Beach Blog Restaurant Spotlight: Culinary Delights Await at Rivertown Bistro
By Michelle Canty
One night recently, we decided to escape the long lines at the restaurants in Myrtle Beach and drive to Conway for dinner.
In 1994, a true culinary gem opened in historic downtown Conway - Rivertown Bistro. Following a fire in January 2008, the Bistro reopened in February 2009 with a new modern, upscale restaurant and refreshing culinary fusion menu.
The urban sleek interior features a chic bar with extensive wine room, open kitchen in the two-tiered dining room, private dining room and a rooftop terrace overlooking downtown Conway.
Executive Chef Darren Smith creates seasonal masterpieces from local and organic farmers and local, wild-caught seafood. Cyndi Smith and Rebecca Snurr are the resident wine goddesses who can assist patrons in selecting the perfect pairings for each dish.
Having lunch or dinner at Rivertown Bistro is worth the drive to Conway. During lunch, the Bistro features daily gourmet blue plate specials featuring veal meatloaf, stuffed chicken, grilled dolphin and a frittata (subject to change seasonally). Other lunch favorites include sushi, salads, specialties and sandwiches. Top favorites are the roast beef croissant with bacon, pimiento cheese, sprouts and red wine jus and homemade yam chips; grilled veggie Panini with roasted peppers, zucchini, carmelized onions, portabello, feta cheese, orange balsamic syrup on sour dough bread and pasta salad; fried oyster salad with spinach, purple cabbage, blackened green tomato, chopped egg, and hot bacon vinaigrette; or the daily gourmet blue plate specials (including veal meatloaf or grilled dolphin fish).
We started our dinner with the butter poached lobster, warm fingerling potatoes, asparagus and bacon salad with white truffle vinaigrette and béarnaise sauce. This was absolutely fabulous! An amazing appetizer to share or enjoy as a light dinner.
For the salad course, we enjoyed a local tomato salad. There's nothing better than a cool tomato salad on a hot summer's night. Heirloom tomatoes were the base of this salad with boxwood basil pesto. Quite refreshing!
For our main courses, we selected the chargrilled, bone-in ribeye; sesame seared tuna; and crab-encrusted halibut.
The ribeye featured Maytag blue cheese scallion butter, julienned fried onion rings, roasted chive and crème fraiche new potatoes. A hearty dish, the ribeye steak was grilled to perfect tenderness. And was a hit with our party.
The sesame seared tuna steak was the perfect medium-rare temperature served atop chargrilled zucchini, pineapple soybean stirfry, wasabi aioli, teriyaki hosin and cashew powder with locally grown rice.
The crab encrusted halibut was absolutely delicious, with a generous portion of crab topping the moist halibut fillet. Parmesan risotto and green peas, carrots and scallion coulis accompanied the halibut dish.
http://www.mbsun.com/assets_c/2009/07/Rivertown Bistro box-thumb-300x264.jpgAlthough stuffed, we opted to share a featured dessert. The ice cream trio features various flavors nightly. The evening's flavors were buttered popcorn with caramel sauce, cookies & cream with chocolate sauce and Mascarpone sorbet with strawberry sauce and freeze dried strawberry. The buttered popcorn ice cream had truly amazing flavor and tasted just like buttered popcorn. 'How'd they create such a wonderful flavor?' was the conversation of the table. Oreo lovers at the table delighted in the cookies & cream flavor, and the Mascarpone sorbet was surprisingly refreshing and a great palate cleanser. Each of us had a favorite and selected that for our last couple of bites. Absolutely a treat and an incredible way to end a wonderful night with friends!
With its revival, Rivertown Bistro launched a Jazz lunch series on Saturdays (11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.) featuring jazz standards, weekly features in the bar, as well as periodic wine tastings and wine dinners. Call 843-248-3733 or visit www.RivertownBistro.com for more details.
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