On our last night in Murrells Inlet, we wanted to eat at someplace nice - and not at a seafood-centric restaurant. There's a number of options in the area, but we decided to make reservations at an Italian restaurant by the name of Cōsta Coastal Kitchen and Bar. (Pronounced CO-sta with the long "o".) Pasta sounded pretty good to me after stuffing myself with seafood most of the week.
Jimmy Pronesti grew up in an Italian family where there were a lot of cooks. Working restaurants in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pronesti ventured down to Myrtle Beach about 25 years ago for a family vacation. He loved the area so much that he ended up moving there and opening up his own restaurant in 2002. After closing that restaurant in 2008, Pronesti opened an upscale Italian restaurant - Caffe Piccolo - in Pawley's Island just south of Murrell's Inlet in 2010.
In 2016, the restaurant attached to the Inlet Sports Lodge in Murrells Inlet - Bliss - closed their doors. The landlord was looking for another restaurateur to come in and take over the place and contacted Jimmy Pronesti. With Caffe Piccolo doing well just down the road, Pronesti took over the for Bliss space and established Cōsta Coastal Kitchen and Bar.
We had a 7 p.m. reservation, but we decided to go a bit early and have a drink at the bar. There was a parking lot in front of and on the side of the building at Cõsta, but all the spots were filled. Down the side street off Business U.S. Highway 17 next to Cõsta, we found a spot to park on the street. (see map)
When we walked in and checked in with the hostess. We explained we told her we knew we were early. She said that we could wait in the bar or on the patio outside. We decided to hang out on the patio which was really nothing more than a landing with a couple high-top tables and some high-back chairs that were at a narrow ledge that looked over the Inlet Sports Inn's pool. There was a fire place at one end of the patio, but since it was a warm evening it wasn't going.
We realized after about 5 minutes of hanging on the patio that there was no waitstaff service out there. We went back in to the bar area to get a drink. The bar was packed. There were a couple tables and booths in the bar area where people were eating, and there were people eating at the bar, as well. The bar was bathed in a deep blue light with light fixtures with Edison lighting directly over the bar.
It took some time for us to get the attention of one of the two bartenders they had working that night because not only was the bar packed, but they were full up in the dining area, as well. Finally, one of the bartenders - a sassy lady by the name of Beth - came over to our little corner of the bar. "Sorry folks," she said somewhat breathlessly. "It's been a madhouse over the last half hour here." My wife ordered up an Absolut very dirty martini, while I ordered a Tito's and lemonade. They had a handful of craft beers available at Cõsta, but I wanted a Tito's and lemonade that evening. (I've found in the South that a lot of places have pink lemonade which tastes completely different from regular lemonade. But Cõsta had real lemonade as I watched Beth pour it out of a carafe.)
It was finally about 7:30 when a table opened up and the hostess came over to take us to our seats. We were seated in a corner of the dining area with banquette seating along the wall next to the kitchen. It wasn't the most ideal spot, but at least we had a table. Wooden beams hung over the dining area that was primarily booths in a well-lit room. The dining room had sort of an upscale, yet rustic beach joint feeling to it.
After menus were placed in front of us by the hostess, our server that evening - Trent - came over to say "hello". My wife was still sipping on her dirty martini, so I got a West Coast IPA from the Revelry Brewing Company in Charleston.
The menu featured a number of Italian or Italian-inspired dishes including pasta, chicken or veal entrees, and seafood items. Appetizers included calamari, sausage-stuffed banana peppers, and little neck clams sautéed with Italian sausage and Calabrian peppers in a light tomato-basil sauce. They had a handful of specials that evening including a steak and shrimp combo dinner, and diver sea scallops that were served on a bed of roasted corn risotto.
My wife and I both decided to forego any of the appetizers since we'd had a pretty hearty lunch earlier in the day, so we both got the Caesar salad to start out. It featured crisp romaine lettuce, shaved pecorino romano cheese, and house-made croutons mixed with a hearty Caesar dressing. It was a very good start to the meal.
I was sort of up in the air as what to get for dinner. I saw a couple at the bar sharing a bowl of the bolognese with pappardelle egg noodles that looked very good. They had chicken parm on the menu, and they also had a seafood fettuccine alfredo with shrimp available. The veal piccata was also something that got me intrigued, as did the linguine with scallops in a white wine, butter and lemon sauce. The whole menu at Cõsta was interesting to me.
My wife asked Trent to re-explain the "fresh catch" special that evening. He described it as a broiled halibut filet topped with artichoke hearts, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes topped with lemon, wine and butter sauce and served on a bed of linguine. That had my mouth-watering from his description alone. She ended up getting that and she was more than happy with her choice. The halibut was tender, flaky and very fresh in flavor. The combination of the artichoke hearts, spinach and sun-dried tomatoes on the lemon, white wine and butter sauce gave the dish a number of different flavors. She also got a glass of the house pinot grigio to go along with her seafood pasta special.
Confused and somewhat in angst over what to get, I was still up in the air when Trent asked me what I wanted. In the end, since I had seen it earlier while we were at the bar, I went with the bolognese and pappardelle pasta. However, when Trent brought it out, it was bolognese with linguine with a meatball. I said, "I'm not certain I ordered this." He looked puzzled and I said, "This looks like my wife's linguine noodles and I wanted the pappardelle pasta with it."
Trent looked at the dish and said, "Oh, you wanted the egg noodles!" Well, yeah - that's what was in the description on the menu and with no mention of a meat ball. He seemed somewhat embarrassed over all that and offered to take it back. I waved him off and said that I would eat this. The bolognese sauce was very good, but I know the whole bowl of pasta would have tasted much better with the more thin and pliable pappardelle noodles.
To make up for the gaffe that either came from the kitchen or on his part for not having the right pasta with my meal, Trent offered us a couple free desserts. Well, we were both stuffed from what turned out to be a very good meal, so I sort of groaned when he made the offer. My wife, however, wasn't going to pass up at least one free dessert and she ended up ordering a slice of the limoncello cake. It was a white cake with limoncello liqueur added in, topped with a lemon frosting, with sides of house-made whipped cream, then topped with a raspberry drizzle and powdered sugar. And the taste was heavenly. There was enough of a lemon flavor in each bite. And coupled with the real whipped cream and the raspberry drizzle, this was a terrific dessert to end the evening.
Even with getting linguine instead of the preferred pappardelle pasta to go with the bolognese sauce I had ordered, I'd have to say that was probably the only thing that was wrong with our visit to Cõsta. While I was disappointed, it turned out to be fine all around. My wife was more than happy with her broiled halibut on linguine special she had that evening, and we both raved about the wonderful limoncello cake we got gratis for the mix-up on my pasta selection. The atmosphere was laid back and had somewhat of a beach restaurant vibe. Cõsta Coastal Kitchen and Bar was a great meal to close out our time in Murrells Beach.
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