How To Eat Your Way Through Charleston

There is so much to see and do while in the city of Charleston, but oddly enough everything seemed to involve eating. The foodie that I am didn’t mind one bit. The rich history of Charleston dates back to 1670, when South Carolina’s oldest city was founded. Gullah cuisine has been around for centuries and originated from enslaved Africans who worked on plantations in South Carolina and Georgia, and learned to live off the land. Charleston is devoted to keeping traditions and history alive, which is one of the main reasons I fell in love with it. The cuisine definitely helped too! Here are some tips for your culinary adventure in Charleston…

Don’t Skip Dessert

I had no idea that Charleston had such a booming dessert scene! Our first night, we headed back to our hotel after an evening boat cruise around 9 pm and we stopped at the famous Carmella’s Dessert Bar to curb our late night sweet tooth. Music was blasting, it was dark, all tables were full, and it truly resembled a late night bar. The best part…instead of only selling drinks, they sold decadent desserts and dessert cocktails! Their mini layer cakes come in many flavors and serve 3-4 people, depending how big of a dinner you had beforehand, (or split two-ways and then breakfast the next morning). Don’t miss Off Track Ice Cream for vegan ice creams made in house. The ice cream flight is a must, but you’ll need more help than my dad was (in his defense, we did just devour a BBQ platter beforehand). There’s no shortage of candy shops in Charleston, they purposely leave their doors open so their sweet smells waft out to the sidewalks and draw people inside.

Slather on the Carolina BBQ

Charleston is somewhere that you can eat BBQ twice in one day and still not get sick of it, it’s that good. Our first taste of southern BBQ was at Poogan’s Smokehouse where we got southern classics such as; cast-iron cornbread slathered with honey butter and pulled pork sandwiches with a smokehouse slaw served on a Hawaiian bun. (If your mouth isn’t watering then we can’t be friends.) The original parent restaurant, Poogan’s Porch, opened back in 1976 and has quite the story of how they got their name. Rodney Scott’s BBQ, Home Team BBQ, and Lewis Barbeque are also popular joints. If you’re looking for somewhere you can get BBQ and that one crazy person in your family who is sick of BBQ, can get something else would be the Port of Call Food + Brew Hall. They also offer local beverages and live music on their patio!

Savor Some Southern Seafood

A trip to the East Coast wouldn’t be complete without enjoying some fresh seafood. We got our seafood fix at the the Charleston Crab House. I’d recommend the mussels which are served in a white wine, garlic, parmesan broth. You also have to experience a low-country boil while in South Carolina, which originated from needing to feed a lot of soldiers at once…which was how the low-country boil was born. We got the shrimp boil and it was filled with shrimp, corn on the cob, andouille sausage, and potatoes. The Darling Oyster Bar, 167 Raw, and Pearlz Oyster Bar were highly acclaimed seafood restaurants on our list that we didn’t end up making it to.

Butter Your Biscuits

Biscuits are a southern staple, so it makes sense that they come sweet or savory. Being from Minnesota, the only biscuits I’ve had are biscuits and gravy (probably not the fresh kind either). I was very intrigued when we went to Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit and found that we could get a variety of biscuits with different spreads and fillings. We chose the cheese & chive, blackberry jam filled, and cinnamon filled with cinnamon butter. Each one got better and better! They also sell biscuit sandwiches, their biscuit mixes, frozen biscuits, accompaniments, cookbooks, and other goodies. Handy + Hot and Millers All Day both are known for their biscuit sandwiches. I know on my next visit I’ll be getting the fried chicken biscuit sandwich with pimento cheese at Millers All Day, (and a mimosa to wash it down of course).

Get Your Late Night Pizza Fix

Would it even be considered vacation if you didn’t get your late night pizza fix? For me, a trip wouldn’t be complete without it! We attempted to get pizza at Baker and Brewer, Frannie & The Fox, and D’Allesandro’s Pizza, but only lucked out on 2 out of the 3. Frannie and The Fox was so busy that we couldn’t get seated, which pretty much guarantees their pizza was noteworthy, (add it to the list for next time). Baker and Brewer had amazing wood-fired pizza that paired well with craft beer and a game of life size Jenga. D’Allesandro’s was a great pick for late night delivery to our hotel room, and thanks to Marc at our hotel, it was delivered to our room with plates, silverware, and cloth napkins. Yum!

Leave it to the Local Experts with a Local Food Tour

We did a food walking tour on our last vacation and loved every second of it. A food walking tour is the best way to get a taste of the city you’re a tourist in. Charleston, being known for its food scene, was no exception to this. Charleston Culinary Tours offer a few different types of tours depending on the type of experience or part of the city you want to explore. We did the downtown food tour and all the stops were within a few blocks of each other. If you’re going to book a tour, here are a couple things I would suggest: First, book online in advance! Secondly, you’ll want to plan it for your very first day so you don’t make the same mistake we did and end up revisiting 2 of the 4 restaurants. They say it’s enough food to be considered a meal for most, but we were all stuffed, I even had to take my dessert back to the hotel!

Honorable Mentions

An honorable mention that isn’t necessarily a southern staple, is Ted’s Butcher Block. Our mission whenever we travel is to find a high-quality local deli. Luckily I did my research because this is a place we wouldn’t have stumbled upon on our own but was near the harbor where our sunset cruise departed. We enjoyed gourmet deli sandwiches and a bottle of bubbly to take aboard the cruise!