside Kitchen.”