Jump to content

Charleston Tournament - Things To Do


GP1

Recommended Posts

I promised to write a GP1 travel guide to Charleston. Here it is.

EATING

Almost never will go to a city that has as many world class restaurants as Charleston does. The great thing about the city is you can go to world class restaurant and not bankrupt yourself because there are so many they have to keep their prices reasonable for what you get. Dinners in a city like New York would be double what they are in Charleston and the food is better in Charleston. Here are a few recommendations. Make reservations well in advance. My selections are broken down into two groups: In the city and outside of the city. I’ll tell which is which. They are not in any order. There are 20 places just as good as what I recommend. I'm not kidding when I say this. If you are considering any of these places, you had better make reservations soon.

High Cotton. In town. Classic low country cooking. World class restaurant. Real quick discussion about Charleston cooking. What is low country cooking you ask… The low country is the part of South Carolina around the coast in the general Charleston area. Starts and stops depending on who you ask. Here is a primer. Basically, it is the combination of African cooking with many of the ingredients found native to that part of the country. For example, shrimp and grits. Corn is found all over the world, including Africa. Shrimp can be harvested in SC. The slaves brought to the US had an understanding of cooking with corn and grits can be found in Africa as a food dish. They made due with what they understood and created great dishes like shrimp and grits as well as many of the fish dishes in a mustard sauce. Flounder is a popular fish in Charleston.

If you go on to the High Cotton website above, you will find under the tab Maverick Kitchens a place called Slightly North of Broad (in town). Great for lunch. Much different menu than High Cotton. Don’t recommend for dinner though.

Husk. In town. It was three or four years ago now, but the Husk in Charleston was voted by the NY Times as the best new restaurant in America. Enough said. If you cannot get in, I recommend at least having a cocktail at Husk Bar which is right next to the restaurant (the stone building in the photo). Classic cocktails. If you go there at a time when it is open for lunch, get the burger. They grind up bacon into their ground beef. This place is 50 feet from the Mills House hotel if you stay there. If you want to get in, you had better make a reservation after reading this sentence. As a side note, my wife and I went to Nashville in August and ate at the one there. Just as good as Charleston, but with different food.

McCrady's World class chef in a world class eating city.

Cypress. In town. Good place to get meat if you want that. They also make their own meats and cheeses. If you go onto the website and notice they have a restaurant called Magnolias (in town), this is a great place to go if you have children who can behave and will eat something other than chicken fingers when you go out. The food is home cooking at Magnolias and accessible to children.

Coast. In town. If you want to visit where the locals eat, this is a good place to go. Very good seafood.

Red Drum Mt. Pleasant. Ask any person who works in food service in Charleston where the best place around to get Sunday brunch is and they will say Red Drum.

King Street Grille In town. Good sports bar and within walking distance to the arena.

Poe’s Tavern Sullivans Island. One of my most favorite bars in the world. You could go to have a nice dinner at Salt across the street and top the night off with a couple of beers at Poes.

Hominy Grill In town, sort of but more out by the medical university. Breakfast! I’ll temp you with this. Their sausage patties are hand patted made from ground pork tenderloin.

THINGS TO AVOID….. Any restaurant on the market. Hyman’s…if you look at the website photo you will see a bunch of tourists waiting to get in. When you see that many tourists waiting to get in somewhere, you know the food is average. Those in line are the yokels who get off of the cruise ships, walk the market and then go straight to Hyman’s for some average sea food. Some of you really like beer. To be honest, I don’t think the brewers around Charleston aren't very good so I would avoid them.

THINGS TO DO:

Market Pavilion Roof Top Bar. It is the best roof top bar in the city. Complete with swimming pool and lots of Europeans walking around. Market Pavilion is a great place to stay. If you wait long enough, you sometimes can get a deal there. Other than that, it is extremely expensive to stay there.

Golf. Wild Dunes on Isle of Palm is a good place to play golf. Expect the fairways to be brown and the greens to be painted green that time of year. Wild Dunes is a great place to stay in the off season because it is really nice and not expensive. If you wanted to take a limo in and out of Charleston, it would cost you about $100 round trip. It would cost around $60 round trip to go from WD to Sullivans Island. A small price to pay to not get a DUI. I recommend a car service called Ride it Out. A guy named German owns it and his cars are spotless. If you pay round trip in advance, he guarantees to have a car to you to take you home within 20 minutes of you calling.

Carriage tours of the city. There are a lot of them set up around East Bay Street and Market Street. I have had the most success with the one located on the corner of East Bay and Market across Market Street from Market Pavilion.

