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On Air Live & On Air Studio opened recently on King Street

King Street has a new late-night address — and it brought the honky-tonk with it. On Air Live and On Air Studio just opened at 565 King, stacking a country bar with live music downstairs, a moody red-lit lounge upstairs, and a rooftop overlooking downtown. Self-described as "Dark. Moody. Loungey." — and there are Cheerwine-glazed wings, so.

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Photo by @girlswhopaintmurals

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Nashville finally has a satellite office on King Street.

On Air Live and On Air Studio opened this week at 565 King Street, taking over the former Ink Rooftop & Lounge space and bringing something Charleston's bar scene doesn't have a ton of: a committed, concept-driven honky-tonk with live music every single night.

This isn't a vibe. It's a venue.

Three Floors, Three Personalities

The bar runs vertically, and each floor has its own identity.

Downstairs, On Air Live leans country — live bands, a dance floor, the kind of room where boots make sense. Head upstairs to On Air Studio and it shifts: house music, low-key lounge energy, red lighting. The bar's own description is "Dark. Moody. Loungey." — which tells you exactly what you're walking into.

A rooftop bar overlooks the downtown scene for when you just want a drink and a view.

The Food

The menu earns points for committing to the Nashville angle without turning into a theme park. Hot chicken tenders. Cheerwine-glazed wings. A Chicago Italian beef sandwich snuck in for the out-of-towners. Standard pub fare fills out the rest.

The Block Is Moving

On Air isn't the only news on King Street right now. Apparel brands Greyson and TWP Clothing recently opened. Gwynn's is incoming. Jones Road — the clean cosmetics brand with a serious following — opens soon at 322 King. And Mother's Ruin, named after the 18th-century nickname for gin (great bar name, by the way), is taking over 474 King in the former Rarebit space.

That stretch is filling in fast. It's worth paying attention to.

The Bottom Line

If you've been waiting for a Charleston bar that actually commits to a concept — multiple floors, a distinct personality on each one, and live music you don't have to hunt for — On Air is worth a visit.

565 King St. Open now.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

Charleston is a city defined by water. The harbor. The rivers. The creeks cutting through every neighborhood. And yet, for a peninsula surrounded by all of it, truly great waterfront dining has always been in short supply.

That might finally be changing.

The Crossing

The Crossing just opened on the second floor of The Cooper hotel at 176 Concord St. — and it's not small.

Nearly 200 seats. Four distinct dining areas. Two outdoor terraces facing the harbor. The kind of golden-hour views that make you forget you were just trying to grab a bite.

The design leans hard into the setting. Teak wood floors. Polished nickel accents. Lacquered blue ceilings. It's what a nautical-themed restaurant looks like when someone with actual taste is in charge.

The Food

Chef Nick Dugan runs the kitchen — the same Nick Dugan behind Sorelle, which should tell you something.

The menu is Mediterranean, built for sharing. Start with pink snapper crudo, a tangle of octopus, or wood-fired pita with a spread lineup that includes hummus, muhammara, baba ganoush, and htipiti. Move to seafood grilled or broiled in grape leaves. Land options include dry-aged beef tenderloin and lamb chops.

Nothing about that reads like hotel food.

The Drinks

Beverage director Cameron Nadler built a cocktail list stacked with light, bright options — plus a dedicated martini menu with eight variations and a build-your-own option.

Yes, a build-your-own martini menu. On a harbor terrace. In Charleston.

That's either the best sentence you've read today, or you've had a very good week.

Why It Matters

"Charleston has relatively few waterfront dining options," managing director Lukus Grace told the Post & Courier, "so we made it a priority for the harbor to play a central role in The Crossing."

He's right. And for a city that sells itself on coastal charm, it's about time the dining scene caught up to the real estate prices.

The Crossing doesn't feel like a hotel restaurant that happens to face the water. It feels like a serious hospitality project that made the view the whole point.

The Bottom Line

The Crossing is open daily — breakfast (7–11 a.m.), lunch (11 a.m.–2 p.m.), dinner (5–10 p.m.), and Sunday brunch (10 a.m.–2 p.m.). More at thecooper.com/dining.

Charleston's waterfront dining scene just got its most compelling entry in years.

Reservations, probably. Martini menu, definitely.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

A New Addition to the View

You know that perfect shot of the Ravenel Bridge from Waterfront Park? Or the one from the dock at the new Cooper hotel?

Lately, it comes with a bonus.

Tucked into the background since March 31 — right off Union Pier Terminal — is a 341-foot British-flagged cargo ship armed with fixed naval guns and designed specifically to haul nuclear fuel across the globe.

No big deal. Just vibes.

Meet the Pacific Egret

The ship belongs to Pacific Nuclear Transport Ltd., a U.K.-based company that's been moving the world's most sensitive cargo for more than 50 years. The Pacific Egret is one of three vessels in their fleet — and it is not messing around.

According to Post & Courier reporting, the ship sailed to Charleston from Tokyo. Its usual circuit: shuttling mixed-oxide fuel assemblies — a blend of plutonium dioxide and depleted uranium — between Japan and Europe.

Double hull. Impact-resistant structures. Redundant safety equipment. Fixed naval guns. And, the company noted, "other additional physical protection systems, only some of which are visible from the outside."

Cool. Cool cool cool.

Nobody's Talking

Here's the thing: no one seems to know exactly why it's here — or if they do, they're not saying.

