More Charleston!

A little delayed (ok two weeks delayed) but here's the rest of my summary/pictures/eat-your-heart-out-food from Charleston. :)

Muse was amazing Tuesday night!! We decided to sit at the bar upon recommendation from several friends. When we got there the restaurant was pretty empty. We were obviously in the early crowd (or lack there of). The bar was totally snug in the front room (the restaurant is a converted row house) with a completely adorable and rather wickedly humored bartender. How entertaining! I won't divulge the nature of his humor, but we were thoroughly entertained the entire evening. Regulars wondered in throughout the evening, clearly on first name basis with Matt (the bartender). Really fun vibe, really fantastic food, great wine list, great entertainment! Cristina and I decided to be twins and order the same thing. We both had a pear, spinach, and prosciutto salad as a starter (YUMMO!). Then we had Gnocchi with Ragù alla Bolognese. Um, yum! Gnocchi is usually soooooooo rich that you can hardly eat much of it without getting tired of it (ok, well maybe that's just me!), but we both easily finished our bowl of yumminess. After nursing a glass of wine (ok two), we were both filled, happy and entertained.

Wednesday was a busy day at work and we were invited to attend a going away party for a co-worker who was ending her assignment in Charleston to move back home. We went to Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers on King Street. It's as mellow as it sounds but minus the shrooms (at least that I saw!). It's actually a really yummy local pizzeria with a great selection of local (and national) brews. Great place for a good pizza and a good beer.

Thursday was another busy busy day at work but we decided to end our final evening in Charleston with dinner at the must talked-about Husk on Queen Street. It's a total foodie's dream. Very farm to table with entirely local and regional ingredients. We had heard mixed reviews (either people LOVING IT or people being so-so). The menu changes daily based on ingredients available so I can understand folks perhaps not liking whatever was on the menu the day they went. But for us, WE LOVED IT! We went to the bar before dinner (which is actually in the building next door). Wickedly good cocktails (be adventurous and have the bartender choose!). We then wobbled -- um I mean walked next door for our dinner. What a fun dinner! We both ate grouper fish with peas and local beans. The dessert was the highlight with fried bacon beignets with carmel dipping sauce. OMG! We also had some kind of peanut butter carmel chocolate mousse dessert that just about made us want to fall over as well. Really, no complaints here!!

We had a rather early dinner so when we left it was the lovely twilight/dusk timeframe. Perfect lighting for a lovely walk back to our hotel. We got some great shots of the town (minus the usual daytime tourist traffic). Love this town!

Friday we had a short work day followed by BEACH TIME before our late evening flight home. What a delight to be able to chill (our burn as it turned out) at the beach for a few hours! We had no beach gear so we managed to just have a picnic with whatever random stuff we had along. We both got super sunburnt but it was totally worth it to be WARM for the first time in months. :)