Driving through downtown Charleston en route to an early preview of Cheeky, a new cocktail- and seafood-centric restaurant opening September 30, one of my car’s tires popped.
As my husband and I waited for roadside assistance to change the spare, I weighed my options for the evening. We could arrive late to the reservation—with my hair mussed and perspiration seeping through my organza blouse—or we could cancel altogether. After all, formal dining can make us feel like if we don’t arrive perfectly put-together and on our most polite behavior, we don’t belong, right?
Lucky for me, Cheeky is here to prove this notion wrong. As the restaurant’s name suggests, fine dining doesn’t always have to be so serious. When we finally arrived and settled into a cozy alcove in the chic dining room, any preoccupations quickly slipped away thanks to the warm team and the restaurant’s airy, transportive interiors.
The Concept
While Cheeky comes from the established hospitality pros at Neighborhood Dining Group (the same team behind Southern favorites like Husk, Marbled & Fin, Delaney Oyster House, Minero, and The James American Grill), it has its own distinct personality—and it’s a fun one.
While Delaney Oyster House is set in a historic Charleston single house constrained by tight spaces and a very particular sense of place, Cheeky provided a more contemporary blank canvas and the opportunity to approach seafood culture in a fresh way. “We love our styling of Delaney, and it’s a couple of our team members’ favorite restaurants in our group,” Kenny Lyons, president of Neighborhood Dining Group, tells Southern Living. “We will now have two distinct seafood restaurants in Charleston, each with a perspective that we feel is important and timely for this moment in time.”
Designed by Charleston-based Mollie Bean of MB Within, the dining room at Cheeky seats 122, plus another 18 at the curved bar, and 32 on the patio. Along the perimeter of the interior, colorful photography sourced via Wheeler Collective depicts sun-soaked coastlines, Mediterranean fashion, and bikini-clad bottoms diving into water. Wide glass walls overlook lush greenery and the streetscape, while encouraging passersby to peer into the windows.
The Location
“The front half of our [dining] room opens to Meeting Street and brings the energy of the city into our space,” Lyons says.
That energy includes a cluster of high-end shops and art galleries, the Gibbes Museum of Art, and the new American Gardens. Just across the street is the future site of 36 Four Seasons Private Residences.
It’s an evolving neighborhood, but one that Neighborhood Dining Group knows well. “We’ve had a restaurant 200 yards away since 2010, and to say it concisely, Husk has enjoyed success since day one. We love the area, and this location is so centrally located and really the hub of culture in Charleston,” Lyons says. “It’s an enjoyable part of town to be for both locals and those visiting.”
The location—on the ground floor of a six-story, 1980s-era office building—was actually the initial catalyst behind opening Cheeky. “Once we found it, the ideas started flowing,” Lyons explains. “This new space on Meeting Street gave us the opportunity to create something less expected and not feel bound by the traditional idea of what a Charleston seafood restaurant should be.”
Through much travel and culinary research, Lyons says they paid attention to the places that made them feel something. “Ultimately, Cheeky came down to how we like to eat, drink, and spend time,” he shares. “We wanted the highest level of hospitality, food and drink, but we also wanted energy, personality and fun. We wanted to create a world within our four walls that feels entirely its own, where people can settle in and chill out.”
The Cocktails
The name Cheeky actually refers to a beverage: a miniature cocktail. A bingo card-shaped menu outlines nine different cheeky choices, ranging from the $8 espresso martini to the $10 yuzu sake bomb to the $150 pour of Yamazaki 18-year-old single malt whisky.
For those seeking full-size cocktails, more options abound: a choose-your-own-adventure-style grid organized by alcohol content on a scale of none, one, two, or three sheets to the wind, as the old nautical idiom goes.
Those familiar with the famous Catamaran Tan, a gin and tonic variation with a blue algae-striped ice cube to resemble seersucker, at Marbled & Fin (recently named one of the 20 Best New Restaurants in the South, according to our editors) will delight in concoctions with the same high caliber of creativity and finesse.