The ship's owner declined to share the reason for the extended stay, how long it plans to stick around, or whether it's carrying anything hazardous right now. In a written statement, a spokesperson told the Post & Courier the vessel is "operating under all necessary national and international approvals."

The Coast Guard's Charleston office said it had no specific details about the ship as of April 10.

The official line: routine port call. Could be crew rotation, refueling, standard maintenance checks. Nothing to see here (except, you know, the armed nuclear carrier parked outside your hotel window).

The Fine Print

PNTL says any materials it transports are stored in packages "tested to international standards set by the International Atomic Energy Agency." The Pacific Egret's double hull and reinforced structure are designed to protect cargo even in worst-case scenarios.

Fifty-plus years. Millions of miles. No incidents on record.

So by any reasonable measure, this is probably fine. The kind of thing that happens in a major deepwater port and just doesn't usually make the news.

The Bottom Line

Charleston is a working port city. Ships carrying all kinds of cargo pass through constantly. Most of them don't have gun turrets.

The Pacific Egret is still there as of this writing. Still quiet. Still armed.

Enjoy the view.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

Charleston has a new kind of professional.

She's a senior at the College of Charleston. She charges $60 on weekdays, $80 on weekends. Her team is booked through June. And her entire business exists because one restaurant in the Cannonborough-Elliotborough neighborhood doesn't take reservations.

Ella Ward spotted an opportunity in the line outside Chubby Fish — and turned it into a thriving side hustle.

Why People Wait in the First Place

Chubby Fish recently landed on The New York Times' list of the 50 best restaurants in America and earned a James Beard semifinalist nod. Its dock-to-table menu changes daily. And it doesn't take reservations.

Guests arrive and wait. Some show up at 2:30 p.m. — two-and-a-half hours before doors open.

One visitor from Michigan was spotted reading a book in line. When asked why she was willing to wait 45 minutes, she kept it simple: "I love good food."

That, in a sentence, is Chubby Fish.

The Hustle

Ward saw the line and saw a business. She recruits other CofC students to hold spots, charges a premium for the service, and has grown it into something legitimate.

"It's just been so amazing to be able to help people and see how happy people are when they're able to get into the restaurant," Ward told the Post & Courier.

She's not alone. At least one other line-waiting service regularly appears outside Chubby Fish — plus people hired through platforms like TaskRabbit.

The logic makes sense: if you're working, traveling, or simply don't want to build your evening around a sidewalk queue, someone else can do it for you.

The Problem

Here's where it gets complicated.

Chubby Fish chef and co-owner James London built the no-reservation model specifically to keep the restaurant accessible. The idea: show up at 4 p.m., eat dinner that night. No barriers. No gatekeeping.

But now that paid line-holders are arriving earlier and earlier to claim prime spots, regular guests are getting squeezed out — and having to show up earlier themselves just to compete.

"We never wanted that for our guests. It's not the hospitality we wanted to display," he said.

London has spoken with line-waiting businesses about limiting how many spots they can claim at once. But he's thinking ahead: "I don't want to be forced into having to take reservations to eliminate the professional line-waiting services, but what does it look like three years down the road?"

The Bigger Picture

Chubby Fish isn't alone. Palmira Barbecue, 167 Raw, Welton's Tiny Bakeshop — all have built their reputations, in part, through the line. Palmira pitmaster Hector Garate calls it FOMO economics: crowds signal quality. 167 Raw owner Jesse Sandole says the bench out front has introduced future spouses.

There's real community in the wait.

The question is what happens when waiting becomes a commodity. When the line isn't a shared experience — but a market.

Chubby Fish built something remarkable: a restaurant so good that people will pay someone else to wait for them.

Whether that's a compliment or a complication probably depends on where you're standing.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

West Ashley has always been where Charleston lives.
It just hasn’t always been where Charleston goes out.

That’s shifting — quietly, then all at once.

At 10 Windermere Blvd., in the former YoBo Cantina Fresca space, The Lick has opened with a clear point of view: this side of the bridge deserves a night out that feels like something.

Not casual. Not coastal cliché.
Something with a little weight to it.

A Room That Knows What It’s Doing

You feel it first in the room.

Leather banquettes. A long, confident bar. Lighting that leans low but not sleepy. The kind of place where a Tuesday can turn into a second drink without much debate.

Owner Christopher Betros calls it “swanky and opulent.”

For once, that’s not marketing copy. It tracks.

Not a Parachute Project

This part matters.

Betros isn’t a peninsula operator testing West Ashley for overflow. He lives here. Has since 2014.

That shows up in the details — and in the restraint. The Lick isn’t trying to outdo downtown. It’s trying to belong here, just at a higher level than the neighborhood’s been used to.

In a part of town that’s long been overlooked for “special occasion” dining, that lands.

Steakhouse Energy, Raw Bar Brain

The menu doesn’t overcomplicate things — which is exactly the point.

Think:
• Oysters and chilled seafood towers
• Baked crab cakes that lean classic, not reinvented
• USDA Prime steaks and wagyu that carry the center of the plate

There’s a burger, because there should be.
There’s brunch, because West Ashley will show up for it.

And yes — steak and eggs share a menu with wagyu. No one’s confused about it.

The through line: this is food meant to justify staying a while.

The Real Bet

The Lick isn’t just opening a restaurant. It’s testing a theory.

That West Ashley — growing, filling in, getting younger and denser — is ready to support a place that feels intentional. A place you book, not just default to.

For years, the peninsula held that gravity. Still does.

But the gap across the bridge? It’s been real.

The Lick steps directly into it — not loudly, but confidently.