Walking The Battery would be a great way to spend some time looking at historic houses and maybe see a famous person who lives there.

Home tours. There are people who open their historic homes for tours. These tours are very well done.

Beaches. Want to relax on the beach one morning while reading a book, Isle of Palm or Sullivans Island. Staying at Wild Dunes gives you access to the beach. Want to get drunk with the locals?....Folly Beach.

Fort Sumter is a good historic trip.

Shopping. If you are not staying in town, here is how I would recommend you do you shopping trip. Put 160 East Bay Street in your GPS. On that side of the street is a large parking deck. Park there and walk up the market. When you get to the end of the market, to the right across the street is sort of a small mall associated with a hotel that has some shops. The mall will bring you out to King Street. To the right on King Street are all of the brands you will know. To the left are places you have not heard of and have the kind of merchandise that does not have a price tag on it because anyone who is buying something in that store is not concerned about price.

The one thing I would avoid is a drive through The Citadel. It just isn’t that interesting.

Another thing I would avoid is thinking Savannah is right around the corner and you can make an easy trip there for a day. First of all, Savannah isn’t that nice. Secondly, it’s really far from Charleston.

PLACES TO STAY

I mentioned above if you have a ton of money, stay at Market Pavilion.

The Mills House In town and close to a lot. Reasonable prices.

There are some Courtyards, etc. around CofC. I don’t know much about them, but those brands are usually pretty good. Make sure wherever you stay, they have some sort of shuttle service.

I mentioned Wild Dunes above. Being in Charleston all of the time tends to get to be a bit much after a while. I really recommend this place. I’ll probably stay there for this trip.

When I travel to Charleston for business, I say at the Comfort Inn and Suites at the Isle of Palm connector. Good rates, good rooms and close to some fun things.

If you want to stay close to town, but not in town, I recommend the Marriott on Lockwood or the Courtyard near by. Really nice places and have shuttles to downtown.

PLACE TO AVOID…. The Francis Marion Hotel, old and run down. For the love of God, don’t stay out by the airport in order to save some money…stay home if that’s your plan. Don’t stay anywhere south of downtown except for the Marriotts recommended above. Don’t stay in North Charleston, they have the highest murder rate per capita in the country.

I hope this helps you plan a fun trip. If you have any questions, just ask. Remember, make reservations well in advance. There is a reason I posted this so far in advance of the tournament.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can also recommend Hominy Grill. Just understand in advance that it is one of the most popular restaurants in the city. They take reservations for dinner but they're hard to get so call days ahead. They don't take reservations for breakfast or lunch. We thought we'd avoid the lunch crowd by going at 3 p.m. on a weekday. We ended up waiting outside for over an hour with dozens of others. It was worth it. Everything on the menu our large group ordered was outstanding.

I had the outrageously tasty Shrimp Bog with andouille sausage, creole vegetable & Carolina gold rice. But the highlight for me was the chocolate pudding. Forget everything you know about chocolate pudding. This is pure ecstasy. In case you can't get to Hominy Grill, be sure to make a copy of the recipe below from their cook book that we bought there and make it yourself:

Hominy Grill Chocolate Pudding Recipe

8 oz bittersweet chocolate
1/2 cup sugar
6 egg yolks
4 cups heavy cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees

2. Chop chocolate. Reserve in bowl.

3. Whisk 1/4 cup sugar into egg yolks. Mix rest of sugar with cream and vanilla in saucepan and bring to a boil.

4. Pour a little hot cream into bowl with egg yolks. Pour remaining cream over chocolate and stir with spatula until smooth. Add egg mixture and salt. Strain into a pitcher and refrigerate until cool.

5. Once cooled, pour into 2/3 cup ramekins and cook at 300 degrees for about one hour. Chill for at least 3 hours before serving.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GP1, the wife and I have had some of our most memorable experiences at bed and breakfasts across the country. So we booked a highly reviewed B&B about 10 blocks northwest of the College of Charleston near the South Carolina Medical Center. It looks from the aerial views and from memories of our previous visit like a nice neighborhood, and the cost is just $815 for five nights including breakfasts. Best of all it's only two blocks from the Hominy Grill and the world's greatest chocolate pudding. Sound OK to you?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GP1, the wife and I have had some of our most memorable experiences at bed and breakfasts across the country. So we booked a highly reviewed B&B about 10 blocks northwest of the College of Charleston near the South Carolina Medical Center. It looks from the aerial views and from memories of our previous visit like a nice neighborhood, and the cost is just $815 for five nights including breakfasts. Best of all it's only two blocks from the Hominy Grill and the world's greatest chocolate pudding. Sound OK to you?

