FAT HEN IN THE PRESS

Johns Island is lucky to get 'Fat'
By Deidre Schipani
The Post and Courier
Thursday, October 11, 2007

It's a family affair. Owner/chef Fred Neuville and his wife Joan collaborate with Heather Barrie-Ahern to create the taste, look and feel of Fat Hen. The Neuvilles' four children lend the appropriate hands to feather the nest of the establishment.

With the opening of Fat Hen on Johns Island, I was asking myself: Is this a play on Mother Goose, "one, two buckle my shoe, … nine, ten, big fat hen"? Or is chef "digging" in the garden of the goosefoot family and does Fat Hen refer to lambs quarters, or is its name the drinking game — A big fat hen, a couple of ducks, three running hares, four brown bears …?"

Having been to Fat Hen, I now think it is a poularde, the fat roaster of French cuisine that is really a goose laying eggs of gold for Neuville and his staff.

Fat Hen has mined the appetites of Johns Island, Kiawah, Seabrook, Charleston and Mount Pleasant residents, and has managed to satisfy them all.

Neither a bistro nor a brasserie, Fat Hen has the casual vibe of a mas (a French farmhouse) whose decor marries whimsy with humor.

A chalk board lists the changing plats du jour along with a specialty drink menu and wines by the glass.

Reservations are taken for large groups and how we wished we could be adopted by a party of 11 that had dibs on the community table in the bar area. The bar serves the full menu along with its own dedicated menu that offers sliders of braised short ribs.

The backbones of French classics are on the menu: French onion soup ($3.95, $5.95), Mesclun Salad ($6.95), Charcuterie Platter ($10.95), Braised Chicken (think coq au vin $15.95), Butcher's Steak and Frites ($17.95), a Cheese Plate for dessert ($9.95-$11.95) along with sorbet, creme brulee, chocolate pate and tarte au citron.

And along with those same French sensibilities is terroir, the sense of place, and Fat Hen honors its Lowcountry location with Shrimp and Grits ($18.95), sides of Collards and Butter Bean ($3.95), Hickory Smoked Brisket ($13.95), Oysters with Country Ham ($8.25), and Fried Green Tomatoes ($4.95).

If mussels defined your experience at 39 Rue de Jean, where Neuville previously was chef and partner, Fat Hen provides — with the regional notes of Provence, Brittany, the Cote d'Azur and the creamy sauce Poulette.

For your primal enjoyment, the braised dishes are remarkable. Whether chicken, short ribs or lamb, these sturdy pieces of meat are rendered into fall-off-the-bone succulence.

Double cut pork chops ($18.95) marry Southern collard greens with a splash of Calvados from Normandy.

Tuna wears a beurre rouge mantle (a red wine butter sauce) and cozies up to a side of hoppin' john.

Neuville supports the local, the seasonal and sustainable and this is seen on his menu. He has also hired a talented stable of cooks who bring their own unique talents to the dishes.

We ordered the Onion Tart ($5.95), which reminded us of a tarte flambe of Alsace. It is open face, strewn with smoky lardons of bacon, seasoned with thyme and silky caramelized onions and drizzled with rivulets of creme fraiche.

The BBQ Roasted Duck ($8.50) is glazed with pomegranate juice reduced to the thickness of molasses and served over black pepper grits. The grits could have had more pepper to our taste.

The Hen takes the familiar and with its cleverly conceived menu provides a little twist.

The Seared Grouper ($18.95) feels like a play on a French classic salmon dish served over lentils with a red wine sauce but in this case Southern butter beans replace the lentils and a melange of wild mushrooms, tomatoes, herbs and butter create its own savory nage.

We also ordered the Shrimp and Pasta ($17.25). The "pates" (pasta) are made in-house and are as good as any outstanding Italian restaurant. It is curious to note that sometimes the best fish dishes are found in nonseafood restaurants and pastas of this quality are found at a French-inspired restaurant.

France, however, is no stranger to pasta and Les Pates are always found on bistro and brasserie menus.

A slight licorice tang of tarragon, flat leaf parsley, high quality butter along with wine and tomatoes made this dish a winner.

There is a collegiality among the staff and when our waitress got hung up with a large table, an explanation was quickly given, our water glasses filled and appetizer order was taken. It is clear the principles of hospitality and taking care of the guests are valued here.

You will surely find a sweet to end your meal — grilled fruit cobblers, pluff mud pie, a lemon tart or creme brulee ($6.95); but you may want to try a cheese course and a glass of port.

The Fat Hen is a wonderful example of the farmer-chef relationship; the integration of the back of the house to the front of the house and a value system that allows all to achieve success.

In a very short time, The Fat Hen is a red hen that could. Or in French, Miam! Miam!

