Delicious homemade tagliatelle with short ribs at Red Drum gastropub

A few weeks ago, during Charleston Restaurant Week, I found myself experiencing a flutter of emotions that usually are reserved for first dates — excitement, with a little trepidation and nerves mixed in.  That’s how Restaurant Week usually starts for me.   I love poring over menus and imagining what dishes are going to taste like.  I get all sorts of worked up, especially when I found out that Red Drum Gastropub was participating.

Luckily, among the ashes of gluey she-crab soup, cold fish tacos and other hardly worth mentioning dishes we ate during Restaurant Week, a glittering phoenix arose — Red Drum Gastropub.  Part Lowcountry and part Tex-Mex, we loved all of the unique touches to the dishes we tried — habanero salt on a salmon crudo, the extra al dente, homemade texture in a short rib tagliatelle, and an oh-my-gosh-that-is-so-amazingly-juicy wood fire grilled chicken.

The best part was that the dessert course wasn’t a throwaway, either — a rich, caramel-y toffee cake that was sweet without being cloying and just slightly warm.  I also loved the size of it — sometimes desserts are so enormous these days that you’re wondering who, if anyone, could possibly ever want to eat that much sweetness after a good meal.  I like to have a little something to finish the meal and then to be left wanting more.