Little Jack’s Tavern and Leon’s Fine Poultry and Oyster Shop, Charleston, South Carolina: Stops 4 and 5 on The Great Charleston RoadFood Crawl

Well, actually these weren’t stops 4 and 5 for the group. They were stops 4 and 5 for me. I cut out all of the dessert and pastry stops, and one breakfast. There are times when even I recognize that the better part of eating is discretion, and periods of, well, indiscretion leading up to the Crawl, not least the First Delaware Scrapple Tour and trips to Tampa-St Pete for Cuban sandwich and almond croissant research, and to Marco Island for more work on blackened grouper and smoked fish that seems to have gotten out of hand. Even then I gained, I think, six pounds on the Crawl (that I quickly lost and am now busy restoring.)

Enough whining. My hat is off to those who completed all 25 of the eating stops on the Crawl. They displayed the determination and grit that built America. They also may have shown more discretion than I when I did stop.

On to Little Jack’s and Leon’s. I’m combining them in one post because they sit almost cheek by jowl with each other, they have common ownership, and I have a gazillion posts on deck from my various travels, including the trip to Costa Rica that I just wound up. It’s been a busy couple of months, and I realize that you have other things to do.

First, Little Jack’s Tavern at 710 King Street.

It’s a delightful spot that won Best New Restaurant awards from Southern Living and Bon Appetit in 2017, as well as a Burger Bash in Miami. The decor is Old-Tavern-When-It -Was-Brand-New. There’s a long welcoming bar,

the walls and booths are dark and comforting, the tablecloths are checked, and the walls are full of sporting photos.

It’s a great setting, a “cool sequestered vale of life” made the moreso by service so friendly you’d think you were back in the 1950s, or in a meat and three way out in the country. Little Jack’s is relentlessly charming.

There were no big appetites after breakfast at Marina Variety and lunch at Lewis BBQ, and Leon’s loomed less than a block away. The hamburger was the primary point of interest, but while looking at the menu I saw that they offer a shrimpburger. I am a devotee of the North Carolina coast shrimpburger, epitomized by the Captain’s Kitchen, and feel obliged to try them whenever I see one. The upshot was that Jeff and I decided to split a burger and a shrimpburger, an order popular enough to be listed as their Surf and Turf. First the hamburger —

Little Jack’s is a relatively small and simple burger. Ground beef, cheese, and grilled onions on a buttered and grilled sesame seeded bun. Nothing fancy there, but the flavor of the meat pops out and startles you. It reminded me of the small burger I’d so enjoyed at The Tavern.

And the shrimpburger:

This was not as successful. The shrimp had been ground or chopped, which is fine, but the sandwich was oversauced. Things weren’t helped by the addition of a slice of out-of-season tomato. Why do people add out-of-season tomatoes to sandwiches? They add no flavor and impose a texture that ranges from unhelpful to unpleasant. Take the cheeseburger, leave the shrimpburger.

From Little Jack’s, Leon’s is just down at 698 King Street, all in a former garage, and it’s another charmer.

We walked past the garden-like outside seating and waddled into another oasis.

Someone ordered fried chicken.

Yum! Leon’s is known for their hot chicken, but our order was for the non-hot version, in kind deference to sensitive palates, but the table was adorned with their hot sauce, hot honey, Tabasco, and Crystal. Something for everyone.  The chicken was very good without the hot sauce, and also with the hot sauce, the Tabasco, and the Crystal.

There were other orders to share as well — a tasty sesame chicken salad that I didn’t photograph, some truly great scalloped potatoes,

and last but far from least, char-grilled oysters with lemon, parmesan cheese, and lots and lots of butter with thick toast fingers.

The scalloped potatoes may not look like much. It’s not a food that lends itself to dramatic photography. The real value in a photograph is to evoke memory of the richness and flavor of a dish, and this version had richness and flavor in spades. When we ordered it, I commented on the odd logic of ordering something so filling ({and fulfilling) on a day of heavy eating, and then plunged into the dish head first when it arrived. It was a great choice.

What a satisfying meal! And the oysters were another great choice. Fresh oysters and toasted parmesan are two wonderful foods and, when you think of it, one of the all time great foods is “lots and lots of butter.” Expert cooking was all that wasn’t needed, and Leon’s came through with flying colors. This is a must order.

I recommend both restaurants. That’s a fine burger at Little Jack’s, and an enchanting setting. I’d love to go back and roam around the menu, pampered by their excellent service. Ditto Leon’s, where I’d love to eat oysters, raw and cooked, all the livelong day. Charleston is such a wonderful city, and there are more treasures to come. You definitely need to spend a few days there just trying restaurants, perhaps not on our ambitious schedule. Go and be pampered by the service and amazed at the food. And be sure to hit Little Jack’s and Leon’s.

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