If that's what you want to do, then go for it. Be advised that you will have to drive everywhere you go. Also, it's really close to a not so nice part of town.

Remember one thing about Charleston. There are three types of people: old money, new money and no money. There are a lot more people who fall into the no money category than anything. Outside of the places we all see in brochures are some really tough parts of town and they are usually not too far from the places people stay.

EDIT: I'm going to Charleston tomorrow. Post the address and I'll drive by. It won't be out of the way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info GP1. My wife and I were looking at 2 hotels using my Hilton points. It was the Homewood Suites (free hot breakfast everyday and free dinner on weekdays) in North Charleston and Mount Pleasant and we did Mount Pleasant since it was closer to the Isle of Palms beach. Glad we did that not knowing about the murder rate in North Charleston.

Any recommendations for local family friendly kid restaurants? We have a 3 year old and a 5 month old so I don't think we will be taking them anywhere we need a reservation. I am a fan of BBQ so any recommendations there would be appreciated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GP1, I really appreciate your offer. It's the Cannonboro Inn at 184 Ashley Avenue. I've just "driven" the area in Google Street View and it looks gentrified, but your real-world view will be welcome. I have a fair amount of urban experience and understand some areas are OK day and night, some are OK in daytime only and some areas are never OK. We plan to have a long talk with the B&B owner immediately upon arrival. As I mentioned, we're two blocks from the Hominy Grill, and parking there is so bad that most end up a block or two away. So most of the folks who have dinner at the Hominy Grill end up walking a couple of blocks in that area after dark. But knowing the direction of the nearby bad neighborhood will help us avoid that.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, check these reviews.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Any recommendations for local family friendly kid restaurants? We have a 3 year old and a 5 month old so I don't think we will be taking them anywhere we need a reservation. I am a fan of BBQ so any recommendations there would be appreciated.

In town. King Street Grill...see above. Also, a King Street in Mt. Pleasant by the IOP Connector. Wild Wing Cafe in town on the Market an in Mt. Pleasant....Buffalo Wild Wing type place and a chain around the Carolinas. Used to be better, but not that bad now. Any of the touristy looking places on the market would work

Let's talk BBQ. Home Team BBQ on Sullivans Island close to where you are staying. Smoked wings are great. They smoke their wings and then flash fry them for about five seconds to crisp up the skin and then serve. They give an Alabama dipping sauce for the wings...stay away. A traditional South Carolina BBQ sauce is mustard based. Use that. Home Team is across from Poes mentioned above. There are a bunch of little restaurants on Sullivans Island no more than 50 yards from each other.

Taco Mamacita's Sloppy Joe tacos with BBQ Fritos in them is my favorite after a night of drinking meal down there. Again, I like the one on Sullivans.

You could go to Poes with children that age early.

When you cross over the IOP Connector continue straight into a little town complex they have there. there is a small pizza shop there and public parking. You could get some pizza and walk on the beach.

Everyone should keep in mind if you are going to the beach that time of year it could be 65-75 degrees. It could also be 45-55 degrees. Anticipate it being cool at night. If you go to Market Pavilion for a drink on the roof top bar at night, the heat the place with these really cool gas lamps that keep you warm.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the primer GP1. I'm really looking forward to the good food and seeing the sights in Charleston. The team is staying at the Marriott Charleston as will all those taking the charter. I'm glad to know it has your blessings. B)

Nice place. Use the shuttle they have available at the hotel. The shuttle has a fairly flexible schedule.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

GP1, I really appreciate your offer. It's the Cannonboro Inn at 184 Ashley Avenue.

I have a little paper pushing to do then I'm going to hit the road. Will have something early this afternoon. Might drive there and have some lunch at Hominy since I'll be in the neighborhood. BTW, Hominy is much larger than you will remember. A couple of years, they remodeled and doubled their seating space. They also created a nice patio where you can sit and have a coffee or bloody Mary before breakfast.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dave, house is great. Neighborhood not as gentrified as you may imagine except for a couple of streets . socoupl coup . cfexcecfexce. Ignore whatever words those are. Not much around around. Close to team hotel. My advice, trust your instincts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks again, GP1. Your firsthand inspection is much appreciated. A nice touch we discovered about our B&B after we made our reservation is that they serve complementary wine in the afternoon. They also cook gourmet-quality breakfasts to order with local recipes. It seems to be first class in every way at a fair price. We were at the Hominy Grill just last year, so we saw the expansion and had drinks on the patio while awaiting a table. I found a description of the local neighborhood where the B&B is located and which we would be walking through to get to the arena, which is less than a mile away -- something we'd consider a reasonable walk in daylight. Judging from the following description it sounds like it's pretty safe even if there are nearby areas that aren't so much:

