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TREY WILSON OF CUSTOMSHOP “I’m ready,” says Trey Wilson, chef of Customshop, which is opening in the hyper-hot neighborhood of Trey, who graduated from Johnson & Wales Charleston in ’96, spent six post-grad years working at Dean & DeLuca where he says he “met everyone in town who has anything to do with food.” One of those people was restaurant consultant John Sergi who is so famously demanding that there are virtually no places in There, Trey had what was apparently a near-religious experience. “It was perfect,” he says. “Beyond my wildest dreams.” And something, apparently, that Trey and John believed Customshop is the collective brainchild of four men: Trey, John, wine guru J.J. Levine and David Pasternack. Quite frankly, as much as we love our local guys, it’s the participation of Pasternack that has drawn much of the buzz. He was the Winner of the 2004 James Beard Award for the best chef in Customshop is all about the ingredients. Trey – along with the help of his partners – is obsessed with finding the best ingredients on the market. He goes organic when he can, local when he can, and shops high-quality purveyors such as Foley’s Seafood. Customshop’s catchphrase is ‘Handcrafted Food’, and Trey says, “One thing I’ll never do is mask the basic flavors. It’s like the best salmon you can find and putting a small condiment on the side. So many places are into overkill, into putting so many sauces on the plate, but that’s not what we’re about.” Consider, for example, the Baby Chicken Diavolo With Warm Egg Salad ($17). “We start out pan-frying the baby chicken,” says Trey, “and then, in the same pan with all the drippings and pepper and stuff, we immediately do the warm egg salad. It’s simple but it’s well-prepared and it’s absolutely pan to plate.” A large community table in the middle of the restaurant is the place where meats are sliced and Caesar salads are prepared in traditional style. Starters look to be both light and sophisticated: Two-minute ceviche of razor clam ($8), a tuna meatball ($10), 18-month aged Prosciutto ($9), crispy sweetbreads ($9). The mains are a combination of exotic pastas – how about Squid Ink Spaghetti with Crabmeat, Chilies, Tomato and Mint ($19) or Gnocchi with Venison Ragu ($18)? And the classic. I’m thrilled to see Whole Fish in Salt Dome With Braised Celery ($58 for two), which is, as some of you know, the dish that first drove me into the ecstatic world of food writing way back in the seventies. They’ve kept the place small – 70 seats – in order to have total control over the front and the back of the house, and Trey is even bringing in his sister, cousin and mother to help out. Can a restaurant be both an outpost of Customshop 704.333.3396 customshopnc.com Posted: March 01, 2007 - News | More News |