Charleston Happenings Vol. 49
You really do need to learn about our Deal Of The Week and #TheCharlestonReport. Watch my video below for the details.
Chinese Barbecue With A Southern Twist
Wow, are we blessed with some terrific barbecue places in Charleston! If you can’t find what you like at Lewis Barbecue, Home Team BBQ, Rodney Scott’s BBQ, Swig & Swine, Bessinger’s…
Now there’s a new style being served at King BBQ in North Charleston. From the owners of the terrific Jackrabbit Filly just south of Park Circle, King BBQ opened in the past few months to well-deserved fanfare.
Corrie and Shuai Wang are the partners behind this different kinda restaurant, and they know what they’re doing. I think they were really smart to put their own spin on things, drawing on Shuai’s Chinese heritage.
As Corrie puts it, “Originally it was going to be us doing spins on standard Southern barbecue, and we just got a little bored. So it became this perfect blend of legit Chinatown-style barbecue crafted through the familiarity and knowledge of a Southern smokehouse.”
Downtown Garage To Become Mixed-Use Development
With that headline and a photo of an old, shuttered parking garage, you might think this will be the unsexiest of stories. I mean, it is tough to compete with the latest restaurant opening this week.
We are SO spoiled, BTW.
But if you’ve ever parked downtown near College Of Charleston—at St. Philip and Wentworth to be precise—it’s likely you parked at the city-owned Wentworth Garage. And you may have even noticed it’s been closed for a year.
That’s because it was deemed unsafe by the city after the garage’s concrete structure deteriorated following years of wear, tear and rain.
Don’t worry, though. C of C plans to buy the land from the city, demolish the garage and develop a student housing building with parking and restaurants.
Stay with Charleston Happenings long enough, and I’ll be reporting on the restaurants that open here. 😋
Uptown Hospitality Group Is Very Busy
If you’ve been downtown, I hope you’ve visited Bodega. From the very busy entrepreneurs at Uptown Hospitality Group (more in a moment), Bodega is fashioned after sandwich spots in New York City. Their breakfast sandwiches are big as your head, and quite tasty.
Mount Pleasant will soon be home to the 2nd Bodega in the area, in the former Andolini’s Pizza building on Coleman Boulevard. But Bodega is just a piece of UHG’s stable.
The City Paper did a nice profile recently detailing UHG’s existing restaurants and what they have in the hopper.
I must say, though, when I learned they’re partnering with 2 Southern Charm “stars” on a new venture, I was wondering what Craig and Austen bring to the table. 🤣
Grocery store & Affordable Housing Coming To 995 Morrison Drive Project?
I’ve been impressed with how forward-thinking Charleston County has been with commercial real estate projects, both on the peninsula and in West Ashley. They’ve done a good job projecting population growth, and planning for it. As much as they could, given the explosive and continuing growth here in Charleston.
Now there are potential plans for a grocery store and affordable housing at 995 Morrison, a parcel they bought in 1996 for the then-unheard-of sum of $1.45 million.
While it’ll be some time before we see anything on that site, it’s great to hear that high-density housing is being considered. The affordability crisis in our region won’t get any better unless we plan and build more housing.
