My wife and I went out to Sullivan's Island just north and east of Charleston one day to hang out at the beach. As she is wont to do, my wife thought she needed something to eat before went out to walk in the surf and sand. As we were driving up a main north-south road on Sullivan's Island, a restaurant to my left caught my eye, mainly because of the interesting name - The Obstinate Daughter. Remember how my wife's daughter was at an early age, I got a chuckle out of that. But I thought that might be a nice place to have lunch. We parked down the street and walked back up to eat at The Obstinate Daughter.
A couple nights before, we had dinner at the Wild Olive on Jones Island not far from Charleston. (Click here to see the Road Tips entry on the Wild Olive.) Going into The Obstinate Daughter, we had no idea that the two restaurants were connected. Doug Godley and Jacques Larson had been joined at the hip since 2009 after Larson was recruited to run the kitchen at Wild Olive. The two were wanting to incorporate more of a "farm-to-fork" concept with a new restaurant they had in mind with an ever changing menu that consisted of seafood, Italian, French and Spanish specialties made with locally-sourced items on a year-round basis.
There was a long time restaurant on Sullivan's Island by the name of Atlanticville that had sort of a rickety side porch with dark dining areas complete with tired decor. Godley and Larson had a chance to take over the property and they set about a massive renovation of the building turning it into a modern, sea-theme restaurant that people who had gone to Atlanticville in the past wouldn't have recognized the restaurant. In March of 2014, The Obstinate Daughter opened for business.
The restaurant is not named after one of Larson's or Godley's female children, but is a historic nickname that stems from the Revolutionary War. General William Moultrie was in charge of the garrison at Fort Sullivan (later re-named Fort Moultrie). When the British armada - numbering over 2000 soldiers and sailors - came to take control of the city of Charleston in June of 1776, the 435 soldiers at Fort Sullivan fought the invaders off. Later that year, a London newspaper published a political cartoon depicting the defenders of Charleston as "Miss Carolina Sulivan (sp), one of the obstinate daughters of America, 1776." The Obstinate Daughter is a revered name in the history of Charleston and South Carolina. And it's a great name for a restaurant.
When you drive out to Sullivan's Island, the main road - South Carolina state highway 703 - brings you into the heart of the island. If you take a left turn at the stop sign at Middle Street, the highway continues up the coast to Isle of Palms. But if you take a right turn and drive a couple blocks to the south, you'll find The Obstinate Daughter on the left. (see map)
We were a little confused at first as there were a handful of people who were seated in front of the building where The Obstinate Daughter was located. It turned out that they were there for BeardCat's Sweet Shop which is one the ground floor of the building. The stairs to get up to The Obstinate Daughter were located on the side of the building.
The restaurant isn't all that large - there's a dining area complete with a community table next to an open kitchen. It had a nautical theme to the decor including square light fixtures with Edison lights hanging by large ropes from the ceiling. Being that it was the noon hour, the place was very busy when we got there and no tables were readily available.
We ended up seated at the L-shaped bar and were greeted by the bartender, Lauren. The bar area had a low ceiling made from wooden planks and a row of booths and tables were along the wall. Lauren gave us a couple menus to look over. I got a blonde ale that they had from Edmund's Oast Brewing Company in Charleston. Music from artists such as Anderson East, The Teskey Brothers, and John Mayer was playing in the background.
The lunch menu was pretty limited with just a couple three sandwiches, some pasta dishes, a couple salads, and oysters-on-the-half shell along with peel & eat shrimp available. They had artisan pizzas on the menu, but they were not available until after 3 p.m. when the lunch menu ended. I wasn't exactly certain what to get given the paucity of items listed on the menu.
My wife wanted something light and she ended up getting the shrimp roll. The Obstinate Daughter sources their shrimp from the Tarvin Seafood Company which has two shrimp trawlers based out of nearby Mount Pleasant, SC. The shrimp was mixed with a mayo base and served on a hollowed out crispy bread roll. On the side, 4 potato "sticks" made from potatoes sourced from Marsh Hen Mill Low Country produce came with the shrimp roll. She thought the shrimp roll was delicious, but a little more rich for what she wanted for lunch. She gave me a bite of one of the potato sticks to try and it was very good. It was crunchy on the outside with a flaky potato core. My wife concentrated more on the shrimp roll even for as rich as it was.
Now, remember that I had no idea there was a connection between The Obstinate Daughter and Wild Olive where I had a wonderful pasta dinner a couple nights earlier. So, it was sort of weird that I decided to go the pasta route and I ordered the Strozzapreti pasta with a fennel sausage ragu. When Lauren set the bowl of cavatelli-style pasta in front of me, I knew I had made a mistake. Not that the pasta dish was bad - it was just huge! This was a dinner-sized portion served at lunch. There was no way that I was going to finish all of this. But it was so good that I made a serious dent in the amount that was served to me. And there was just too much pasta. Lauren asked if I wanted to have my lunch boxed up, but I told her we were traveling and it wouldn't have been as good warmed up as it was when it first came out.
After lunch, we went out to the beach on Sullivan's Island to walk off all the food we just ate. The tide was out and there was a brisk wind coming off the ocean. We were still both stuffed as we walked a couple miles along the beach watching the windsurfers maneuvering in the sea waves. It turned out there were a couple instructors with three or four students learning windsurfing techniques. We walked past one of the students who was grappling with her windsail trying to reel it in after getting out of the water. She told us that she had moved from New Jersey a couple years ago and wanted to learn how to windsurf. "I'm getting the hang of it," she told us as she struggled with her windsail. "This is the worst part, though." We continued on back down the beach as she moved her windsail toward an area where the other windsurfers were also trying to reel in their windsails in the stiff breeze coming off the ocean.
Lunch at The Obstinate Daughter and our visit to the beach highlighted our day trip to Sullivan's Island. The food we had was very good, but very rich and filling. My wife loved her shrimp roll and thought the potato sticks were very good. I have to agree with her on the potato sticks as I tried a couple bites of one. My Strozzapreti pasta with fennel sausage ragu was also very good, but there was just too much of it for a lunch entree. Lauren was efficient as our bartender/server, and the atmosphere and decor at The Obstinate Daughter was very soothing and somewhat interesting. Even though the lunch menu is pretty limited, I don't know if there's anything better on Sullivan's Island than The Obstinate Daughter.
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