Sweetgrass at Dataw serves up the Sea Islands

The Lowdown

Location: Dataw Island Marina (directions below)

Atmosphere: “Bright and inviting; feels like a family's comfortably worn beach house where you're equally at home in shorts and flip flops or dressed up for a night on the town.”

Cuisine: “A Lowcountry bistro with good food, simply prepared from scratch. Inventive takes on standards such as deviled eggs topped with crab, black-eyed pea hummus and warm banana pudding.”

Alcohol: Full bar, excellent value wine list (most available by the glass), good selection of imported & domestic beers, specialty cocktails

Hours: Serving lunch and dinner, Friday – Tuesday from 11:30 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. and brunch specials on Sunday. Closed Wednesday and Thursday

Reservations: Recommended for Saturday and Sunday evenings several days in advance, 843-838-2151

Website: www.sweetgrassdataw.com

Etcetera: The house specialty cocktails are all named for boats in the marina. We highly recommend the Dance Aweigh a clever blend of mango rum, ginger ale and fresh limejuice. At the end of a blistering hot day a couple of these will restore your humanity.

When the Lowcountry heat and humidity sets in, I crave foods that are sweet and cold. And when it comes to frozen desserts only one thing comes to mind – ice cream! You may not know this, but ice cream has been around way longer than electricity. Both Alexander the Great and Roman emperor Nero Claudius Caesar used to ask for snow flavored with fruit juice and honey. Marco Polo actually revolutionized ice cream when he tasted the frozen dessert that historians say closely resembles contemporary sherbet and took the recipe to Italy.

Grilled shrimp is a great summer meal! It's easy to cook and quite tasty, too. Getting the shrimp ready for the grill is just as important as the actual grilling.  That's where this week's recipes come in. They're all marinades for grilled shrimp. You can use whatever type of shrimp you'd like -- white, brown or tiger. For grilled shrimp recipes, stay away from the small shrimp. Large, extra large and jumbo are easy to work with and go on skewers nicely. Cooking the shrimp on skewers makes them easier to control on the grill and easier to cook.

If you use two skewers for each serving, run one skewer through the head end and another through the tail end of each shrimp. That way, you won't have 'spinning shrimp' when you turn the skewers on the grill.