We’ve moved! Bill and I closed on our new home in Charleston at the very end of 2022. While January was tumultuous and we didn’t spend a ton of time here, we did go out a bit. Yesterday we bought new bikes at a shop around the corner from our house and ended up having an INTENSE discussion about restaurants with the shop owner and an employee. We came away with a year’s worth of dining recommendations scribbled on a strip of receipt paper.
In reflecting on that fun conversation, and after a chat with Jack, I decided that keeping a record of where we eat and what we do would be fun, and possibly helpful. None of these are meant to be full-blown restaurant or “things to do” reviews; they are meant to be a list I can go back to look at, and possibly help my friends out when they come to the Low Country. That said, here’s a look back at January…
Places We Ate
We spent New Year’s Eve at The Grocery, just off upper King Street. Beautiful menu, absolutely delicious food. It’s the typical farm-to-table that you see a lot here, but we thought it was done well. Airy and light atmosphere, nice cocktail menu. We are looking for a time to go back.
The Crab Shack on Folly Beach was good. The atmosphere was a little tired but I think we were there on January 3 so it should have been! It seems like a pretty typical fried seafood place that you can find all up and down the coast. Not necessarily worth a trip on its own but if you are in Folly Beach it’s a solid choice.
Bill met friends at Anson. I was out of town that weekend but he reported that it was great, a good place to go instead of SNOB. Honestly, I love SNOB so I will think of it as a place to go “in addition.” It’s in the Ansonborough district on the peninsula.
Swig and Swine is our neighborhood cooked-meat place. We are VERY lucky!! It’s worth a drive. They have Pastrami Fridays but Bill got there late one Friday and so he hasn’t tried that yet. Aiming for sometime this month.
Glass Onion is our other neighborhood place. It looks like a little diner, and lots of families come, but it’s another farm-to-table and it’s delicious. We will be putting that on our regular rotation. I had the grouper. Bill has had shrimp there, and catfish another time, and says the greens in particular are excellent. The fish, too, of course.
Bitty and Beau’s is a coffee shop just a block from the church we’ve attended on the peninsula. Great coffee, great mission (seriously, check it out), but not a great atmosphere for sitting and chatting.
Charleston Sports Pub was probably the most forgettable place we visited this month. We still don’t have our television hooked up (waiting, waiting) and Bill wanted to go watch a playoff game. We went to the one on James Island (1 mile from our house as the crow flies, but a crow can fly across the marsh so it was five miles away by road) and it was okay. Well, actually, it was seriously understaffed and while we felt bad for the bartender, we could have done better.
167 Raw on King was a place that Bill and Jack went to one evening while I was gone. “Life changing fish tacos” was Bill’s report. Jack said the sushi was excellent. For a guy with a shellfish allergy to give a raw bar two thumbs up is amazing.
SNOB (Slightly North of Broad) is our perennial favorite. I love the atmosphere, the attitude of the wait staff, the menu that changes a little each time, the cocktails. It’s a fabulous bar to hang out at if you can’t get a reservation. We ate twice here, once the day before we closed on our house (so, technically, December) and on the last day of the month. Always so good.
Things We Did
We weren’t here together very long this month, and a lot of our time has been spent unpacking and moving boxes. We do have a list of things to do that we’ll be working on starting this month, I hope.
Church at St. Philip’s. We are searching for a congregation to join and are interested in finding one on the peninsula if possible. We’ve been here a few times and like it very much. It’s Anglican and very high-church, and the preaching has been excellent each time. If you are a tourist it’s well worth ducking your head in to see it. Stunningly beautiful sanctuary with traditional boxes, and an amazing pipe organ.
The Charleston Boat Show. We have a dock and a lift, so we thought we’d take a look. The show was pretty big and very power-boat-oriented, which I suppose is natural for here. Definitely worth going to.
The West Ashley trail. This is a paved trail that used to be an old rail line. It runs right by my neighborhood and we use it almost every day. Super flat, which is why I was happy to buy bikes! (That shop will be in the February post.)
The Old Exchange and Provost Museum. This is a great stop when you sight-see in Charleston. Tons of information about Revolutionary Charleston in an architecturally significant building, complete with a dungeon!
That’s it for January! I’ll be back in a few weeks with February’s notes.