RESTAURANT REVIEW ‌ Fat Hen
By JEFF ALLEN
Charleston City Paper
Wednesday, September 5th, 2007

Froggy Bottom: Fat Hen conquers Johns Island with a whole new kind of country cooking

If you want to know what Johns Island is going to look like after the I-526 extension comes barreling through, just head over to the Fat Hen, an upscale bistro packed with islanders with a taste for good food. But if urban sprawl means exceptionally staffed, adventurous restaurants like the Hen popping up all over the place, then I'd vote for bigger roads any day of the week, if only we could figure out a way to spare the land from the ravages of soccer mom hell. Of course, that's an impossible dream, and the Fat Hen is just the glorious beginning of a future wave of sprawling suburbs. For now, the drive is still exceptionally beautiful, and Fat Hen is the best thing going from here to Kiawah (notwithstanding that other Gallic darling, Chez Fish) with an all-star cast, superb cuisine, and a comfortable take that any Francophile redneck was born to love.

There's no stuffiness at the Hen. They've left the downtown haut monde behind and focused on the flavor, albeit with an overwrought "country French" shtick. The Hen supplanted the very capable St. Johns Island Café, improving the space with a much-needed facelift. Like the future landscape of Johns Island, what was once a homey, amateurish effort has been polished into an atmosphere that displays a down-home take on Lowcountry French bistro with the mock authenticity of an Epcot Center display. Animal silhouettes line the walls with their French monikers written below. The chickens all over the place could easily be leftovers from the former fowl paradise, Marie Laveau's. At the Fat Hen, you drink from Mason jars and wipe your mug with a rough dishcloth that comes wrapped around cheap flatware, and it's fun, because it's different, and the laid-back atmosphere makes eating the superb food all the more enjoyable.

Rue de Jean progenitor Chef Fred Neuville stole some of the best chefs in town to stock his brigade, including the up-and-coming Colin Flynn, whose stint at Six Tables across town cemented him as a future tour de force. None of this name-dropping talent would matter if it didn't come through in the food, and the Fat Hen delivers.

An appetizer, simply called "oysters" ($8.25), might be the best thing we tasted. It was great the day after they opened, and it's still great today — a sloppy mess of a plate, true country, with a rich cream gravy full of country ham lardoons and the earthy backbeat of sautéed wild mushrooms spilling over thinly-sliced, grilled bread rusks. Big plump oysters ride atop the whole thing, just cooked, their insides quivering and the edges just curled enough to lap up the cream like a cat's tongue. It is a pure expression of the French countryside.

Steamed mussels ($9.95/13.95) come in regional shades, steeped in aioli, gone South in a basil and garlic pistou (better known by its Italian variation, pesto), or drowned in beer and shallots, Brittany style. They are well done, but if you've been to Rue de Jean in the last six years, then you already know all about the mussels. More unexpected are the grilled barbecue scallops ($9.95), wrapped in bacon and anointed with a pomegranate barbecue sauce. Combined with a bracing herb salad backed by the anise taint of raw fennel, the combination offers a peek at the considerable creative skill at work behind the kitchen doors.

The entrée selection is equally fine. Braised meats, such as the lamb shank ($19.95) and the short rib ($18.95) are not to be missed. They literally melt from the bone; you could eat them with a spoon. A demi-glace reduction envelops them in carnal glory, the richness assuaged only by the homespun mashed potatoes clinging alongside. What kind of vegetable comes with such farmhouse splendor? Wilted spinach, of course.

If you have to pick one dish, however, I suggest the seared grouper ($18.95), whose mélange of wild mushrooms, tomatoes, and butter beans lolling in a garlicky butter sauce is the perfect complement. The fish flakes with a beautiful golden brown crust just holding it together — a local catch spared from the fryer, rescued by the infusion of quality culinary technique, and pushed to another level.

And that really is what Fat Hen is all about. Sure, they have a fried seafood selection at the bottom of the menu, a seeming nod to the greasy bellies of St. John's past, but it's an afterthought, a menu for the kiddies, the less sophisticated. They have clearly banked on a more affluent future, one that will appreciate the fine value of a well-chosen wine list (which they possess), a niçoise salad at Sunday brunch, and the corny throwback of drinking from a mason jar while dishing out 20 bucks for fish soup. But it all works. The parking lot is already full. And for a place as "red" as John's Island, they sure do love the French.

Fat Hen Something to Cluck About
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Holly Herrick

Johns Island residents now have something else to be truly happy about. Super talent chef Fred Neuville recently flew "Rue's" coop to land here and set up his own establishment, deliciously named Fat Hen.

Because I have childhood-related fascination with chickens (under the right circumstances, I even do a pretty good imitation of one laying an egg) and because I love the name of the place and Neuville's food, I broke tradition and tossed my usual must-be-at-least three-months-old mandate in order to review a new establishment. So, let's consider this more of a report than a review, since Fat Hen's only been flying just under two weeks.

