T+L contributing editors Matt Lee and Ted Lee share a few of the restaurants that inspired their new cookbook, The Lee Bros. Simple Fresh Southern.
Housed in a former fish market, Crook’s Corner (dinner for two $60) has trained many of the South’s top toques. The current chef, Bill Smith, is an expert at dishes with ethereal, rustic ingredients, such as honeysuckle sorbet made from flowers he collects on bike rides.
The Lees’ hometown Hominy Grill (dinner for two $40), in Charleston, puts a contemporary spin on traditional fare with specialties like a fried-green-tomato BLT topped with ancho chile–lime mayonnaise prepared by chef Robert Stehling.
A converted garage is the setting for Watershed (dinner for two $80), where chef Scott Peacock creates innovative vegetable platters: intensely flavorful gingered beets; okra pancakes with yellow squash and cucumber salad. Don’t be put off by the simple décor at Five & Ten (dinner for two $60). The main focus here is the food, which is why die-hard fans drive hours for the restaurant’s imaginative fall fruit–harvest preparations.
