Time Stamp
Charleston’s Lowland brings classic dishes of the past to light
by ARIEL blanchard
“We grew up eating food that came out of the back of a Schwan’s truck,” says Jason Stanhope, executive chef of newly opened Lowland in Charleston.
He recalls the family dinners’ usual suspects—beef tips and rice, frozen chicken sandwiches, and other bake-from-frozen sustenance deployed nightly to feed his brothers and any number of their friends. His dad always made sure they didn’t run out of food, no matter the crowd. “The nostalgic dishes were where our parents were making ends meet,” Stanhope says. “We were barely middle class.”
Jason Stanhope, executive chef of Lowland, creates nostalgic meals with masterful technique.
The winner of the 2015 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Southeast and former executive chef of Charleston’s now-iconic Meeting Street restaurant FIG, Stanhope has merged those simpler times with pristine technique in the menu and atmosphere of Lowland. Here, a humble celery salad becomes delightfully memorable with a substantial layer of wide-shaved Prairie Breeze cheddar blanketing the precise balance of dates, walnuts, mint, and celery beneath. “Something about nostalgia for me is that it’s not just the dish, but the act of dinner,” he says. “Dinner time was more important than what was on the table.”
Arguably, Stanhope’s bavette steak with sauce stroganoff, elevating a common cafeteria offering of the past, raises the level of what is on the table to equal the dining environment. His point of view, however, is clear in the welcoming atmosphere of Lowland’s bar and dining room, designed to feel as though he and his staff are hosting people in their own personal space.
“I grew up in kitchens cooking very classic food with this huge emphasis on technique and local and all the buzzwords, and I saw food get really precious,” he says. “The tweezers came out, and people started taking themselves too seriously. Nostalgia—it’s more about just doing whatever it takes to make something delicious or evoke a memory.” Or, even more practically for a highly trained chef, “Throwing pretentiousness to the wind and doing things that are delicious even if your culinary instructor said it wasn’t cool.”
Located in the historic Lequeux-Williams House, Lowland’s comfortable, timeless interiors make guests feel right at home.
Stanhope offers a prime example in the classic pommes boulangère, a dish that originated when peasants brought their vegetables to absorb the wealthy’s roasting meat drippings. “That’s the backbone of nostalgic cooking, taking underwhelming ingredients and making them feel luxurious,” he says.
As for the growing emphasis in restaurants on embracing culinary moments from the past—he’s on board. “I hope food, and cocktails, are going this way,” he says. “They’re evoking memories and cutting through some of the preconceived notions about needing expensive ingredients and just eating things that are tasty and delicious.”
Portrait and food photography by Paul MeHaffey, interiors by Matthew Williams
