A Raw Take on Charleston, South Carolina
My cutoff for a roadtrip is a six-hour drive. Meaning if I can drive somewhere in a quarter of a day (or less), I would prefer to take my chances on the open road versus running the gauntlet at Hartsfield-Jackson. This is because I have found myself delayed in the ATL airport more times than I can count, reluctantly reminding myself, “James, if you had just driven, you would have been there by now.” I’m sure I’m not the only one. Driving from Atlanta to Charleston slides in just under the radar at five hours. That being said, if you opt to fly, wheels up to touchdown is about 70 minutes from Hotlanta to the Holy City (without delays), but that’s your call.
I visited Charleston back in October to try Mike Brown’s Pleasing Terrors Ghost Tour based on a recommendation from the host of the Southern Gothic podcast, Brandon Schexnayder.
Since then, I have been wanting to return with my wife Amanda. So, we planned a kid-free trip over Memorial Day weekend to explore the raw side of Charleston.
Southern Hospitality: A Great Pet-Friendly Charleston Rental
Charleston is a quaint coastal city teeming with history and charm. The downtown peninsula has a similar vibe to Savannah’s River Street or the New Orleans French Quarter. Think cobblestone streets, gas lamps, and 300+ year-old oak trees draped with Spanish moss. While there is no shortage of boutique hotels like the Charleston Place or the Planters Inn to name a few, we opted to book a pet friendly home through Town & Island Company. Town & Island offers 27 properties at varying price points that can accommodate small or large groups. We selected the ‘Cisco’ which included private parking, a shared swimming pool, and dog run. Privi Concierge booked our dinner reservation and filled our fridge with our favorite snacks and beverages in advance of our 4:00pm Friday arrival. Annabelle and Collier, the owners of Privi, are easy to work with and eliminate all of the guesswork which is especially helpful for first-timers visiting Charleston. After taking Renny to the dog run and a chilled champagne toast (thank you Privi), we changed for dinner and hopped a short Uber ride to Market Street.
The Raw Lab Experience
If you take anything away from this article, I want it to be this. Go to Raw Lab. I have been on this planet for 49 years and have never experienced anything remotely like it. Kevin Joseph personally collects you from the Port of Call courtyard, seats you in his 240 square-foot ice bar theater, and literally captivates you with every word, pour, taste, smell, and song note. Each aspect of this four-hour journey is intentional and speaks directly to the 14-person audience. Attempting to write about it would only detract from it. So I will simply say this, what you can expect is a 10-course omakase style raw bar culinary expedition that offers you the opportunity to dine in five dimensions based on Kevin’s five pillars, which are: oyster flight, caviar trip, wine travel, marine cuisine, and sea salt complex. I can promise you three things: you will be truly present in the moment, you will leave completely satiated, and you will want to tell your friends. If you find that is not the case, you did it wrong.
A Shucking Good Time at Charleston Oyster Farm
Saturday morning, we woke up and took Renny for a walk down to Bad Bunnies Coffee for a refreshing iced latte. We then took a 20-minute drive over to James Island to link up with Charleston Outdoor Adventures for a tour of the Charleston Oyster Farm which is where Kevin Joseph sources oysters for Raw Lab. Our guides for the morning were Captain Tripp and Dan, who were both knowledgeable and laid-back in a Lowcountry kind of way. We boarded their Carolina Skiff and took a boat ride over to Green Creek where they educated us on the local ecosystem, mariculture, and Charleston Oyster Farms’ three varieties: perky sea cups, mosquito fleet petites, and wild clusters. If I’m being totally honest, I was just looking forward to the part where we got to stop talking and start shucking. Yes, that’s right. You literally get to pull up an oyster cage, grab a knife, and dig in…marsh to table, baby. And although Amanda refrained from shucking oysters at 10:00am, I stepped up and ate for two. If you don’t know how, Dan will teach you or, even better, shuck them for you. He even brings his own accoutrement including hot sauce and his award-winning prickly pear mignonette. Pro tip, pack a small cooler of beer when you go to pair with your oysters. We completed our mid-morning snack, cruised back to the dock, enjoyed a few cold beers on the balcony of Bowen’s Island Restaurant, and took in the elevated view before heading back downtown. After recording a podcast episode with Kevin at Raw Lab, we popped into Meeting at Market for a late afternoon rye old fashioned and then returned to our pied-a-terre to relieve Renny and order some Rodney Scott’s Whole Hog BBQ on Uber Eats for a quiet evening at home. Perfection.
Folly Beach Fishing with a Local Legend
Early Sunday in spite of the old adage, “Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning” and my better judgment, we headed out to Folly Beach to meet up with Captain Gates Roll, owner of Tall Tide Fishing Adventures. After graduating from high school in Atlanta, Gates attended the College of Charleston and worked on head boats during his summer breaks. After college he was hired by Coastal Expeditions and eventually founded Blackwater Outside, working with nonprofits, land trusts, and conservation-based foundations. In 2011 he started Tall Tide Fishing Adventures and won the REI Adventures Top Guide award in 2013. Twelve years later Gates is still rolling. Suffice to say, he knows fishing. Although the forecast called for rain the weather radar looked less menacing, so we decided to make an inshore run. We departed from Sunset Cay Marina and headed out into Folly Creek keeping an eye out, and a cast net at the ready, for Atlantic menhaden breaking the surface. To be clear, we had bait, but Gates commented that fishing with menhaden rather than mullet is like offering dinner guests filet mignon instead of sirloin. But with no joy spotting live baitfish, Gates rigged for Redfish with mullet and the hunt was on. It didn’t take long for Amanda to hook up. But seconds before we could net the first catch of the day, Amanda’s elusive red whale spit out the hook, gave us the fin-ger, and swam back to warn his family & friends about us. Then the rains came—and that unfortunately was all she wrote. We found shelter at Crosby’s Fish & Shrimp Co. and watched the rain literally blow in sideways. Captain Jody Ducworth, a friend of Gates who was also weathering the storm at Crosby’s, offered to give us a ride back to our car while Gates waited for the monsoon to subside. It’s not the way any of us wanted the trip to end, but it gives us a reason to return, and we will return (rain check).
On our drive back to Atlanta Sunday afternoon, we recapped our first trip to Charleston together. There was not much about it we would have changed, minus the popup storm on our last day. We will absolutely revisit Charleston, James Island, Folly Beach, and pick up where we left off. Our joint love affair with Charleston is far from over, it is simply just beginning. In the meantime, we highly recommend experiencing the raw side of Charleston.
To be continued.