While in Charleston you will have access to some of the best restaurants in the country. The New York Times recently compiled a list of what they believed to be the 100 best restaurants in America. Of the 100 named, ten are in Charleston. Some of my own favorites from that list include Husk, The Grocery, The Ordinary, and McCrady’s. I also recommend you consider The Victor Social Club, The Macintosh, and a long-time Charleston favorite, Rue de Jean.
For morning coffee at a local spot I recommend you drop in to Kudu Coffee where you will also find local beers on tap and some delicious food options. Leon’s Oyster Shop is a new offering that is all the rage.
Charleston’s sweet grass baskets and the people that craft them by hand are a definite point of interest. You’ll find plenty of these gorgeous creations in the open-air Charleston City Market situated between North and South Market Streets. Their unique basket weaving is a tradition that spans hundreds of years and it has been traced back to Sierra Leone. Captured in Sierra Leone and brought to Charles Towne they carried with them their West African ways of life. Following emancipation, many of these freed slaves remained on barrier islands, some of these islands not having roads constructed to reach them until the 1950s and 60s. There they lived as they would have in Sierra Leone. A documentary followed some of these Charleston basket weavers as they were reunited with their ancestors in Sierra Leone. They took with them baskets made here that were indiscernible from those made there on the African coast. Their ability to maintain their cultural heritage throughout their enslavement – including not just the basket weaving, but also their language and culinary traditions – is absolutely unique and awe-inspiring.
If you’re able, visit Charleston the second weekend of the month: on the second Sunday of the month King Street is closed to pedestrian traffic only from the Calhoun Street south. Restaurants bring their tables into the streets and live entertainment abounds! This event is known simply as “Second Sunday”.
