Director’s Cut: Cleveland and Charleston Eats and Sights

Picasso’s Still Life with Biscuits

I traveled to Charleston, South Carolina, and Cleveland, Ohio last week. Before you make a Cleveland joke, like this presumed local did, I’ll tell you that, after spending a few hours at the Cleveland Museum of Art, I think theirs is the best I’ve visited in the US. You should also know that, after a meal of blood fettuccine and foie gras steamed clams, I’m thinking that Jonathan Sawyer’s Greenhouse Tavern is a great American restaurant.

Charleston offers much. And it delivered during my trip for the Cook It Raw confab, from the first bite of my short trip, a roast beef sandwich with chimichurri and onion jam from Butcher and Bee, to my last, a fried pork chop plate lunch with red rice, collards, and okra soup from Bertha’s up in the Neck. But I can’t get Cleveland out of my head. Did I mention that, while touring the museum, I discovered that Picasso was a fan of biscuits? That sealed the deal for me.

— John T. Edge, Southern Foodways Alliance