The news is good. Very good. Fat Hen is operating seamlessly. I've never seen a restaurant running so well on all fronts so early in the game.The service has professional pluck a' plenty (Neuville recruited some of Rue's best) and the food, which Neuville describes as "Lowcountry French", has a personality of its own. The menu and the decor recall Rue but in a manner that's infinitely more country warm and cozy than the cooled, Parisian brasserie sophistication chez Rue. It occupies the space that was Johns Island Cafe, conveniently situated a meager 10-15 minutes from the more populous environs of Seabrook, Kiawah, James Island and downtown.

The new look is smart and sturdy, peppered with chick-themed bibelots, a few stray painted chicken tracks here and there and oodles of comfortable tables and a spacious bar area. The intention here, according to the chef, is to impart the rounded, feminine and maternal comfort of a big, fat hen looking after her chicks. It's totally accomplished with the homespun fare, the down-home look and the nurturing nature of the effervescent staff. This Fat Hen is one good Mom, the kind that makes the saddest, loneliest and hungriest chick cheer up in a hurry.

The food is good enough to make you strut like a well-fed rooster, but the humble prices (entrees, $9.95 - $20.95) won't leave you crowing in pain. The delicate blush of Lowcountry brine trickled into every bite of silky oysters, beefed up with chunks of earthy ham and toothsome pearls of wild mushrooms - all perched above a pool of a rich and creamy sauce. The sauce was prepared with eggs purchased from nearby local farmer Celeste Albers, situated just miles away. The chilled corn bisque (special) practically squeaked with freshness of candy sweet corn purchased at the Montessori School just down the road. The commitment to buying local is real here, not just talked about, which is just as it should be on an island that yields the bounty of local produce.

This restaurant may be all about chickens, but its duck soars. The exquisite BBQ Roasted Duck appetizer (shards of roasted duck are lovingly tossed with a deep purple pomegranate sauce and served over pepper-spiked grits) is absolutely not to be missed. The same can be said of the Seared Duck Confit and its salty slivers of duck cooked long and low in duck fat, seared and served with butter beans that give new meaning to the word heavenly.

Chef cooks up Lowcountry restaurant with French flair

Fat Hen Finally Roosts
By Liz Robinson
Charleston City Paper
Wednesday, July 11 2007

Johns Islanders are probably fat and happy right about now, clucking about their new restaurant. Chef Fred Neuville's Fat Hen finally opened its doors last Friday in the old St. Johns Island Cafe space, and locals have been scratching at the dirt, anxious to get in there and cram their beaks with French Huguenot-inspired Lowcountry fare. The lunch and dinner menu range from down-home cooking to fancier plates, with most of the dishes falling somewhere in the middle. For lunch and brunch, you'll find crème brûlée French toast served with Grand Marnier and strawberries alongside burgers and fries and mac and cheese. For dinner, you'll find seared duck breast, grouper, and hickory-smoked barbecue brisket. Looks like a menu designed to keep islanders happy for years to come, similar to Rue de Jean's enduring popularity.

Chef cooks up Lowcountry restaurant with French flair
By Caroline Fossi
The Post and Courier
Thursday, May 10, 2007

The executive chef at two popular downtown dining spots is spreading his wings, with plans to launch a Lowcountry French restaurant on Johns Island.

Fred Neuville , chef and partner at 39 Rue de Jean , Coast and Good Food Catering , opened Fat Hen on July 6t 3140 Maybank Highway, former home of the St. Johns Island Cafe . The new place will specialize in comfort food with Lowcountry and French flair, Neuville said. Entrees, priced at $20 or less, will include duck confit with butter beans and garlic spinach, and shrimp and crab Hoppin' John.

The restaurant will seat 120 inside, including the bar area, and 40 outside. It will serve lunch and dinner, as well as Sunday brunch, and will be closed Mondays.

Neuville said he chose the Johns Island site for its central location and the cottage-like charm of the building. He's leasing the space with an option to buy. Jim Moring of The Commonwealth Co. in Charleston brokered the deal.

CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS

Food:

• “I have had pork chops at many great places, even Emeril’s, but this one tonight was the best one I’ve ever had.”
• “Best meatloaf ever. Adored the mussels. Dessert was divine.”
• “Worth a million bucks!”
• “Somewhere in Paris… too good to write!”
• “Exquisite. Perfectly balanced.”
• “Excellent, fresh flavor.”
• “Loved every bite!”

Service:

• “Fantastic and friendly.”
• “Very efficient.”
• “Five stars!”
• “Knew the menu well – delightful.”
• “Nice, engaging and attentive.”

Atmosphere:

• “Relaxed, warm and friendly.”
• “Lively and cute”
• “It’s a place I would feel comfortable going in my shorts and flip flops or dressed up in a business suit.”
• “This is a classic and classy place!”
• “Sophisticated Lowcountry.”