Charleston Foodies

Triangle Char & Bar is on Savannah Highway in West Ashley, and it's the kind of sports bar that takes the food more seriously than most of its competitors. The house line is built around grass-fed, grain-finished beef sourced from South Carolina cattle herds raised on local pasture, which is a real claim for a place that's also got TVs on the walls and a full bar. The burgers are the point - the truffle shuffle is the one people remember - and the Sunday brunch is what has been drawing lines around the block for years, with a Lowcountry jazz brunch that the Post and Courier ran a piece on. The…

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…

The Washout is on Center Street in Folly Beach, a quick walk from the sand, and it's the kind of place that's a local favorite in the most literal sense - the name is a nod to the Folly Beach frame of mind, and the room runs on that energy: TVs everywhere, live music throughout the week, cornhole tournaments, and indoor, patio, and outdoor dining. It's casual, affordable, and family-friendly, with a laid-back, dog-friendly atmosphere that makes it as much a hangout as a restaurant. The crowd is beach locals and the visitors who've been here long enough to stop being tourists, and the food is f…

The Royal American is in the Old Charleston Forge building on Morrison Drive in the Upper Peninsula, and it has been doing the same thing since 2011: good food, cold beer, and live music in a room that's cozy and a little divey without being dirty. It's described as a neighborhood bar, restaurant, and intimate concert venue, and the live music is the thing that sets it apart - original bands on the weekends, local, regional, and national artists, and the kind of room where the show is the reason you stayed past your second round. The crowd is diverse and local, the price is casual, and the foo…

The Griffon is on Vendue Range right next to the Vendue Hotel, and it has been at it for about twenty years, getting grungier and better for it in the words of Bon Appétit. The room is covered in dollar bills and bumper stickers - every inch of the walls, the back bar, the exposed rafters, even the doorframe - and it's part college bar, part tourist destination, part industry hangout, which is a truer description than any of those alone. It's the kind of place where a College of Charleston senior, a famous chef, and your uncle all end up at the same bar and nobody minds, and the beer list runs…

The Rooftop at the Vendue is Charleston's original rooftop bar, and it's the one people mean when they say they want to watch the sunset over the harbor. It sits on top of the Vendue Hotel at 19 Vendue Range, right on the edge of the historic district, and the views sweep across Waterfront Park, the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge, and the whole downtown skyline. It's two-tiered - a covered outdoor balcony on one level and a true rooftop above it - and the room is enlivened by playful pop-art installations that keep the whole thing from feeling like a generic upscale bar. It's open seven days a week…

Red's Ice House is on historic Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, and the whole place is built around one idea: a cold beer, some fresh local seafood, and a view of the water. It started as an old fish and ice house, and the owner's stated intention was to turn it into a public gathering place at the water's edge where locals and visitors - regardless of age, wealth, or culture - could sit, watch the boats go by, and celebrate the traditions of Shem Creek. That's exactly what it is now: a casual, elevated wooden shack with dockside dining, indoor and outdoor seating, and the kind of Lowcountry wild…

Red Drum is the most interesting concept in Mount Pleasant: a "South by Southwest" restaurant where the local Southern ingredients of the Lowcountry meet the flavors of chef-owner Ben Berryhill's native Texas, and the room matches the menu. It's a wood-grilled steak by candlelight in the wine room, or crab tostaditas and cocktails in deep sofas around an adobe fireplace under the stars on the patio - the whole place is built around that South-meets-Texas idea, and it works better than the label suggests. Berryhill is the former chef of Houston's Café Annie, and the quail and sausage entrée - S…

Poe's Tavern on Sullivan's Island has been running since 2003, and it leans all the way into its namesake - the whole room is decorated for Edgar Allan Poe, the menu has Poe-themed burgers, and the vibe is exactly the opposite of the poet's: loud, sunny, and packed, with a patio that fills up fast on a good day. It's a relaxed watering hole in the truest sense, a few blocks from the beach, and the crowd is a mix of island regulars and visitors who've heard about the burgers and came to see what the fuss was about. The music is casual, the beers include three local microbrews alongside the usua…

Pearlz Oyster Bar is one of the Homegrown Hospitality Group's concepts with four locations across the Carolinas, and the two in Charleston - the original on East Bay Street in the French Quarter and the West Ashley one on Magnolia Road - both run the same playbook: a fun, eclectic room built around a raw bar that carries a real selection of Lowcountry and Gulf oysters, plus specialty oysters and fresh seasonal shellfish on the board. It's centrally located enough that The Infatuation calls it the place to go when you want a dozen oysters, a beer, and a break from walking around, and the happy …

The neighborhood is full of casual beach bars, and NICO is the exception - an upbeat oyster bar running French cuisine through a wood-fired oven, with a raw bar that Chef Nico Romo curates himself from the best oyster farms on the coast. Romo is the youngest-ever American member of both the French Culinary Academy and the Master Chefs of France, one of 66 Master Chefs in the country, and he runs the room like it's a French brasserie that happens to sit next to the water. The food is Lowcountry seafood done with European technique: swordfish, flounder, a dozen oyster preparations, and a beef ta…

Moe's Crosstown Tavern has been voted Best Neighborhood Bar by the Charleston City Paper fifteen years in a row and Best Pub Food nine years in a row, and both claims hold up. It's on Rutledge Avenue near Hampton Park, open till 2 a.m. every night, and it's the kind of no-frills local spot that out-of-towners find by accident and come back for the next day. The neighborhood gets a bad reputation from passing tourists - one review literally says "the neighborhood looks scary, but the place is worth it" - and that's the thing about Moe's: it's the real deal, not a performance for the visitor.

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Maybank Public House is the James Island sibling of Coleman Public House in Mount Pleasant - same team, same playbook, just further down the highway. It opened in 2015 and describes itself as a rustic-chic gastropub, which is about right: a dining room, a big tap room, and an outside biergarten that's the one people plan their evening around. The beer is the reason it exists - 18 constantly-rotating taps, craft cocktails on tap, and a wide wine list by the glass - and it's the kind of place where the tap list gets checked before the food menu does.

The food is casual pub fare done well, wit…

Loggerhead's Beach Grill is on West Ashley Avenue in Folly Beach, and it positions itself squarely as a beach joint rather than a restaurant - huge outdoor deck, an outdoor bar, ample seating inside and out, and live music that runs long into the evening. The room is upbeat and happy, the kind of place where the music and the crowd do as much of the work as the kitchen. It's a Folly Beach regular's spot as much as a tourist destination, and the deck is the thing people write home about.

The menu is wide: sandwiches, burgers, crab legs, crab cakes, oysters, and the rest of the usual beach-gr…

John King Grill is on King Street and it has one job: get a room full of people to stand up, request a song, and sing it badly. The dueling piano shows run Wednesday through Saturday from 8 p.m. until around midnight, with a cover charge that varies depending on the night, and the two pianists work the crowd the way a good MC works a dance floor. It's the kind of place a bachelor party ends up at by default and stays at on purpose. The room is casual and loud, with multiple screens for the people who want their sports before the music starts, and the crowd is exactly what you'd expect on a Kin…