Charleston food

  I could probably count on one hand, or one hand plus one finger the number of dates my husband and I went on last year aside from our trip. We made up for it this trip in doubling the number of dates we went on in one year by doing it in one week.  And I am not talking about the time we just went out for coffee or drinks, because that would add another 5 dates.

 

  I have yet to mention the food that we enjoyed in Charleston because it really needed a post all it's own.  We found out quickly that Charleston is foodie central.  At the recommendation of a friend, Mike made 4 different reservations for dinner a couple of weeks before we arrived and even at that point there were often only the 5:30 or 9pm available.  Serious about their food.

 

  Rest assured, we did not take photos of every meal.  BUT there are still a lot of photos.  :)

 

  We got in around midnight EST on Monday and had not yet eaten dinner.  We ended up at The Tattooed Moose and from the gourmet sandwiches we received at this bar, we knew this city was serious about their food. A pork belly kimchi sandwich and duck fat fries, at a bar.  We also learned that this city is up and coming with craft brews too!

  

  Our first day we had shrimp and grits at The Lost Dog at Folly Beach and it was deliciously rich.  No wonder why everyone LOVES shrimp and cheese grits.  Wow.  Wow, it was good, wow, I can only eat that once a year.  We made green smoothies at the singlehouse each day for breakfast trying to be as good as possible when we could.

 

  Our first fancy night out (no pics) we went to the very popular FIG.  Food Is Good.  And it sure was there.  We ordered a fish stew in a bouillabase broth and had my favorite cocktail of the trip.  This was my favorite meal, mostly because I was excited to be dining in such fancy places and my tummy had not yet tired of the rich food.  We also had a great time as we started reminiscing our 10 years of marriage by making Top 10 lists.  Top 10 places we'd been, restaurants we'd eaten at, etc.  We should have made a Top 10 funniest quotes list, Mike!

 

Our second night out, we went to Husk by the well renowned chef, Sean Brock.

  He stole the show and won Mike's heart with his pure SC cuisine.  Let me just say, p-o-r-k.  :)  He also is going back to SC's roots by teaming up with a farmer that is revitalizing the heirloom grains local to the area.  Chef Brock has started his own seed bank and all.  In fact, we learned a bunch about him after one of our waiters from a different restaurant told us Sean Brock was featured for a season on a show called "Mind of a Chef" by PBS.  It's on Netflix, look it up, he's season 2!  We spent a couple of nights watching the season and really enjoyed it.

 

  For our actual anniversary we were at the Charleston Grill.  FAN-CY!  I was being spoiled with such nice restaurants and amazing service.

10 years!!!

 

   We couldn't come to the south and not try some of Carolina's finest BBQ.  Home Team BBQ did us in on one of the two nights we didn't have reservations.   I got myself some sweet tea for the first time too.  Fortunately, they also had unsweetened tea that I could do 50/50 with or else I wouldn't be able to take more than a sip.  It should be called sugar shock sweet tea.

 

   We had yet to visit one of the city's new breweries and decided on a whim to do that after BBQ.  You know, because you can do things on a whim without kids.  :) (We took FULL advantage of that perk!!). We pulled up to Holy City Brewery and caught some live music too.  We enjoyed listening to this bluesy rock band jam while we drank good beer (well, I sipped on Mike's of course).  This is what memories are made of.

 

Keg tree, so festive! 

 

  It probably doesn't seem like we had much down time while we were in Charleston.  We really didn't, but I don't feel like we ran ourselves ragged either.  When we had extra time before dinner reservations or if we had free mornings, instead of hanging out with Three-legged Millie, we went to coffee shops or nearby bars.  After an afternoon run, we found this favorite hangout, Brown's Court Bakery.  The picture above is from when we spent the morning there for some breakfast treats and stayed for awhile to read.  That is what dreams are made of!  It was also raining and cold that morning and so we were in no rush to get back outside.

  Brown's Court was a singlehouse converted into a bakery and upstairs was seating.  We got to peek at the treats down below.

 

  Another great thing about Charleston is that we were never short of a recommendation for food.  We found The Gin Joint after high recommendations from a local we ran into.

 

  There were all kinds of drinks you could order, but you could also pick two words to describe a drink for the bartender and he could make up a drink for you.  Mike chose refreshing and tart and enjoyed it very much!

So did I!

  The Gin Joint wasn't quite enough food for us after a long day of walking the city and Ft. Sumter in the frigid cold, so it was the one night we ordered in and watched our new show.

  We had one final day of food, and we decided to go big before we went home.  Sunday, after church, we finally got to the also very highly recommended Butcher and Bee.  I ordered chilaquiles.  I don't know if you have ever had chilaquiles, but everywhere I go they are made completely different.  This style was straight up fancy nachos, with the chips still a bit crunchy and drenched in their chilaquile sauce with delicious black beans and chicken at the bottom.  It was super yummy, but way different than the chilaquiles we make.

 

  Butcher and Bee is expanding and they also had this shop they called "The Daily" that sold Butcher and Bee goods, local food items, and they were brewing up Stumptown at the coffee bar.  Stumptown is from Portland, OR and is my favorite coffee ever!

  Our last night in town, Mike had reservations for Halls Chophouse by recommendation from a member of our favorite band who is from Charleston.  He had been holding out on ordering steak all week knowing we were going to Halls.  I am not a huge steakhouse person, but this restaurant was the most fun and welcoming place I have ever been.  I felt like you had to be on the inside to be at this place and I was on the inside.  The owners were super friendly and when Mike called to talk to them about trying to change our reservations, the owner knew why from seeing a 206 number and assured him that they would be playing the Seahawks game at their bar.  Not only was the city charming, the people were too!

We got smart and split an entrée.  I was able to walk out of there on my own without a lift.

  Good thing too, because we had to go watch the Seahawks!  Surrounded by a number of Hawk fans, this was such a fun game.

 

Our last morning, we hit up Hominy Grill one last time and had our last biscuits before heading home.

 

  I'll leave you with a very Southern recipe I found on a wall at Hominy Grill.  You will probably be either really grossed out at all of the food we ate, or really hungry.  If it's the latter, try this!

 

  Thanks for hanging with me.  If you are over Charleston, I have about two more blogs from our trip.  Home stretch.