For our 10th anniversary Jarrod and I (mostly me, though) wanted to take a trip somewhere just the two of us! I had a lot of fun planning this trip, even though it was short we had a great time and I hope we can go back in a few years. We really liked it.
We flew out of Memphis on Thursday and came back on Sunday, so it was a quick trip. But we felt it was plenty of time to see most of the city. In searching for a place for our trip we wanted to go somewhere where we could walk and wouldn’t have to rent a car. We picked a great place for that! You can walk to everything in Charleston! It was great exercise!
We got into Charleston about 3pm and went straight to check into our inn. We stayed at The Fulton Lane Inn. It was a great location right in the middle of King Street and pretty close to everything! Tucked in an ally, it was quite and cute but not fussy or fancy. They had real keys and the place was old and charming. I really loved that they brought your breakfast to your room every morning! Coffee, juice and assorted pastries were delivered at the time you requested. Can’t beat that! I would highly reccommend this inn!
The alley entrance at night
The entrance from King Street is down the alley under the sign
Of course one the most important parts of our vacations is the food! I had fun figuring out where we needed to eat and had most of the reservations set before we left! Thursday night we ate at Hall’s Chophouse. Which is the #1 rated restaurant in Charleston. It did not dissapoint! I think the neatest thing about this place was the attention to their guests. When we arrived they sincerely greeted us and even though we were a bit early, seated us immediately. Two of the owners stopped by to talk to us and called us by name, and shook our hands. It was a pretty swanky place, I felt a little under-dressed and uneasy at first but the waitress was great and the service was just topnotch. We were treated just like the people sitting across from us in suits and dresses. We both ordered steak and it was very expensive, but I thought it was good. Maybe not worth the price, but the whole experience was. The waitress brought us complementry champange, since we were celebrating our anniversary. Something I had mentioned in passing to the lady when I made the reservation a few weeks before. I was surprised that she took note of that and passed it along! A little while into our meal one of the owners stopped by our table and thanked us for celebrating at their resturant and brought us more champange! Then before we left the waitress gave us a huge piece of their famous 14 layer chocolate cake to go since we couldn’t eat another bite! Service is definetely their brand and they excel at it! A week after we got back home we also got a thank you card from our waitress! Talk about making loyal customers. We would definetly go back and reccommend them to family and friends visiting Charleston!
The weather was nice, it was chilly but also muggy? Strange. Thursday we walked around a little bit, but most of the stores were closed already. King street was pretty much desserted at 9pm!
Friday was a full day! We got up and had breakfast in our room and then went to Palmetto Carriage Works, for a horse-drawn carriage ride and tour of the city. This was an awesome way to see the city. I really enjoyed it. Except that we were packed like sardines on the bench and it was a little tight for me. The carriage companies have a lottery system to which carriage goes where in the city, we went through the more residential part. The most interesting part was seeing all the old homes and people still live in many of them. They have been passed down through the family. Most are worth millions and millions of dollars now! And many of them have really beautiful garden’s if you peek through the gates.
All the houses were similar to this
After the carriage ride we high-tailed it to The Brown Dog deli, where we were supposed to meet our next tour group for a Food Tour! It was my favorite thing we did! The ChowDown Charleston Food Tour took us to some amazing places to eat that we probably wouldn’t even have know about. I was proud of Jarrod for trying some new things. It was quite the venture out of his comfort zone! There was only one other couple on the tour, and the guide, Jessica who was young and fun so it was a great way to spend three hours. Jessica would tell us about things as we walked through the city so it was a little history and a little food both. First we met at this cute little deli, and had a pulled pork sandwich called the Pig n Fig from the Brown Dog Deli. It was so good, with apples and fig sauce. Not something I would have ordered, but it was delish!
Next up was the infamous, Fast and French. It has been a local staple since 1984 when it was opened by 2 french artists! It’s where the locals go. We sat in the back almost in the kitchen! It’s a teeny tiny place with a limited menu that changes daily. I was nervous that we would be served pate, but it was a nice bean soup with a side of french chees and a pesto tapenade with crostini! And a stout red wine, of course! I loved it! Jarrod ate the bread and cheese, and I ate the rest of his food he didn’t want!
Next was the Queen Street Grocery Cafe. Talk about a hole in the wall. It’s very old and it’s location is close to the college, so it gets a large following from the students and locals. We had a crepe and salad there. It was good, but not my favorite
Low Country Olive Oil was next. It was a fun stop. I didn’t realize there were that many types and flavors of olive oil! We got to taste a bunch and were suprised how yummy they were just on popcorn or fruit! Who knew?
