SUMMERVILLE — A group of women meets for lunch inside a renovated home, stark white with a spacious front porch. A few paces away, chef Jonathan DuPriest can be seen finishing plates through a small window to the kitchen, framed by rows of hanging wine bottles.
Around the left of the two-story former residence, down a gravel trail, more tables fill with guests enjoying a leisurely lunch.
Chevalier salad with strawberries and goat cheese at La Chev.
Parker Milner/Staff
They pick up dark shells from a bowl of mussels, finished with a kiss of saffron, and slice through French bread pizzas with toppings that range from house-made sausage and Gruyere cheese to figs with prosciutto, arugula and balsamic.
For dessert, servers rattle off a quartet of tempting takes, including an apple crisp lit by Grand Marnier and a New York-style cheesecake dusted with Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.
Welcome to La Chev 208, a French restaurant that opened in February. It’s quickly endeared itself to the Summerville community — so much so that multiple readers have recently reached out to tell me how much they like it.
Those who visit the restaurant at 208 E. 1st North St. will realize they’re onto something.
Setting that matches the food
Multiple emails landed in my inbox shortly after I published a list of top Summerville restaurants in April. Diners were wondering why I omitted La Chev 208 on my roundup of establishments to try in the area.
The truth is that I had yet to visit the French-inspired eatery since it relocated from Knightsville to a 100-plus-year-old property just off Main Street.
The restaurant is led by DuPriest and Jason Tucker, who were both on premises when I swung by last week.
Tucker first opened La Chev after cutting his professional teeth at restaurants in downtown Charleston’s French Quarter. Inside a strip center space that previously housed a Ladles sandwich and soup shop, the Johnson & Wales University graduate teamed up with DuPriest to serve French- and Lowcountry-inspired dishes like crab croquettes, shrimp and grits, steak and yellowfin tuna.
With the move, the refined food finally matches the setting, DuPriest said. The two dishes I tried during a maiden meal in May confirm that declaration.
Mesclun, fresh strawberries and goat cheese top the Chevalier salad ($10), with greens dressed in a balanced vinaigrette. The portion, big enough for a light lunch, showcases the fresh fruit, which bursts with a sweetness that blends nicely with the mildly tart cheese.
Fish and frites at Le Chev 208.
Parker Milner/Staff
The fish and frites ($12, lunch) features fried flounder, perched atop a mound of duck fat french fries. Any notion that this is a heavy dish is assuaged with one taste of the crackling crust and juicy white meat. Rosemary livens up the fries, which crackle and crunch the way a crispy spud should.
As you may have read in my recent coverage of Summerville restaurants, this corner of the Lowcountry is becoming a dining destination.
The man who served me at La Chev 208, who worked in downtown Charleston eateries for close to two decades, went one step further in his assessment of how Summerville’s restaurant scene stacks up to local competition:
“They got nothin’ on us anymore,” he said.
La Chev 208 is open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday; and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Sunday. For more information, visit lachev208.com.