The Bottom Line

This isn’t a novelty. It’s a signal.

West Ashley doesn’t need to borrow a night out anymore.
It might finally be building its own.

Hours:
Mon–Wed: 4–10 p.m.
Thu–Sat: 4–11 p.m.
Sun: 10 a.m.–2 p.m., 4–10 p.m.

More: thelickchs.com

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

There's a small lane just off King Street that most people walk past without noticing. Burns Lane. South of Calhoun, easy to miss.

That's where you'll find The Hidden House — and now, if you show up after 4 p.m. on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday, you'll find something a little different than your morning cortado.

Wine. A real wine list. And a sommelier to walk you through it.

The backstory

Owner Brittany Olson opened The Hidden House on December 18th — coffee and tea only, at first. Getting the liquor license took longer than expected, so she launched what she could and waited. The wine nights followed in February.

"The whole concept was always going to be a coffee and wine bar," she told the Post & Courier. "We decided to open for coffee over the holidays and then wine in late winter, early spring."

Worth the wait.

Who's pouring

Olson isn't just a shop owner who likes wine. She's a trained sommelier — voted Best Sommelier by City Paper readers in 2025 — who spent years in Charleston's food and beverage world before opening this place. She also runs a mobile wine bar called Love and Bunches. The woman knows her bottles.

What to expect

The evening menu features a 17-bottle list of curated boutique wines, all directly imported, all available by the glass. Flight options too. And this isn't the kind of pour-and-walk-away situation you'd find at a wine-at-the-movie-theater counter.

"It's a sommelier-led tasting," she said, "where they tell you about what's in the bottle, the people behind the brand and really teaching you about the wine you're enjoying in a fun way."

That's the pitch. That's the whole thing. And it works.

The bigger idea

The concept behind all of it — morning coffee shop, evening wine bar — was always about creating a third space. A place that earns a reason to visit twice in the same day.

"In the morning, you come here, you're working, and it's comfortable and fun," Olson said. "Then at night you go home, get ready and come out with your friends or significant other."

Simple. Human. The kind of thing Charleston needs more of and rarely gets right.

The details

Evening hours run Thursday–Saturday, 4–9 p.m. Sunday brunch goes 10 a.m.–2 p.m., with wine and mimosas in the mix. Walk in or book through Resy. Light bites throughout.

Every second Sunday also features two local vendors.

21 Burns Lane. Go find it.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

Meeting and Woolfe streets don't usually generate this kind of buzz. But Live Oak, the newly renovated hotel at that corner, just gave Charleston three things worth paying attention to.

First: Terra.

Chef Eucepe Puntriano — the Miami native who opened Marbled & Fin and made that downtown steakhouse worth the reservation — debuted his Mediterranean and Middle Eastern concept on March 19. The 88-seat room is dimly lit, thoughtfully designed, and built around what Puntriano calls "fresh, bright, balanced and light flavors," he told the Post & Courier — from a dry-aged sheepshead crudo to a chicken tagine he's already calling a showstopper.

"We want to tell a story," Puntriano said.

He's not wrong to frame it that way. A chef of his caliber choosing a hotel restaurant as his next chapter says something. Either the hotel got very serious about food, or Puntriano sees something the rest of us don't yet. Maybe both.

The full picture

Live Oak is Marriott's first "Tribute Portfolio" property in South Carolina — the brand's way of saying: upscale, design-forward, not cookie-cutter. The hotel spent the better part of the last decade as a Holiday Inn, then a few years as The Limited. In early 2025, it closed for a $25 million-plus renovation and came out the other side as something noticeably different.

General manager Kris Betz described it as "a place that feels like the city you know, but with fresh experiences." That's a lot to promise. But between the new food program and the finishes, they're backing it up.

Upstairs, it gets more interesting

Head up to the rooftop and you'll find Bloo Pool & Provisions — Puntriano's second act inside the hotel, this one built around Nikkei cuisine.

If you're not familiar: Nikkei is the fusion of Japanese and Peruvian cooking, born from Japanese immigration to Peru in the late 1800s. It's a legitimate culinary tradition, and it doesn't have a home in Charleston yet. Hand rolls, anticuchos, a swordfish rice bowl, and a tostada with yuzu-soy tuna are on the menu. Eighty seats total — most of them open to non-hotel guests.

Worth a look.

And there's coffee

Steps from Terra is Tracer Coffee, owned by Gina Cordoba. She ran a pop-up at the Harbor Entrepreneur Center in Mount Pleasant for months before landing this first brick-and-mortar. The focus is farm-to-cup, single-origin Colombian coffees alongside a full espresso bar.

"We specialize in very high quality coffees," Cordoba said. "We're so excited to get started at Live Oak."

Simple. Honest. Let the coffee speak.

Terra, Bloo Pool & Provisions, and Tracer Coffee are all open daily. More at liveoakhotelcharleston.com.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

Charleston's always juggling priorities. Right now, it's juggling a big one.

The city recently unveiled plans to convert the massive surface parking lot at Hagood Avenue and Fishburne Street — the one RiverDogs fans and MUSC workers depend on — into affordable housing. It's part of Project 3500, the city's initiative to add 3,500 new affordable units to the peninsula by 2032.

That's a worthy goal. And also a logistical headache.

What's at stake

The lot holds 1,200 spaces. On game nights, it's a lifeline for fans walking to The Joe. On weekdays, it's where MUSC employees park before catching a shuttle to the Medical District. The Citadel uses it too — as part of an old land deal, the military college was promised 900 spaces for events at Johnson Hagood Stadium.

