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coastal, Southern food." ough she's spent her most recent years in New York (and now Asbury), Meerpohl grew up cooking Southern. e experiences both her and Davin have had in the South is ultimately what's inspired many of the dishes on the menu. In fact, the restaurant is even named for Meerpohl's grandmother. Couple that with the local experience of Shanti and Steve Migonoa (and a lot of reading and researching), and you have Modine. "Southern cooking, that's my jam," Meerpohl exclaimed. "When my husband and I had our honeymoon, we traveled for about three and a half months camping down the East Coast—and we got stuck in the South. We sought out fish camps and places that had those killer layer cakes everyday. [Chris] had never experienced Southern hospitality before. I grew up in South Florida, went to school in Tallahassee and spent a lot of time in Charleston and Savannah before eventually living in Brooklyn. My grandmother, who was born in Virginia, grew all her own food. She taught me a lot when she moved to Florida. She taught me a lot about what it meant to grow your own food and cook with the seasons." Modine's dinner menu is divided into a handful of small sections: Snacks, Starters, Salads, Mains, Sides and, of course, Fried Chicken. Early meal highlights are truly what make this eclectic blend of Low Country cuisine a rarity. You'd be hard-pressed to find a house-made Andouille sausage comparable to the one on Davin and Meerpohl's menu. Served with mashed potatoes, gravy and frizzled onions (and made gluten-free), the dish speaks to Modine's integrity and their use of whole animals in-house. Davin himself is a trained butcher, and almost nothing on a whole animal goes to waste. If they receive a pig, they're breaking it down, making dinner sausage, breakfast sausage, head cheese or hand-cutting pork chops. Overall, limiting waste is one of their core values in the kitchen. When it comes to sincerity, however, Modine has struck the perfect chord between simplicity and sophistication. Even something as straightforward as their Devilish Eggs (Modine's spin on deviled eggs) sets a high standard. Topped with smoked trout and pickled mustard seeds, I wasn't surprised when Meerpohl told me she practically lived off this dish in the months leading up to their opening (and I certainly don't blame her). Starters might steal the show in the early goings, but mains and sides is where Modine's culinary expertise really shines. From pan-seared sea trout with pickled hakurei turnips to BBQ rubbed shrimp with antebellum grits, the entrées make a strong, Southern statement. One only needs a single bite of the fried chicken to understand how much painstaking work goes VUE ON DINING V U E N J . C O M 117

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