Charleston is always a place that punches above its weight food-wise. The charming Southern port city features the best Lowcountry cooking, as well as biscuit joints, barbecue spots, and destination restaurants like Leon’s Oyster Shop and FIG, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
What Charleston perhaps lacked was a showpiece Italian restaurant. Enter Sorelle, which opened downtown in late February at 88 Broad St. The collaboration between local Beemok Hospitality Collection and Michael Mina’s MINA Group is a “multi-level dining concept” that incorporates three historic townhouses into its impressive design.
Of course, “Sorelle” means sisters in Italian, and the partnership selected the name because the site once served as a school run by two sisters in the late 1800s. Now, the spaces have been reimagined to include not only the main restaurant but an alimentari selling Italian products within an all-day cafe called Mercato; a central bar, wine room, chef's table and pizza counter.
The menus lean southern Italian, with pasta dishes (rigatoni all’amatriciana, spaghetti with crispy zucchini), meats (such as bistecca alla Fiorentina), seafood (branzino) and much more. MINA Group chefs Adam Sobel and Nick Dugan also include an excellent selection of street food-inspired spuntini and antipasti, and tasty, colorful desserts, including a rice tiramisu made with local favorite Carolina gold rice.
Sorelle marks MINA Group’s first entry into Charleston, where partner Beemok operates the luxury hotel Charleston Place as well as the hospitality for local entertainment venues.
Check out Sorelle’s website for reservations and more, and take a look at the dishes and décor below.