Nobody's surprised the city needs to act on housing. But losing these spaces isn't a small ask.

What the city is saying

Spokesperson Deja Knight McMillan noted that any changes are "well into next year" — plenty of runway, she says, to find a solution. The hope is that some of the 500 planned affordable and workforce units will house the very MUSC workers currently commuting in. Fewer cars. Less congestion.

There's also talk of leaning on underutilized downtown garages, expanding CARTA and Lowcountry Rapid Transit, and possibly building a new parking deck nearby. The city is eyeing three sites close to The Joe and Johnson Hagood Stadium.

The RiverDogs were measured in their response. "The RiverDogs fully support the city's efforts to expand affordable housing," owner Jeff Goldklang told the Post & Courier. "At the same time, the proposed loss of our primary parking area presents a significant challenge for both our fans and the surrounding neighborhood."

What the neighbors are saying

West Side neighborhood president Sarah Spangler isn't reassured. The surrounding streets are already strained on game days — and that's with the Hagood lot.

"It's going to be a huge issue," she said. "We're real worried."

Worth noting: the city spends nearly twice what it collects from the RiverDogs just to maintain The Joe — a ballpark built on a former landfill that's slowly doing what landfills do. The economics of that relationship are going to be hard to ignore.

For now, the city's message is: we're working on it. The question is whether the solution arrives before the spaces disappear.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

Dave and Chrissy Lorenz know how to read a room. And right now, The Refinery is the room everyone's reading.

The couple behind Mex 1 Coastal Cantina and Islander 71 just announced Lou Lou's Tavern on the Tracks — a new bar and restaurant set to open inside The Refinery's 1640 Meeting Street Road development this spring. Think: small plates, curated cocktails, kegged wine, and a menu designed around the concert calendar.

This isn't a restaurant that happens to be near a music venue. It's a restaurant built for one.

The concept

Lou Lou's slots into the space previously occupied by Cleats, putting it right alongside craft beer bar The Whale and The Refinery's open-air music stage. Concertgoers with tickets will be able to book dinner tables for a stretch of the evening — roam the venue, catch the opener, come back for a round.

"They just do a really great job putting events on," Dave Lorenz told the Post & Courier. "We're going to play into the concerts a lot."

The menu leans small plates with range: vegetables, seafood, land options, burgers. The full dinner menu drops closer to opening. On weekends, Lou Lou's pivots to a family-friendly brunch and lunch setup before the evening crowd rolls in.

The name, by the way, comes from two places: Chrissy's sister and the couple's hound dog. Both named Lou Lou. Somehow that tracks.

Why it fits

The Lorenz family knows the Charleston market. Mex 1 has anchored West Ashley and Sullivan's Island for years. Islander 71 is a legitimate Isle of Palms institution. These aren't operators who cut corners or chase trends.

Lou Lou's feels like a natural third act — a pivot toward the city's growing live music scene and the kind of neighborhood development that Charleston has been slowly (sometimes painfully) learning how to build right.

Flyway founder Lindsay Nevin, who created The Refinery, put it plainly: "Lou Lou's is a natural extension of that vision and adds an exciting new layer to the experience we're building here."

Hard to argue with that.

What's next

Opening is expected in the next four to six weeks. Follow along at @louloustavern on Instagram or at louloustavern.com for updates as they roll in.

The Refinery was already one of the more interesting things happening on that stretch of Meeting Street. Lou Lou's makes it more interesting.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

Mimi Striplin of The Tiny Tassel recently celebrated 10 years in business
Photo by @theaneriscollective

Mimi Striplin started The Tiny Tassel at 22 with a pair of handmade earrings, an Etsy shop, and an Instagram account. Ten years later, her colorful Charleston boutique has grown into a full design brand with a loyal following both here and far beyond the peninsula. But the story isn’t really about tassels — it’s about Charleston, small business, and building something one piece at a time.

READ THE STORY

Just reply to this email, or if you’re reading on our website, email me here. The first person to guess correctly will get a shout-out at the top of our issue next week!

Friday

Big Shows

• The Real Good News & Paul's Sound bring an all-star Bob Dylan tribute to Charleston Music Hall — the kind of show that draws the serious music fans out early.

• Big Something headlines the Pour House with Wax Monkey opening — a high-energy night for anyone who likes their Friday loud and a little sprawling.

Something Different

• Straight, No Chaser: An Evening of Thelonious Monk at Forte Jazz Lounge — two sets, real jazz, no compromises.

• Mina Roth plays The Royal American with two strong supporting acts — an indie triple-bill worth paying attention to.

Late Night

• Old Soul closes out the night at The Windjammer — exactly the kind of late Friday that earns its name.

→ Friday night live music, all in one place

Saturday

Big Shows

• Nappy Roots headline the Outside Streetball Festival at The Refinery — a midday outdoor show with real energy behind it.

• Swan Lake with a Live Orchestra lands at the North Charleston Coliseum — world-class ballet with a full live score, not something that comes around often.

• A Tribute to JJ Cale at the Pour House — the songwriter's songwriter, done right on a Saturday night.

Something Different

• Swingin' Together: A Tribute to Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee at Forte Jazz Lounge — two shows, one very specific mood, well executed.

• It's A 2000's Party at Music Farm — no explanation needed, just commit.

→ Saturday live music, sorted by vibe

Sunday

Brunch & Daytime

• New Ghost Town plays Prohibition Sunday brunch — acclaimed bluegrass, free with dining, easy call.