We were surprised to find that our guide was taking us to Kitchen 208 next! It was right beside the Fulton Lane inn. It has a nice large patio area, which is rare for a place on King Street. There we sampled their cheese grits and okra and tomatoes. It wasn’t great. Having had my mom’s okra and tomatoes all my life, there’s didn’t even compare. The chef came out to talk to us and he was very friendly. We thought we might try and eat there one morning, but never made it back.
We ended at the most amazing french bakery! Way off the beaten path I’m so glad we had the chance to find this place! The Christophe Artisan Chocolatier was by far my favorite stop! We had this phenomenal cold "drinking chocolate”, which I had never heard of but it was so yummy! We also got samples of chocolate and a macaroon. After the tour ended we stayed and had more dessert, Jarrod had a big strawberry linzer cookie and I had a almond crossiant and coffee (which I got a special coffee mixed with their drinking chocolate- Oh my!) It was so hard to choose. I think I could have stayed all day. We enjoyed our snack on the back patio area that had a pretty mural painted on the side of the building next door.
We thought about going to Fort Sumter for a tour, but decided to just stay in town and shop around the City Market, which was just a big arts and crafts market. There were lots of vendors making and selling sweetgrass baskets and other hand made crafts.
For dinner Friday night we had reservations at Poogan’s Porch. Which since being in town just a day, had already seen and heard good things about from the carriage tour guide and the food tour guide! I was please I had picked this place for us to try and made our reservations weeks beforehand! Poogan’s porch is named after a dog named Poogan- duh. And like most places in Charleston, Poogan’s porch was alledgedly haunted. By a dog of course. It’s was told to us that if you order the peanut butter pie that the ghost dog would rug against your leg because he wanted some, too. I think this kept Jarrod from ordering it! Ha! I had the shrimp and grits, and it was AMAZING.
All the ceilings indoor and outdoor were painted blue to keep the spirits away, that was an old Gullah supersition that has just turned into a Trademark of Charleston.
Headed out to dinner
After dinner
The only negative thing about Charleston is that after 9pm it’s pretty much dead. The shops all close at like 8 or 9 and the tours end (except the ghost tours and you know we aren’t doing those!) so unless your at a resturaunt or bar there’s not much to do. We just went back to the inn and went to bed!
Saturday we started the day with a walking tour. WHEW! I mean we WALKED, and WALKED and WALKED!! The entire city I think! It was very interesting and I’m so glad we did it! The guide that led us was a true Charlestonian (as they are called) and she was just full of informaiton and history and local insight. We went to churches, cemetaries, homes, and of course battery park and rainbow road!
Four Corners of Law
Pretty houses
Us on Rainbow Row
After all that walking we were hungry! We made our way to Jestine’s Kitchen for what I had read was the best southern fried chicken in Charleston! Surprisingly they were busy when we got there and we got seated quickly. The menu was full of southern, low country soul food. We both got fried chicken, of course. And it was really good!
After lunch we decided to hit the shops on King Street! There was a HUGE Vineyard Vines I wanted to check out! We stopped at a place called Candlefish. They had so many unique candles and fun gifts. Charleston Candle Works was one local brands the store sold. I got the Beach Linen, and it’s just my favorite! If you are looking for something to buy me they all smelled great ; ) You can get them on their website! I also got a gold rice bead bracelet! It’s dainty and perfect, I wear it all the time!
There are some really high end boutiques in Charleston. A lot of menswear I noticed. In one store there were some green cordaroy pants with santa claus’s embrodiered on them for $200?! What?? I also I found these one of a kind ties at one of the men’s stores we browsed. These are bowties made from duck and phesant feathers! And they were very expensive! I think the cheapest one I saw was $200+. I looked because I seriously considered getting Dillon one for his birthday! Ha!
We had signed up for a dessert tour but there weren’t enough people so they cancled it. I was very dissapointed. It was supposed to be like the Chowdown tour, but just for desserts! We will try that again someday when we go back! So, Saturday night we had reservations at Hanks Seafood. It was also highly ranked, but I was less impressed with it. It was very nice but really loud. We sat too close (for me) to the other guests in a half booth half table set up. I mean you could hear every word the people sitting next to you were saying, and it wasn’t a laid back sit and talk with your neighbor kind of place. It was what I would consider to be on the romantic side. Anyway, our food was good. But it wasn’t wonderful. The older couple next to us did socialize with us towards the end of our meals. They were following their dinner with dancing. I think that they were surprised to find out that all we planned to do was go back to our hotel and watch a football game. We are so wild, I know.
We got up bright and early Sunday morning to check out and head to the airport! We were back in Memphis by 2pm. We got our stuffed and headed for home, but first we stopped for dinner at Bone Fish Grill. We had a great weekend and were blessed to be able to spend some time alone and make some memories! I hope we can go back someday. It’s not a place I think I would take the kids unless they were much older. There were several plantations and homes outside the city that I think would be cool to visit and tour next time!