Tommy Condon's is on Church Street in downtown Charleston, and it's the city's oldest Irish pub, opened by Tommy Condon himself in 1984. After Hurricane Hugo, he made a series of trips back to Ireland and came home with antique mirrors and authentic Irish memorabilia that still adorn the walls, so the room has a genuine, collected-over-decades quality to it that you don't get at a chain pub. Live music runs every day, the covered outdoor patio is the one to get on a warm evening, and the crowd is a mix of locals and visitors who've come for the live session and stayed for the food.
The food is where the Irish pub label meets the Lowcountry, and the fusion works: shrimp and grits and fish and chips are the house specialties, the fish comes out perfectly breaded with the right proportion of breading, and there's a good coleslaw on the side. The drinks include a decent local beer selection and a melon sour that's made properly. It's a comfortable, friendly, no-frills spot that's been a Charleston favorite for over forty years, and it does the basics - good food, good music, good company - without trying to be anything else.