• Motown Throwdown takes the Pour House deck — soul music, sunshine, and no pressure.

Evening

• CupcakKe closes the weekend at Music Farm — a sharp, unapologetic performer who always delivers something to talk about.

→ Easy Sunday live music picks

There was a time when Mimi Striplin lived in the Cannonborough neighborhood as a College of Charleston student and walked past small storefronts on her way to class, thinking how nice it would be to have a shop in a neighborhood like that one day.

She didn’t tell anyone. Not even her sister.

At the time, she wasn’t planning to open a store. She wasn’t even planning to be an entrepreneur.

Growing up in Spartanburg, both of her parents were entrepreneurs, and from the outside, it looked exhausting — long hours, financial stress, unpredictability. So she did the opposite of what you might expect. She went to College of Charleston, majored in corporate communications, and planned to get a stable job with a steady paycheck and health insurance.

Then she graduated and took a job managing a menswear store in Charleston.

She was making $30,000 a year and helping run a business that was doing millions in sales. About six months in, she had a realization that would change everything.

“If I can sell menswear,” she thought, “I can sell anything.”

She was 22 years old.

The $700 Earrings

The Tiny Tassel didn’t start with a business plan.
It started with a pair of earrings.

Mimi had seen a pair of Oscar de la Renta tassel earrings — beautiful, beaded, and over $700. She loved them but never bought them. Later, her sister gave her a pair of tassel earrings as a gift and said something simple that stuck:

“You know you could make those, right?”

Mimi had never made jewelry before. But she went online, watched videos, asked her mom for help — her mom had a background in fashion design — and taught herself how to make tassels.

She started making earrings and opened an Etsy shop in September 2015. She also started an Instagram account.

That was the entire business.

She came up with the name while sitting on a pink couch in her apartment, trying to think of something cheerful and memorable. She liked alliteration.

The Tiny Tassel.

Etsy, Instagram, and a One-Bedroom Warehouse

For the first few years, the business was just her — making jewelry, shipping orders, running Instagram, and handling everything herself.

Eventually she expanded into clothing, working with her mom, who began designing prints and patterns for the brand. She later opened her first brick-and-mortar store as part of Cannonborough Collective, a shared retail space that featured local makers and artists and helped showcase Charleston’s small business community.

Then 2020 happened.

The retail partnership ended. The pandemic hit. Brick-and-mortar retail shut down everywhere. And instead of slowing down, The Tiny Tassel exploded online — growing nearly 1,000 percent in one year.

At one point, the entire operation was running out of one bedroom in her apartment — inventory, packing orders, building a team, setting up systems — everything happening at once.

It was chaotic.
But it worked.

A Full Circle Neighborhood

Opening her first store in the Cannonborough neighborhood felt like a full circle moment after living there in college and dreaming about one day having a shop in a place like that.

A few years later, she moved into her current storefront at Spring and St. Philip, where The Tiny Tassel operates today and continues to grow.

This year marks ten years of The Tiny Tassel — what she calls a “decade of joy.”

The business now includes clothing, jewelry, accessories, a design team, and even a month-long pop-up every August in Martha’s Vineyard, where customers line up specifically to support Black-owned businesses.

But if you ask her what matters most, it’s still something simple.

Shop small.

Not just her store — any small business. The coffee shop. The stationery store. The tire shop. The places owned by people who live here and build their lives here.

“It might take five minutes longer,” she says.
“But it makes a generational impact.”

Ten years ago, The Tiny Tassel was an Etsy account and a pair of handmade earrings.

Today it’s a Charleston storefront, a growing team, and a business built one tassel at a time.

Photo by Jeswin Thomas on Unsplash

There's a taco spot in North Charleston that also does a five-course tasting menu. And somehow, that's not even the most interesting part.

Maya Del Sol Kitchen opened quietly at 3225 Rivers Ave. — tucked behind The Starlight Motor Inn, which, yes, is exactly as intriguing as it sounds. Chef Raul Sanchez has been cooking in Charleston for 15-plus years, most recently running a previous version of Maya Del Sol near the old Naval Base. He's relocated. He's upgraded. And he's not slowing down.

The new space feels like a refined echo of the original — a handful of tables, a long chef's counter overlooking an open kitchen, and an energy that says this guy knows what he's doing.

Lunch is approachable. Dinner is something else.

By day, Sanchez runs a tight lunch menu: carne asada tacos, barbacoa burritos, quesadillas, daily specials. The Post & Courier flagged the Mexican fried chicken — "wonderfully juicy," served with mashed potatoes and street corn — as a standout. The kind of thing you order once and immediately start planning your next visit around.

But the evening? That's where it gets serious.

The five-course tasting menu is the heart of what Sanchez is building here. It pulls from his time at R. Kitchen. It pulls from old family recipes. It pulls from places you wouldn't expect — India, China — woven into specialty nights that rotate through the calendar.

This isn't fusion for fusion's sake. It's one chef's creative range, finally given a room big enough to show it.

Why this matters

North Charleston's dining scene doesn't get nearly enough love. Too often it gets overlooked in favor of the peninsula or the Beaches — and that's a shame, because the value, the creativity, and the elbow room up there are real.

Maya Del Sol Kitchen is exactly the kind of place that changes someone's mental map of where to eat in this city. Not a trend. Not a chain. A chef-driven room that's been quietly earning its reputation for years — and just found a better address.

If you haven't been paying attention to Rivers Ave., now's a good time to start.