With the enthusiasm of a cliff-jumper, we dove into the three-sheets category: a tiny serving of the refreshing, frozen yuzu margarita and the martini set, which is presented on a silver platter with an assortment of garnishes and a sidecar insulated in a tiny pink thermos. (Fact: freezer-cold cocktails taste even better after being temporarily stranded on the side of the road.)
The real star of the bar, however, may be the highball program. Behind the bar are not one but two Suntory Toki highball machines, making Cheeky the first Neighborhood Dining Group restaurant to boast the costly technology to pour perfectly chilled and effervescent beverages on draft, served in custom-designed highball glasses.
Global Flavor
The Asian influences extend to the food as well. Whereas Husk’s culinary ethos is firmly rooted in the South and Marbled & Fin bills itself as a modern steakhouse, Cheeky introduces a more international perspective.
Led by Executive Chef Gabriel Lindsey, the fare pulls together inspiration from coastlines near and far. A native of Amelia Island, Florida, Lindsey has worked across the country, from Venice, California, to Michelin-starred kitchens in New York City, and even a stint at Husk Nashville before landing in the Lowcountry.
The Menu
Snapper Carpaccio—another subtle nod to the Cipriani legacy—is layered under paper-thin cucumber slices with white ponzu and bay leaves. Elegantly plated, the Mandarin orange salad is a vibrant mix of walnuts, aged gouda, and sliced olives that delivers a delicate balance of sweet, salty, and sour notes in every bite.
Pro tip: Don’t miss the green gemelli pasta with mussels, lamb merguez, soft herbs, white wine, and chile pepper, inspired by Lindsey’s early career working at a pasta station in New York City. General Manager Virginia Allen, who herself was lured from Baltimore, Maryland, for the role, intimated that Lindsey’s preparation of this dish during his interview helped him land his job.
“I wanted to bring a playful spin on that memory to our menu,” the chef notes. “Swapping linguine for Gemelli lets the twisted pasta cling to every drop of sauce, while a vibrant herb purée adds a fresh, herbaceous depth that completely rounds out the dish.”
“We were all like, Woah! So unique, so different, but so comforting,” Lyons adds. “Now he’s on the team, and so of course it’s on the menu.”
Beyond wowing guests, the menu is also designed to be shareable and sociable. Descriptions are written in a conversational tone that those who are chronically online and familiar with Molly Baz’s linguistic style will appreciate. Focaccia is “bread, obviously”; the Cantabrian anchovy toast is “a salty little number”; the lobster spaghetti is “no regrets.” The red snapper gets a tableside pour of chile beurre blanc. Unconventional seafood towers combine crudos, chilled oysters, and caviar with fried components, such as the fancy fritto misto with calamari, clam strips, shishito peppers, squash, scallops, and South Carolina shrimp. There is even a roll-your-own setup with toasted nori sheets, rice, Maine scallops, Wagyu beef and tuna tartare.
To round out any meal, the Also section (aka sides) offers plenty to go around. My favorite included charred cabbage with chili crisp and “fancy” rice (Yuki Tsubaki rice, with beurre blanc, and chives). “Preparation is a secret, but we use a rice cooker and some other ingredients to finish the rice,” Lyons hints at the $2 upgrade.
As the sun set outside the windows and the waistband of my pants began to tighten, we took final bites of dessert— buttermilk panna cotta with sherry, apple, shiso granita and a silver dish of vibrant yuzu sherbet. Scanning the glowing room, I observed diners of all ages, in a range of smart-casual attire; at the bar, a patron sported a trucker hat with the University of Georgia insignia. Next to us, the parties across three tables were swapping notes on their dishes, and it’s unclear if they were already acquaintances or just became fast friends.
As a Savannahian, my only gripe with Cheeky is that it’s a two-hour drive from home. But if Neighborhood Dining Group follows the same playbook as Husk and Marbled & Fin, maybe another Cheeky location could be in our future. In the meantime, neither the distance nor a flat tire could keep me from returning.
Located at 151 Meeting Street, Cheeky opens for dinner Wednesday through Sunday beginning at 5 p.m. Lunch service begins five days a week starting October 21, with full seven-day lunch and dinner service launching November 16. For reservations, visit cheekyrestaurant.com.
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