CIC alum Trey Dutton (top left) was recognized recently in an article titled "5 Charleston Rising Star Chefs to Watch" in Food & Wine magazine. Trey, whose culinary career trajectory includes years at the top-ranked Cloister Hotel in Sea Island, Georgia, and The Inn at Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton, South Carolina, is back in Charleston as the executive chef for Mercantile and Mash. Located in the marvelously renovated old Cigar Factory, it is expected to be another hot property.
"The mastermind behind the menus at the city’s first food hall, an Eataly-esque experience opening soon, describes the project as having “everything outside of a traditional restaurant”: a coffee bar serving locally roasted Black Tap coffee, a fresh produce market, grab-and-go morning breakfast, a meet and cheese case, fresh pasta, an upscale dive bar called Mash. That's all in addition to the restaurant itself, Mercantile. After hours, Dutton will teach classes in canning—his side business, Southern Keep, focuses on pickles, jams and chowchow—as well as sausage making and baking. 701 E. Bay St.; mercandmash.com."
