Event Location
Cypress Lowcountry Grille
167 E. Bay St., Charleston, SC

Wednesday, October 24, 7:00 P.M.
Members $100, guests $125.

For reservations or more information please call (843) 727-0111.


THROUGHOUT ANCIENT HISTORY and in ancient texts the cypress stood, in part, for spiritual immort-ality. And if there is anything that will send you on a path to heaven, it’s the sophisticated southern cooking of Donald Barickman and Craig Deihl at Cypress Lowcountry Grille in Charleston, South Carolina. To ensure you get there, how about a glass of "this drink divine," proffered by Dan Duckhorn of Duckhorn Vineyards in Napa?

It was actually at Magnolia, Barickman’s other fine Charleston restaurant, where we first took notice of this Low Country chef with haute aspirations. A graduate of the CIA, Barickman opened Magnolia in 1990 in Charleston’s historic district. Writing in Gourmet, Jane and Michael Stern described Magnolia as a "brash, festive 1820s warehouse transformed into a snappy, modern dining room," while Bryan Miller in The New York Times characterized Barickman’s cooking as "contemporary Southern." Cypress too is a clean, modern space in a historic building that dates from 1834.

The chef de cuisine at Cypress is Craig Deihl, a graduate of Johnson and Wales and an alum of Magnolia, where he ran the stoves for five years. In a glowing review, Post and Courier critic Peter Herman called Cypress "a special place," and noted it has succeeded in raising the bar for fine dining in the area.

Although the process began back in 1976 when Duckhorn Vineyards was established, Dan Duckhorn has similarly raised the bar for fine wine in America. As president and C.E.O., he and his wife Margaret have developed an elegant style of wine that is often held as a benchmark for Napa Valley production. Wine Spectator has called their wines "supple," "harmonious," "rich," "polished," and "immense."