Charleston

I was one of their most loyal regulars for the first three years. My office was around the corner and I went every single day, sometimes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I still get two bacon tacos, pressed, with hot sauce, and if I’m grabbing a drink after work, I love an As You Wish with tequila.

One of our favorite spots to grab lunch on a busy day. It’s been on Broad Street since 1946 and still feels like a neighborhood grocery. Get a sandwich made at the counter or pick up their iconic chicken salad.

Tucked away on a little side street, with a handwritten menu that changes every day. I like it best for a long lunch. If the Fontainebleau is one of the two desserts, get it. It’s this incredibly light whipped fromage blanc with fresh berries, almost like eating whipped cream.

I still love FIG. The menu changes constantly, but the tomato tarte tatin in the summer is iconic. The ricotta gnocchi, on the other hand, is a fixture, and for good reason. It’s probably the dish FIG is most famous for and one of my all-time favorites.

Consistently delicious and always a vibe. I love the spicy Caesar and the thin-crust pizzas.

An absolute Charleston staple and a true watering hole. The staff is fantastic, it’s completely unfussy, and nobody is there because they need dinner to be an event. I like the Meeting Street location for lunch, preferably after a drive through Magnolia Cemetery.

I’m obsessed with the square pizza with the sesame-seed crust. The wine program is simple, which is exactly how I like a wine program. Keep it simple.

Hannah and Zachary Welton met in the kitchen at Husk and spent a year and a half cooking over wood fire in Tulum before coming back to Charleston and opening this gem. Naturally leavened, regionally sourced, and often sold out by noon. Go early. The kouign-amann alone is worth the line.

Sit at the bar if you can. I love the bitter greens, the charred sourdough, and at least one pasta. It’s highly consistent, which is harder to find than it sounds.

Tried and true. Wine, cheese, charcuterie, and not much reason to complicate it beyond that.

One of the first places I think of when someone asks where to get an incredible cocktail in Charleston. It’s small, dark, and actually about the drinks. Tell them what you like and let them take it from there.

Go for a cocktail and stay outside. It’s one of those places that makes Charleston feel particularly good at the end of the day.

Buxton is a very well-edited little bookstore downtown. They bring an absurdly good roster of writers through Charleston, so I always look at what they have coming up.

I started going to Charleston GardenWorks years ago when I was sourcing for projects, and it’s still one of the places I check when a garden needs something with real presence. They have antique urns, statuary, ironwork, fountains, and architectural pieces with scale and patina that are almost impossible to reproduce.

Croghan’s is literally a jewel box. It’s Charleston’s oldest family-owned jewelry store, and the estate and antique collection is always worth looking through.

Ladybird is one of the newer additions to King Street, but the whole place feels unusually considered, down to the old terrazzo floors, the paper goods, records, and what’s on the shelves.

One of my favorite places to look for antiques. Go without anything too specific in mind. The good part is finding the thing you weren’t looking for.

Wentworth is obviously home base. We opened the shop in 2024 as a place for all the things I’m constantly sourcing and collecting—tabletop, antiques, objects for the home, and things for entertaining. I love that it sits on a quieter stretch of downtown, where you can come in, wander around, and then walk to half the places on this list.

Worthwhile has been doing its own thing in Charleston since 1993. The clothes are directional, the designers are hard to find elsewhere in town, and the move off King Street into an old house only made it better.