Here’s where to find one of Columbia’s best Thursday meal deals
Here’s another reason to love Thursday nights in Columbia.
One of the city’s best multicourse dining deals is offered on these evenings at the University of South Carolina’s McCutchen House.
Staffed by junior- and senior-level students from the College of Hospitality, Retail and Sport Management, the Thursdays at McCutchen dinner series is a great way to enjoy a gourmet meal at a reasonable price.
For $28 per person, diners may partake in a four- to five-course meal inside one of Columbia’s oldest homes at one of the city’s most iconic locations. The historic home-turned-restaurant, built in 1813, is an idyllic setting for diners in the second-floor red and gold dining rooms, with windows open to views of USC’s Horseshoe.
A semester’s worth of menus are set in advance by the hospitality director and chefs, then posted online. Diners only need to select the menu they prefer then register and prepay online.
And those menus can be impressive.
The menu for Feb. 23, for instance, highlights Lowcountry cuisine, with Southern tomato pie appetizer, she-crab soup, choice of salad, and a choice of entrees that include cooked-to-order ribeye with twice-baked potato and Brussels sprouts, whole-fried flounder with Charleston red rice and vegetables, or grilled bone-in pork chop with chow chow and Charleston red rice. For dessert, there’s McCutchen’s famous chocolate walnut pie, served a la mode, or rum raisin bread pudding with warm vanilla sauce.
Tea, water and coffee are included with the meal, or you can bring your own bottle of wine and have it uncorked tableside (no corkage fee).
Bill Knapp, McCutchen’s interim director, said students really run the entire restaurant on Thursdays – from setting up the front of house and service, to preparing the food, dish-washing and cleanup.
“There are about 150 students who come through the program every year,” Knapp said. “About 12 to 15 students rotate through each station.”
If you go
Thursdays at McCutchen
WHEN: 6:30 p.m. Thursdays, through April 20.
WHERE: McCutchen House on the University of South Carolina Horseshoe
CHECK IT OUT: Spring 2017 menus are posted at sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/hrsm/for_the_community/mccutchen_house_dining/thursdays_at_mccutchen/index.php. Click the “Make your reservation” link underneath individual menus to reserve a seat and prepay.
This story was originally published February 15, 2017 at 1:00 PM with the headline "Here’s where to find one of Columbia’s best Thursday meal deals."