Radcliffborough

Right next to the Medical University of South Carolina, Radcliffeborough is populated by doctors, college students and more in condos and historic properties. Homes here are more affordable than those in the neighborhoods south of Calhoun St, and it's not hard to find a beautiful 3/4 BR for under $800,000. This neighborhood is easy walking distance to the Upper King St district with restaurants and shops galore. For families with young daughters, the private Ashley Hall school is here too.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I want to go grubbin' with GP1.

You should have been with me this morning when I had my Colonel Kurtz moment at Hominy Grill. What is a Kurtz moment? In Apocalypse Now, Kurtz is some say crazy army officer and he says the words, "And then I realized...like I was shot...like I was shot with a diamond bullet right through the forehead. And I thought, my God...the genius of that!"

I'm sitting there ordering my eggs, grits, and toast, but I need to make a decision on the breakfast meat. Sausage or double thick bacon. I think we can all agree that's tough choice. Then I had my Kurtz moment. I didn't have to choose either sausage or bacon. I could choose sausage AND a side of bacon. Moments of that level of genius are rare and precious. I'm proud, and probably lucky after that cholesterol bomb I ate this morning, to be alive and American.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

FYI, I called Akron ticket office and they said they don't have a block of tickets if you are travelling outside of the chartered trip and suggested I call the CoC ticket office.

I did and all tickets are general admission and then you can sit anywhere. Tickets are $22 per session (2 games per session) for adults and $11 for kids. You can get tickets now for Thursday and Friday as they will play the early session in both (2:30 Friday if they win Thursday and noon if they lose) and then get tickets on Sunday after the Friday game when we know when they will play. Surprisingly, no extra fees were charged with the purchase unless you want tickets mailed for $3.00 ( I opted for will call).

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

GP1, Do you know anything about Heritage Golf Club in Wake Forest. I am considering a tee time in November, and I know you frequent the area.

I do not. Don't frequent Raleigh very often. See, Wake Forest, NC is outside of Raleigh. Wake Forest University used to be in Wake Forest, NC, but some guy years ago gave a ton of money and helped to move it to Winston-Salem, which is an hour and a half to two hour from Wake Forest, NC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Okay, thanks for the response.

One other thing. What would a recommendation to a town be without some dinner recommendations.

42nd Street Oyster Bar Great sea food and local. Recommend the blackened, bacon wrapped scallops for an appetizer. They have a great blackening so if you wanted it with your main course, it would be great. Good bar scene if you are going to be there on Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights. My personal favorite in Raleigh.

Vivace They have one in Charlotte and it is a great gourmet Italian restaurant.

Bloomsbury Bistro Has been recognized nationally. I've never been there.

I should have my own food recommendation thread on this website. People could ask questions about places to eat in towns they have never been to. I've traveled the country and have eaten at some pretty good places. Anytime anyone needs a recommendation, just ask.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I should have my own food recommendation thread on this website. People could ask questions about places to eat in towns they have never been to. I've traveled the country and have eaten at some pretty good places. Anytime anyone needs a recommendation, just ask.

Inspired by a Keener post of a few weeks ago, I am thinking of installing a new ZipsNation feature - "Grubbin' with The Grate One™."

I figure a slickly-produced pilot would immediately be scarfed-up by The Food Network. Guy Fiery's schtick is getting old...they need fresh content.

45% for you, 45% for me, and Keener gets 10%. You in?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Inspired by a Keener post of a few weeks ago, I am thinking of installing a new ZipsNation feature - "Grubbin' with The Grate One™."

I figure a slickly-produced pilot would immediately be scarfed-up by The Food Network. Guy Fiery's schtick is getting old...they need fresh content.

45% for you, 45% for me, and Keener gets 10%. You in?

I'm in! Only if all three of us get 45% though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One other thing. What would a recommendation to a town be without some dinner recommendations. 42nd Street Oyster Bar Great sea food and local. Recommend the blackened, bacon wrapped scallops for an appetizer. They have a great blackening so if you wanted it with your main course, it would be great. Good bar scene if you are going to be there on Thursday, Friday or Saturday nights.

Thank you! Looks like my kind of place. I'll being staying pretty close, so I might give it a try.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...