The details

Maya Del Sol Kitchen is open Wednesday through Sunday. Lunch runs Wednesday through Saturday. Dinner is Thursday through Saturday. Brunch on Sundays.

More info at raulsmayadelsol.com.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

There's a new restaurant in Charleston that wants to be talked about.

Not in a "have you tried the new place?" way. In a "you need to go to this" way.

It's called The Crossing. It lives on the second floor of The Cooper, the new 191-room hotel perched right on the Charleston Harbor at 176 Concord St. And if chef Nick Dugan has his way, it'll be the kind of spot that draws people in whether they're staying at the hotel or not.

"We really want to be part of the community," Dugan told the Post & Courier.

The concept

Mediterranean — but not in the vague, safe, roasted-red-pepper way. This is a full commitment.

Walk in and you're greeted by a raw bar and a display of the evening's whole fish on ice. Four fish, rotating nightly, fileted tableside on custom gueridon carts. That's the headline act.

The menu leans hard into mezze — a wood-burning oven turns out made-to-order pita, paired with hummus, baba ghanoush, tzatziki and the usual suspects done right. Dolmas, spanikopita, grilled octopus dressed with olive oil, Greek oregano and lemon. The land side of the menu offers dry-aged beef tenderloin with Aleppo butter and Colorado lamb chops with chermoula.

The fish, though. That's the reason to go.

Dugan is sourcing local catch through CudaCo. on James Island and importing dorade, prepared over open flame or broiled in grape leaves. He was inspired by Mediterranean concepts he'd studied across the country — from José Andrés's Zaytinya to Michael Rafidi's Albi — and built something that, at least on paper, doesn't look quite like anything else in Charleston.

The room

Designed by Meyer Davis Studios, the dining room pairs harbor views with teak wood floors, polished nickel accents and lacquered blue ceilings. There's a bar and lounge where oysters get shucked and seafood towers get built. A Captain's Lounge seats about 30. Two outdoor terraces round it out.

Nearly 200 seats across four distinct areas. It's a big swing.

Even breakfast

The Mediterranean theme doesn't clock out in the morning. Dugan's breakfast menu includes Japanese-style baklava pancakes, shakshouka, and a halva smoothie with tahini, dates and espresso. Beverage director Cameron Nadler, formerly of the Polo Bar in NYC, is handling the wine program — focused on Mediterranean producers and seafood-driven pairings.

The Crossing opens alongside The Cooper on March 30. Breakfast runs 7–10:30 a.m., lunch 11 a.m.–2:30 p.m., dinner 5–10 p.m. Weekend brunch runs 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Reservations via SevenRooms at thecooper.com.

Dugan also runs Sorelle. He knows how to open restaurants in this town.

This one feels different.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

The James Beard Foundation dropped its 2026 Restaurant and Chef Award finalists on March 31. And South Carolina showed up.

Three of the state's 11 semifinalists advanced. Two of them are right here in Charleston. The third is in Greenville, and if you haven't heard of Scoundrel yet, you're about to.

The Charleston pair

Merci earned a spot in the Best New Restaurant category — one of just 10 restaurants in the entire country to make that list. If you've been to the tiny Harleston Village spot, you already know why. Housed in a Federal-style building that's been standing for 200 years, Michael and Courtney Zenter have built something that feels genuinely European without trying too hard about it. Fresh pastas. Elegant crudos. A beef Wellington that people are apparently rearranging their Wednesdays for.

"We are honored to be recognized and grateful to our team and Charleston community for embracing our vision," the Zenters told the Post & Courier. "It's been an incredible first year bringing Merci to life."

It opened last March. It's already a James Beard finalist. That's not a slow burn — that's a rocket.

Then there's Weltons Tiny Bakeshop, which snagged a spot in the Outstanding Bakery category. Five spots. Nationwide. Weltons got one of them.

Anyone who's stood in that line snaking down Upper King — holding out for a tomato pie danish or a dark chocolate croissant — already knew this was special. Hannah and Zachary Welton built a scratch bakery rooted in local ingredients and what sounds like a very well-documented travel diary. The olive oil cake alone could make the argument.

And then there's Greenville

Joe Cash, chef and owner of Scoundrel on Main Street in downtown Greenville, is a Best Chef: Southeast finalist. He's up against four others across the Carolinas, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

His credentials are not subtle. He cooked at Per Se in New York. He ran the kitchen at The Pool under Major Food Group. Then he came home to Greenville in 2021, opened a French bistro, and last November earned a Michelin star — one of only three in the state and 19 in the entire South.

Scoundrel is upscale without the attitude. That's apparently Cash's whole point. The Greenville kid who went to New York and came back to prove something.

What happens next

Judges will visit the finalists, taste food, and vote. Winners are announced June 15 at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.

South Carolina's last Beard win came in 2024, when Columbia's Lula Drake Wine Parlour made history as that city's first-ever James Beard winner.

Three finalists. Two cities. One state that's quietly becoming one of the best food destinations in the country.

It's worth paying attention to.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

Upper Meeting Street has a new reason to pay attention.

The Live Oak hotel opened April 1 at 425 Meeting St. — a complete gut renovation of the property that spent years as a Holiday Inn and, more recently, the Limited. That chapter closed in early January 2025. What's reopened in its place is something significantly more considered.

The $25 million-plus overhaul produced a 120-room boutique property that carries Marriott's Tribute Portfolio flag — the brand's first in South Carolina. Think: design-forward, personality-driven, with more freedom than your average Marriott flag allows.

