Moondoggies Cafe & Grill
Down the street and around the corner, in a renovated old house nestled in the trees in historic Port Royal, is the neighborhood gem – MoonDoggies Cafe and Grill.
Owners Jeff and Dawn Harris’ vision is to present a high quality product with old family recipes served in a casual environment. To this end, they source most of their ingredients locally and thereby support other Beaufort businesses. Jeff comments, “We are not a five star restaurant with five star prices, but our food is right up there!”
Their mouthwatering menu features appetizers, soups, salads, a superb selection of sandwiches for lunch, and the dinner menu is accented toward seafood but includes some very fine steaks and pasta as well.
Although the actual MoonDoggie was Jeff’s beloved Weimaraner, who is immortalized in the mural in the front dining room, the menu sneaks in some references to the nostalgic era of Gidget and Moondoggie from the movies. Gidget’s Grilled Salads offer a choice of Caesar salad or mixed greens with a selection of cheese toppings and either: thinly sliced grilled chicken breast, six spicy grilled shrimp, grilled or blackened Mahi fillet, eight ounce NY strip steak grilled and sliced, or grilled and sliced Portabella mushroom.
There is a tempting selection of homemade Big Kahuna’s Desserts, and the Lil’ Surfers menu is for children.
When Jeff bought the building in 2004, it was an old house and needed nearly a years worth of renovations. He thought the front dining room should have a mural, so the walls are painted with a dark sky and lowcountry images, including the dog sitting under a full moon. The back dining room is quite interesting architecturally and actually almost has a surfer sort of vibe to it. All wood, made from reclaimed railroad box cars, with a porch wrapping around the exterior, and a high ceiling, it has a distinctively different feel to it, almost like being outdoors. This is where the music happens on the weekends when Jeff and friends play guitar on Friday nights and John Sheppard plays the piano on Saturday evenings, both nights between 6:30 and 9:00.
Whether you are enjoying the weekend music, or dining during the week, you will probably try the crispy fried pickle chips as an appetizer since they are one of the signature dishes here. If you’ve never tried fried pickles – welcome to the South! Served with two dressings, ranch and horseradish, these chips are a wily and tasty bit of ingenuity. Jeff tells the story of how they came to be on the menu; MoonDoggies’ opening in 2005 coincided with the Port Royal Soft Shell Crab Festival. The Boars Head sales rep asked Jeff if he would consider serving fried pickles made from the Boars Head garlic dill pickle. Rising to the challenge, Jeff concocted a Cajun inspired seasoning made with seventeen secret ingredients that coat the slices of pickle before they are fried to crispy perfection. The rest, as they say, is history and they are a much loved item from the menu.
In addition to the crispy fried pickle chips, luncheon appetizers include crab cakes, coconut shrimp, and roasted red pepper artichoke bake. The salad choices are numerous but if you are a sandwich person, you’ve come to the right place! Thirteen sandwiches, not including what you can arrange from the deli offerings, make choosing just one a bit of a dilemma, however you can always order one (or more) to go; bodacious reuben, lowcountry po’ boy, spicy shrimp burger, and fabulous frank, are just a few.
Although the dinner entrees include such scrumptious seafood offerings as Mahi, shrimp, oysters, flounder, and tilapia; filet mignon, rib eye and NY strip steaks, as well as linguine provencal, the crab cakes are perhaps the piece de resistance. Fashioned from another family recipe, lump crab is used to make the cakes and they are served with a house made remoulade sauce. They can be ordered as an appetizer, in conjunction with any of the steaks, or as part of the seafood feast which includes grilled or blackened Mahi, five spicy grilled shrimp, five fried oysters, and the crab cake; all the dinners come with a dinner salad, a choice of: baked potato, French fries, seasonal casseroles, or pimento mac and cheese, as well as bread. A feast indeed!
Dawn is always searching for new and enticing recipes, she is the queen of the soups, casseroles and desserts. The desserts are not to be missed – you can select from homemade pies, cheesecakes, puddings and whatever else she dreams up. It may be wise to first ask what is for dessert and plan your meal accordingly! This fall she has created a roasted butternut squash soup and a pumpkin spice cheesecake among many other things.
Open Tuesday thru Saturday, lunch is served from 11:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. and then dinner is served between 5:00 and 9:00 p.m. Wine and beer are offered; carry out orders are welcome, and don’t forget the music on Friday and Saturday nights. The entire space is available for rental and will seat about 50 people and parties of up to 24 can be accommodated in one dining room.
Story by MARY ELLEN THOMPSON • Photography by PAUL NURNBERG
