This SC seafood restaurant is one of 12 best in US, Michelin Guide says

There’s something endearing about a restaurant whose tagline is “from the bozos who brought you Melfi’s and Little Jack.”

That would be Leon’s Oyster Shop in Charleston, which was selected by Michelin Guide as one of 12 best seafood shacks in the United States.

Opened on King Street in the summer of 2014, Leon’s is located in a paint and body shop that belonged to Leon Ravenel. The essence of that shop remains with garage doors, concrete floors, and some of Ravenel’s memorabilia. And the name, of course.

“When we opened the restaurant, we wanted a comfortable, lived-in, familiar oyster bar, inspired by some of the joints we had visited throughout the South,” they said.

Its proper name is Leon’s Fine Poultry and Oyster Shop and is owned by hospitality entrepreneur and restaurateur Brooks Reitz and his business partner Tim Mink. Melfi’s is an Italian restaurant and Little Jack’s a tavern. They also own The Bell in New Orleans that they describe as a “little tavern with a big patio.”

Here’s how they describe their menu — “We do fried chicken, oysters, kick ass salads, cheap beer, soft serve, rosé on tap, frozen G&T’s, tons of grower champagne, and decent cocktails.”

Michelin Guide says it’s a “hip, relaxed spot.”

It’s open all day for its char-grilled oysters, crispy clam wraps, peel-‘n-eat shrimp and Leon’s Fish Fry — “a veritable feast for one that includes catfish, clam strips, shrimp and hush puppies.”

Michelin Guide reviewers — the guide calls them inspectors — also praised the shrimp roll “tossed with slivers of seedless jalapenos, garnished with crushed potato chips and tucked into toasted brioche.”

And they make “a mighty fine piece of fried chicken,” the guide said.

Leon’s Big Chicken Platter is the whole bird with a choice of two large sides.

Among their sides is a black eye pea salad with pickles, peppers, olive oil and chives.

Michelin Guide said of seafood shacks, “There’s something distinctly American about a seafood shack in summer: paper trays piled with fried seafood, picnic tables overlooking the water and seagulls hovering nearby.”

“A seafood shack works because it closes the distance between what you’re eating and where it came from. It’s visceral in a way that a formal dining room can’t replicate,” Remy Anthes, the Brand Director at Hog Island Oyster Co. in San Francisco, told the guide.

The other seafood shacks on the list are:

• Hank’s Oyster Bar, Washington, D.C.
• Neptune Oyster, Boston, Massachusetts
• Select Oyster Bar, Boston, Massachusetts
• Smithereens, New York, New York
• Automatic Seafood & Oysters, Birmingham, Alabama
• Big Ray’s Fish Camp, Tampa, Florida
• Fishmonger, Atlanta, Georgia
• Anchor Oyster Bar, San Francisco, California
• Fishing with Dynamite, Manhattan Beach, California
• Hog Island Oyster Co., San Francisco, California
• The Lobster, Santa Monica, California