General Manager Kris Betz — who comes from Wentworth Mansion and The Restoration Hotel — told the Post & Courier that the vision was to build something that could "compete on that level." The pricing reflects that ambition. April rates start around $460/night on weekdays and push past $700 on weekends. For context, Charleston's luxury hotel average sits at $450 year-round, according to data from the College of Charleston's Office of Tourism Analysis. Live Oak is playing in that league from day one.

Three New Restaurants. All Open to the Public.

The real story here isn't the rooms — it's the food and beverage program.

Live Oak debuts with three distinct concepts, and none of them require a room key:

Terra is the hotel's signature restaurant — 88 seats, dimly lit, and led by executive chef Eucepe Puntriano, formerly of Marbled & Fin. The menu pulls from Mediterranean influences stretching from Greece to Morocco. This is the anchor.

Bloo Pool & Provisions sits on the rooftop and goes a different direction entirely — Japanese and Peruvian fusion, poolside, with indoor and outdoor seating. It's a vibe.

Tracer Coffee handles the lobby. It's a family-owned operation that ships Colombian beans to be roasted here in Charleston. Tracer ran a months-long pop-up at the Harbor Entrepreneur Center in Mount Pleasant before landing this first permanent retail footprint. That's the kind of origin story that matters.

Betz said he wants all three to be considered community gathering spaces — destinations that don't exist just for guests. That's the right instinct. Downtown needs more spots that feel local first and hotel second.

The Bigger Picture

Live Oak's opening is one more signal that hospitality is pushing further up the peninsula.

The Moxy set the northern marker in 2024. A Thompson by Hyatt is planned at the Morrison Drive/Meeting Street convergence — though it hasn't broken ground. And the Montford Hotel at 245 Huger St. just cleared its final Board of Architectural Review hurdle in March.

Upper Charleston is changing fast. Live Oak is the latest evidence.

Whether it becomes a neighborhood staple or stays a hotel bubble will depend on whether those restaurants actually deliver. The concept is right. Now comes the hard part.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

When it all clicks.

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The Cooper River Bridge Run expects 35,000+ runners this weekend

The Cooper River Bridge Run is almost here.
And I’ll be honest — I get a little giddy about this one.

This will be my eighth time starting in Mount Pleasant.
Eight times up that bridge.
Eight times telling myself this is the year I conquer it without suffering.

Eight times being wrong.

Here’s the thing about the Ravenel Bridge: from the ground, it looks elegant. Manageable, even. Then you hit the climb. Somewhere around halfway up, the incline — 4.1 percent — starts talking to your legs. Loudly.

One running blog described the bridge as “soul-sucking.”
That feels accurate.

And yet, every year, I can’t wait to do it again.

The numbers are big this year

The 2026 race is capped at 38,500 runners, one of the largest fields in years.
Last year topped 30,000.
The all-time record was 45,000 back in 2006.

The race keeps growing. And if you’ve ever stood at the start line, you know why.

The course is simple:
Start in Mount Pleasant.
Run 6.2 miles.
Climb a massive bridge.
Finish downtown on Meeting Street.

It’s a commute we all make regularly.
On race day, it feels like an event.

And yes — it’s a big deal nationally

The Cooper River Bridge Run is the third largest 10K in the United States, behind Atlanta’s Peachtree Road Race and Boulder's Bolder Boulder.

Not bad for a race that started in 1978 with fewer than 1,500 runners.

We’re not just a local race anymore.
We’re one of the great American road races.

But the numbers aren’t why people love it

It’s the energy.

Thirty-eight thousand people.
Some competitive.
Some just hoping to finish.
Some walking.
Some running in costumes.
Some running their first race.
Some running their fiftieth.

And everyone climbs the same bridge together.

There’s something about shared suffering that turns strangers into teammates pretty quickly.

I’ve run it when I cared about my time.
I’ve run it when I was just happy to finish.
Both were worth it.

For ALL your Bridge Run after-parties, click here.

Just reply to this email, or if you’re reading on our website, email me here. The first person to guess correctly will get a shout-out at the top of our issue next week!

Friday

Big Shows

• Holy City Magic's Totally Mental at Charleston Music Hall — not a band, not a concert, and somehow still the right call for a Friday night out.

• League of Sound Disciples (featuring Jason Hann of String Cheese Incident & EOTO) at The Pour House — serious live electronic chops from someone who's earned the stage.

Something Different

• Still Crossing – An Evening with Jorge Garcia at Forte Jazz Lounge — two shows if one isn't enough, which it probably won't be.

• The Broken Hearts – Tom Petty Tribute at The Windjammer — the songs hold up. They always hold up.

Late Night

• Jerry Feels Good at Prohibition — the name is a promise, and late Friday is the right time to test it.

→ Friday night live music, all in one place

Saturday

Big Shows

• George Porter Jr. & Runnin' Pardners at The Pour House — a founding member of the Meters, still running it, still worth every bit of your Saturday night.

• R&B Only Live at Charleston Music Hall — does exactly what it says, which is more than enough.

• Still Not Okay Tour (MCR & Paramore Tribute) at Music Farm — for a very specific kind of nostalgia, executed at full volume.

Something Different

• Soul, R&B and Motown of the 60's, 70's & 80's with Charles Grant at Forte Jazz Lounge — two shows, deep catalog, no filler.

• Stop Light Observations at The Windjammer — a Charleston favorite doing what they do best on a Saturday evening.

