When Frank Lee opened Slightly North of Broad with Dick Elliott and David Marconi in December 1993, the restaurant had something most other Charleston establishments did not. An open kitchen. One of Lee’s goals was to make SNOB “as real as possible,” he said ahead of the East Bay Street restaurant's 30th anniversary.
They butchered their own meat and made their own stocks, sauces and desserts, doing so in view of the full dining room. “I think I just wanted to do it,” Lee said, when asked about the origin of the open kitchen. “It just gave you more relationship with your customers, so it’s not so transactional.
” Though rare back then, open kitchens are taking Charleston by storm, whether intentionally or out of necessity. Chefs value their interactive role in the dining room. But operating one also comes with its challenges.
Chefs prepare food at Bearcat on Nov. 22, 2023, in Charleston. Nikko Cagalanan hustles around the kitchen moments after his Charleston restaurant, Kultura, opens for dinner at 5 p.
m. His staff is small — two chefs, three servers — but there’s no panic in the Filipino native’s eyes. He warms the oven and hot plates used to heat pans before delivering instructions to his assistants.
The mise en place — chopped garlic, onions, mint and other herbs — is ready, and he’s checking on the pork belly he roasted earlier in the day. The guests who fill Kultura ’s dining room, adorned in a garden's worth of plants, are conversing while.