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Riva Mare opened Aug. 21 on the roof of Storehouse 9 at 2154 Noisette Boulevard, in the Charleston Design District at Navy Yard. It's the newest from Indigo Road Hospitality Group, and Steve Palmer says the idea grew out of years of travel along the Italian coast.
What to order. The headline dish is the spaghetti topped with a whole lobster. Chef Sean McMullen's signature is quieter: corn agnolotti with ricotta and a corn brodo, where the filling starts with kernels cut off the cob with a pudding stick, reduced in the pizza oven and whipped with the ricotta. Also on the pasta list are linguine with clams and a squid-ink pansotti stuffed with local shrimp.
Not a seafood person? There's a half chicken cooked under a brick and a flatiron steak. For dessert, look for sacripantina, a domed Genoese cake with marsala-soaked sponge, vanilla cream and blood orange zabaglione, along with cannoli, frozen tiramisu and soft serve. Drinks lean frozen and Italian: limoncello, an Italian wine list, a basil-and-prosecco spritz called Open Sails and a tequila-mezcal cocktail called Sun Seeker.
The cook. McMullen is a North Carolina native who most recently ran the kitchen as chef de cuisine at Luminosa in Asheville, which the Charleston City Paper says holds a Michelin Green Star. He describes the Ligurian approach as lighter and a lot more seafood-focused. Fish comes from CudaCo. and Crosby's, produce from GrowFood Carolina, and the menu is meant to change with the seasons.
The room. The rooftop seats 165, cabanas included, and the interiors by David Thompson borrow from the port city of Genoa and Charleston's own coastline.
The neighborhood. Storehouse 9 is part of Navy Yard, an 85-acre redevelopment of the former Charleston Naval Base led by Jamestown with local partners Weaver Capital Partners and WECCO Development. The Design District around it is pitched as a regional hub for designers from the Outer Banks to Savannah, with up to 150,000 square feet of showrooms. Kravet and Schumacher are in Storehouse Eight, and The Urban Electric Co. and Smithey Ironware are neighbors.
The details: dinner is 4 to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 4 to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, lunch is planned for later, and parking is free.
Getting in is another story. When we had Dinner Club in Park Circle last month, I tried to get two tables here and was told the only seating was at 8:45. This ain't Spain, where everyone eats late. They MUST be doing well if a random Wednesday evening is booked up.
Sources: Charleston City Paper (opening, chef, menu, hours), SC Biz News (concept, design, partners) and Jamestown (Navy Yard and Design District)
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