→ Saturday live music, sorted by vibe

Sunday

Brunch & Daytime

• New Ghost Town at Prohibition — acclaimed bluegrass with Sunday brunch, free with dining, easy call.

• Motown Throwdown at The Pour House — soul music and Sunday afternoon, in that order.

Evening

• MxPx w/ The Ataris at Charleston Music Hall — two pop-punk institutions, one Sunday night, exactly the kind of thing you didn't know you needed until now.

• Sebastian Bach at Music Farm — the Skid Row frontman, still loud, with support acts to warm the room.

→ Easy Sunday live music picks

Photo by Doyo Hermann on Unsplash

A brand that's dressed Doja Cat in 30,000 hand-applied crystals and outfitted Harry Styles at the Met Gala is about to set up shop on King Street.

Swarovski — the Austrian crystal and jewelry house founded in 1895 — has signed a lease for the ground-floor space at 331 King St., formerly home to King Street Vision. It'll be the brand's first standalone store in South Carolina.

That's not a small thing.

Right now, the only way to buy Swarovski in person in this state is through four shop-in-shop setups inside Dillard's locations in Columbia and Myrtle Beach. This is a completely different move — a full, standalone flagship on one of the most competitive retail streets in the Southeast.

"There's not a lot of high-street options in the Carolinas and they wanted to plant a flag here," broker Tyler Freeman told the Post & Courier. He represented the tenant alongside RIPCO Vice Chair Beth Rosen and TSCG's Jeff Yurfest.

The flag is landing on the 300 block — which is worth paying attention to.

For years, the gravitational center of King Street retail has been the 200s, anchored by Charleston Place and the dense cluster of brands near Market Street. The 300 block has historically skewed younger, more casual, more collegiate. That's changing.

Freeman put it plainly: "Traditionally, everyone's wanted to be in the two hundreds, closer to Charleston Place. This just shows the lack of supply down there and how everything's turning over up on that end of the street."

Swarovski's arrival is a data point in that shift — and a significant one.

The three-story building at 331 King was purchased for $735,000 in 2024. The new owners are redeveloping the upper floors for their own office use, which means there's no firm opening timeline yet. So don't clear your Saturday just yet.

But when it does open, it'll join a brand that's been quietly shaping fashion history for over a century. Daniel Swarovski invented the world's first electric-powered crystal cutting machine in 1895 and built an empire on precision-cut glass that has since found its way onto Dior runways, Versace gowns, and — most memorably — Doja Cat's entire body at a 2023 Schiaparelli Haute Couture show. (Makeup artist Pat McGrath spent five hours hand-applying each of the 30,000 crimson crystals. That's commitment.)

The company has also designed the star atop the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree every year since 2004. So yes — they know what they're doing.

Charleston as an entry point for South Carolina expansion. The 300 block as the new frontier on King. A global luxury brand betting on our little city.

It's a good look. For everyone.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.

The Lowcountry's biggest annual tennis event kicks off March 28, and organizers are expecting a record-breaking 95,000 attendees over nine days at Credit One Stadium on Daniel Island.

For context: last year was 89,000 — itself a 25 percent jump from the year before. The momentum here is real.

The Credit One Charleston Open is already the largest women's tennis tournament in North America. This year, it feels like it's hitting a new gear.

The food situation is significantly upgraded.

The biggest addition is The Kitchen — a new 100-seat restaurant and bar deck featuring Lowcountry flavors, with a view overlooking the pickleball courts. (The name is a nod to pickleball's "kitchen" zone. Cute.) It's a proper sit-down spot in the middle of a tennis tournament, which is exactly the kind of thing that turns a sporting event into a day-long destination.

Opening weekend (March 28) brings a dedicated oyster roast hosted by OVG Hospitality at The Kitchen, with guest chef Jason Stanhope of Sullivan's Fish Camp shucking on site. All-you-can-eat oysters plus qualifying match access. That's a solid Saturday.

The Cooper Hotel is also on-site with Hotel Coco — an upgraded ticketed experience with drink specials, merch, and concierge dining in a private garden area. Event president Bob Moran told the Post & Courier the goal is to "give people a feel for what our hospitality culture is all about." Translation: fancy, but fun.

COCO Row and the food truck village round out the options.

Returning Charleston favorites like Sullivan's Fish Camp, Mpishi, Bodega, Verde, and Bon Banh Mi will be back on COCO Row. The Food Truck Village brings Wholly Cow Ice Cream, Page's Okra Grill, King of Pops, and Bangin' Vegan Eats, among others. Inside the stadium: Home Team BBQ and the Ultra Lounge.

The signature cocktail is "The First Serve" — butterfly pea flower-infused lemonade with Grey Goose Vodka. It turns purple. Very Instagram.

The on-court product is strong too.

Defending champion Jessica Pegula headlines a field that includes Amanda Anisimova, Madison Keys, Belinda Bencic (2025 WTA Comeback Player of the Year), and Charleston's own Emma Navarro. That last one is worth showing up for on its own.

About 85 percent of tickets were pre-sold, and premium seating sold out in late 2025. If you're waiting on walk-up tickets for a good seat, you've waited too long. General admission is still available — and juniors 16 and under get in free with an adult ticket, courtesy of Credit One Bank.

One more thing worth knowing: the tournament broadcasts to 7 million domestic viewers and 25 million overseas. Charleston gets a full week of global exposure. That's not nothing.

Matches run March 28 through April 5. Tickets are on sale now.

This is a summary of an article published in the Post & Courier. Click here if you'd like to read that article.