The menu offers a roster of comforting pastas, as well as creative riffs on classic dishes
(Left to right) The new open-air veranda; A tableful of dishes, including (clockwise) hamachi crudo, scallop crudo, pappardelle in a braised oxtail ragu, Mediterranean lamb with crispy artichokes and tapenade, and shrimp pasta with caviar and the roasted pineapple with anise ice cream and candied pistachios & the Amuse Me cocktail with an oyster poised atop a Nick and Nora glass.
During a visit to Charleston, Gianni and Susie Ropolo and their sons, Eldredge and Tyler, were walking down King Street when a building with a “for sale” sign in the window stopped them in their tracks. Almost instantly, the New England restaurant family could see new life for the choice property at the corner of Mary Street, which had sat empty since 2018 when the dining establishment 492 shuttered.
The Ropolos snapped up the spot in 2021 with the idea of opening another Pasta Beach, a casual concept they’d had success with in Rhode Island and Boston. Once they dug in though, they felt the elegant building, which they expanded to include a second-floor lounge and veranda, called out for something more elevated. The result, Legami—“ties to people and places” in Italian—opened last fall with chef Andrea Congiusto, born and bred in Rome, helming the kitchen.
An alum of several Michelin-starred restaurants in Italy, Congiusto is focused on new Italian cuisine. His chicken cacciatore, for example, is a deboned thigh in a tomato glaze, topped with olives, pine nuts, and capers. In another dish, he fashions a swirl of pasta out of 100 percent shrimp and tops it with caviar, lemon vanilla sauce, and chive oil. Still, the chef takes great care with the classics. Pastas like pappardelle with braised oxtail ragu and ricotta-filled ravioli in pomodoro sauce would impress any nonna.
Cocktails, too, detour from the classics in the best way. Topped with an oyster on the half shell, the vodka-based Amuse Me, made with tomato, white balsamic, pepper, and prosecco, is a refined oyster shooter.
Son Tyler, who oversaw the design and build-out, followed suit with the interiors, respecting the past while layering modern flourishes, like the first-floor’s raffia light fixtures imported from Torino that keep the feel of the 19th-century building open and airy.
The chef brings the same thoughtfulness to desserts. Forget cannoli: there’s a heavenly cream puff based on Eldredge’s favorite birthday cake from a bakery in Torino, where the brothers spent most of their childhood. And, after encountering the city’s pineapple fountain, the chef was inspired to come up with roasted pineapple with anise ice cream and candied pistachio—the perfect marriage of Charleston and Italy.
492 King Street
(843) 203-4869, legamichs.com
Wednesday-Friday, 5 p.m.-close
Saturday, 4 p.m.-close
Sunday, 11 a.m-2 p.m.; 5 p.m.-close
