On our first full day in Charleston, my wife and I had made it downtown to take in some of the sights and to get acclimated to the area. After walking around for about a couple hours, my wife said that she thought she needed something to eat. We found ourselves on East Bay Street and there were a number of restaurants along the street and each had a menu out front for people to look through. One place we stopped at was The Peacock. After a quick look at what they were offering, we decided to go in and get something to eat.
Michelle Van Jura was a successful public relations executive in New York City. She first visited Charleston a number of years ago and fell in love with the city and the surrounding Low Country in South Carolina. In 2013, Van Jura moved to Charleston to live full time while still running her public relations firm back in New York. While Charleston had a number of excellent restaurants, Van Jura felt the city needed a place where people could go to have a fun experience with a combination of entertainment, upscale food and specialty cocktails in an elegant spot.
Van Jura partnered with restaurant and hospitality veteran Zach Dennis who had moved back to Charleston after managing a restaurant in Toronto for a few years; and local chef Matt Greene, a New York City native who studied at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY before going on to Chicago and eventually moving to Charleston in 2009. The trio found a three-story, 12,000 square foot building on East Bay Street and began to transform it into Van Jura's dream entertainment/restaurant destination.
Pictured right - Zach Dennis, Michelle Van Jura and Matt Greene. Photo courtesy Charleston City Paper.
In September of 2023, the group opened The Habit with a main dining area and lounge on the first floor, with the Peacock Lounge on the second floor for live entertainment with an outdoor dining area on the third floor of the building. Expectations were exceeded and The Habit became a hot spot for live music, comedy, and good food in elegant 1920's-style art deco surroundings.
Less than five months in business, the partners decided to rebrand the restaurant from the curious name "The Habit" to a more fitting moniker "The Peacock". Nothing really changed with the business other than the name and I have to say that "The Peacock" is a much better name than "The Habit".
It was just after noon when we walked into The Peacock located on East Bay Street between Market Streets (north and south) and Cumberland. (see map) A young lady was stationed at the hostess stand just inside the door. She asked us if we wanted to sit inside or up on the roof. The bar/dining area was off to the right and featured a long rectangular bar with banquette seating along the wall opposite the bar. Gilded framed mirrors hung on the wall with art deco light fixtures hanging from exposed ceilings. I was OK with sitting inside because it was sort of hot and humid out with lingering showers in the area. But to my surprise, my wife said she wanted to sit on the roof terrace.
Even though there was an elevator, my wife and I took the two flights up to the rooftop dining area. It was very nice up there - it had views out onto the Charleston Harbor, as well as the historic United States Custom House just across the street. There were already a number of people up on the rooftop terrace when we got there, but there were still open tables available. There was a small bar off to the side of the rooftop terrace.
We were shown to a table near the entrance to the rooftop dining area and given brunch menus to look over. Our server that day was a young lady by the name of Katie who had come from Florence, SC to work in Charleston. She was a wonderful server and was engaging and helpful with suggestions. Since we were on vacation - and it was a Sunday - I ordered up a bloody mary and a Wicked Weed Pernicious India Pale Ale that they had on tap. Wicked Weed was one of the craft breweries we went to when we were in Asheville, NC seven years ago. My wife saw something on the drink menu that caught her fancy - a peach mimosa. She had to order one of those to start out.
Since it was brunch, we found the menu to be similar to The Peacock's lunch menu with a couple three breakfast items thrown in. They had cinnamon French toast with the bread crusted in Frosted Flakes and served with a blueberry syrup. Now, THAT caught my attention. I thought about the smash burger they had on the menu, as well as the Italian sandwich that featured Calabrese salami, soppressata, topped with provolone cheese, pickled peppers, lettuce, and mayo on a toasted Italian bun. And they had a breakfast sandwich that came with a choice of applewood bacon or house-made sausage with a fried egg with white American cheese on a brioche bun. There were a lot of options to choose from.
My wife asked Katie what she thought was the most popular thing on the menu and she didn't hesitate. "The Bad Habit is a very popular choice," she said. "It's one of my favorites." The Bad Habit - no doubt named after the original handle of The Habit - was a mishmash of fingerling potatoes, crispy chicken tenders, white American cheese, applewood-smoked bacon and tasso ham gravy topped with a fried egg. She thought that sounded good, but in the end she got the Local Farmer's Salad. It started with a bed of red quinoa mixed with locally-sourced bibb lettuce, heirloom tomatoes, orange scented carrots, spiced corn, pickled peppers, chopped applewood-smoked bacon and finished with goat cheese, toasted almonds and a citron vinaigrette. My wife wanted to add some protein to the salad, so she got the grilled chicken that was sliced into six or seven pieces. She couldn't stop raving about how good the salad was.
With all the choices in mind, I kept coming back to one thing on the menu - the smoked Atlantic salmon plate. It featured thin-sliced pieces of smoked salmon served with a lemon dill creme fraiche with mixed capers and shallots, and sliced cucumbers. The cucumbers were so fresh that I could smell them as Katie was walking up to our table with our brunch selections. Two slices of a lightly toasted French bread came with the plate.
Now, I have to say this was all fabulous. If you're a regular reader of Road Tips, you know that I can't eat cooked salmon due to getting sick on it when I was in France over 15 years ago. But smoked salmon - I could eat that all day. There were nine or ten rolled up pieces of the smoked salmon and I figured out a system where I would cut off a piece of the French bread, top it with a roll of the smoked salmon, and then top that with the creme sauce and the capers and shallots. The bread was light and airy, and it was delicious on its own. Each bite I had of the salmon with the toppings and the bread was ecstasy. It was absolutely delicious all the way around.
Almost as soon as we paid and started to make our way downstairs, the rain came down pretty hard. People on the rooftop began to scatter as Katie and the rest of the staff quickly cleared tables. Some people stuck it out underneath the umbrellas nearly each table had on the rooftop while others moved down to the first floor dining room/bar area. My wife said, "We couldn't have timed that any better."
I truly wanted to return to The Peacock at some point in our trip mainly because I saw some things on their dinner menu that intrigued me - the ahi tuna and salmon pôkè bowl being one of them. But there were so many great restaurants we wanted to try in Charleston that we never made it back. But it was a memorable visit to The Peacock. I thoroughly enjoyed my smoked salmon plate - it was one of the better meals I had during our stay in the city. And my wife raved about her salad that featured locally-sourced greens and vegetables with some grilled chicken on top. Katie was a great server and she chatted with us a bit as we were finishing up our meal. The Peacock was a great experience all around.
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