Friday, Dec. 02, 2011

In the market for fine food feasts?

Perrone's Market

By Becky Billingsley -

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Setting the Table

More than a year after Steve Perrone and Eileen Perrone closed their fine foods market and deli in Pawleys Island to move it to a bigger space across the street, it has reopened and is bustling with customers seeking wine, cheeses, carry-out deli items and meals.

The Danish Modern decor from the original Perrone’s has been carried through the new 75-seat restaurant. At the front are two deli cases where all the old favorite dine-in or carry-out gourmet items for which Chef Perrone has built a stellar reputation are showcased.

A few tables are in the sunny front area. Heading back into the new space, the bar is on the right and a cozy living room grouping is on the left with the cocktail-height community table at one end. The bar has a Cruvinet that keeps opened wine bottles at optimum temperatures and pressures so diners can enjoy single glasses of many different wines - even Champagne.

Beyond the bar is a spacious dining room with more blonde Danish Modern furniture surrounded by black walls enhanced with retro artistic touches done by local artist Stephanie Arnold. The floor throughout the restaurant is the familiar black-and-white tile checkerboard used in the previous location.

Down the Hatch

The deli case contains many of the dishes ($1.75-$13) Perrone’s customers have come to expect: Crab Cakes, Smoked Chicken, Beef and Spinach Cannelloni, Meatballs and even Fried Flounder. Steve Perrone developed a reheating system so that if someone orders fried fish from the deli case, they can take the food home and, following printed instructions, reheat the fish so it tastes like it just came out of the fryer.

A wide variety of deli side dishes ($2-$3.75 per portion) are also available including Haricots Verts, Edamame and Corn Salad, Italian Mac and Cheese and Corn Souffle.

Those deli dishes can be ordered and consumed in the restaurant, but if you’re staying for lunch there are even more choices. The Lobster Bisque and She-Crab Soup ($5.50 per cup) are back along with a mildly spicy Black Bean Soup with fire-roasted tomatoes, cilantro and chipotle that my dining companion tried and liked a lot. She also had the Thai Shrimp Salad, and while she was surprised the dressing was mayonnaise-based (she was expecting an Asian glaze), she enjoyed the sandwich and appreciated its fresh-tasting combination of sweet and hot.

I had Bus Station Kefta for $11, a Middle Eastern dish where a few lamb meatballs are in tomato sauce made from San Marzano tomatoes and flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom and cilantro. A poached egg is cooked on top of the simmering dish, and it’s served in the terra cotta dish in which the food was cooked. It’s served with chewy bread baked on-site, which was handy for sopping up tomato sauce. This was a delicious meal that would be great for breakfast or brunch as well as later in the day.

I also ordered one of the deli sides - B.L.T. Macaroni Salad. At first I was disappointed with the scant 1-cup portion size for $2.50, but the ingredients, such as dense bacon pieces, were premium, and the flavors were marvelous.

Four salads are on the lunch menu for $6.50-$7.50: Caesar, Greek, BLTC (C stands for Cheddar) and Gorgonzola Salad with Roma tomatoes, red bell peppers, carrots, cucumbers, ceregnola olives, toasted walnuts, crumbled gorgonzola and raspberry vinaigrette.

Other lunchtime dishes ($6-$18) include Garlic Fries, chicken and lemongrass Potstickers, Fish Tacos, Tuna Tataki, Tur-Bacon Panini, Currywurst served with twice-fried French fries, Reuben and Pastrami sandwiches and Chicken or Veal Parmesan.

We took part of our lunches home so we’d have room for dessert ($3.50-$6). Choices include Vanilla Bean Gelato, Strawberry Moscato or Blood Orange Sorbet, Tres Leches Cake, Tiramisu and Cannoli, but we picked Chocolate Fondant, which is three layers of chocolate treat in one, with cake, cream and ganache. A few bites with a cup of Organic Peruvian French Roast Coffee ($2.50) and we were ready to face the afternoon.

Check, please

The dinner menu contains mostly the same dishes as the lunch menu with a few additions such as Duck Fat Fries, Potato Puffs that are deep-fried and filled with manchego cheese, chorizo sausage and smoked paprika aioli, and duck breast prepared sous-vide to medium rare and served with a fig molasses drizzle, greens, dried cherries and vanilla bean-shallot vinaigrette.

Chef Perrone says he’ll be adding to the menus as time goes on.

The bar serves only beer and wine, but the choices are many. Craft beer lovers have choices such as Belgian Urthel Saisonniere and Le Chouffe, Monty Python’s Holy Grail Ale, Left Hand Milk Stout and German Gaffel Kolsch. All bottled wines are sold at $10 each, and a long list of wines by the glass are $7-$12.

Perrone’s Market is at 13302 Ocean Highway in Pawleys Island (directly across the street from the former location), and the phone number is 235-9193. Operating hours are 11 a.m. to midnight (or so) Mondays through Saturdays. Sundays are reserved for private parties, when 75 guests can be accommodated for sit-down meals, or up to 125 for cocktail parties.

Becky Billingsley serves up fresh news daily at MyrtleBeachRestaurantNews.com.