Amen Street Lunch

We stopped in Amen Street for lunch. We wanted to go to Pearlz but there was a long, long line out the door because I'm pretty sure they had bridge run specials, and I'm not going to wait to eat in this town when I am a) hungry and b) surrounded by good food. Hayden and I recently went through the DISH guide from the City Paper (http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/dish-dining-guide-winter-2010/Category?oid=1761110) and circled all the restaurants we haven't tried together yet. Hayden remembered Amen Street. Perfect! I have been there once before at night for drinks and had the calamari which was just weird. My friend loved it but the texture was like no calamari I have ever seen/heard of/eaten. It's like poached and odd. My friend went specifically for this dish so - different strokes for different folks. We also had the tuna tartare that night and that was pretty fab.
Hayden and I took seats at the bar. Since this was a post bridge run event, there were lots of drunk people downtown early in the day, so we we enjoyed free entertainment while dining.
Onto the meal - I really wanted to go healthy and light for lunch. They have plenty of healthy options on the menu. I ordered the marinated tomatoes to start which were really light and flavorful. There were three thick slices of tomato over greens served with a giant chunk of Gorgonzola which Hayden ate most of.
Then we split a dozen gulf oysters. The menu offers several different options of fresh raw oysters but we went with the most reasonable option and they were perfect.
The highlight of the light lunch was the flounder ceviche:

First of all, I can't believe Hayden agreed to order this, but he loved it. It was perfectly seasoned and came with sweet cubed mangoes, super spicy Serrano peppers, and red peppers. It was served with tortilla chips but I just forked it. This is a good, refreshing, light dish.
I think Amen Street is a a great place to meet for a light dinner at night when the bar is full. The atmosphere at lunch wasn't as exciting as I remember before. I feel like we really lack good seafood restaurants here in Charleston and this helps to fill in that niche a bit.