24 Hours in Chucktown

Jul 1, 2025 | Charleston

So, after a slight delay in Seattle, our Alaska Airlines flight sailed smoothly towards “the Lowcountry”, made all the better by free cocktails on the plane (Jack & Coke Zeros me, red wine she) and three episodes of the new MAX thriller series Duster with Josh Holloway. He’s a kick, the story engages, and the early-70’s hit soundtrack rocks. So to speak.

We landed to 87ºF temps and roughly 3,000% humidity, caught an Uber driven by a local musician and dad of two named Wolf, whose insights helped us lay a solid foundation for this week’s exploits. Cloudy skies portend sporadic rain showers with an occasional flash of lightning, but 45 years in Seattle has certainly prepared us for wet.

Our AirBnB lodging in the 2-room Jonathan Jasper Wright Inn is awesome! A simple, but well-appointed single bedroom/bath with A/C, a comfy queen bed, WiFi, fridge, and a microwave we’ll probably never use. And did I mention A/C? Host Seantell clearly knows what she’s doing. We settled in late afternoon yesterday, then wandered our Cannonborough Elliotborough neighborhood for a few hours, realizing in no time that within a few dozen square blocks there are enough promising coffee shops, restaurants, bars, and retail shops to dissuade us from ever leaving downtown Charleston.

Toward the of our wanderings we happened upon Bistronomy. We might not have stopped except the menu in the window revealed the Monday Special 1/2 Price Waygu Burgers with Frites. 'Nuff said. That bovine magic, plus a spring greens salad with tomatoes, radish, toasted coconut, crispy shallots, and a yuzu vinaigrette satiated us both, and we called it a night.

Tuesday Morning

We slept off our timezone jetlag this morning, garbed up for what proved to be a 5-hour, 13,417-step urban trek, heading south to the MUSD campus (Medical University of South Carolina) and a highly-touted breakfast/ lunch eatery called Caviar & Bananas. The sandwich-oriented menu seemed simple enough, but choosing from the offerings proved a bit challenging. We settled on a superb Build-Your-Own egg-bacon-cheddar on grainy wheat bread sammy and a tad too bitter iced Americanos, gentled with cream. The endless flow of scrub-swathed medical students made for fun people-watching, and one aspiring medico helped us out with our pathway for the rest of the afternoon.

After dodging a rain shower we walked south on Rutledge past Colonial Lake Park, then southeast to the Battery, the seawall area at the south tip of the Peninsula, where the confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers form Charleston Harbor. We chatted for a bit with a local fisherman, who gave us a rundown on the area’s angling, and his hopes for red drum, speckled trout, or flounder. Nice guy, though the fish had so far skunked him.

Immediately across the street was White Point Garden and the 20-foot tall granite Hobson monument commemorating the tragic 1952 sinking of the destroyer USS Hobson, cut in half and sunk after a collision with its sister aircraft carrier USS Wasp in a training exercise. The stones used in the platform come from the 38 home states of the 176 sailors who died.

We meandered the South of Broad area streets, admiring the mix of architectural styles: Charleston Single House, Georgian, Federal, and Victorian. A woman watering her flower boxes explained to us the quintessential single house, typically narrow on the street-facing facade and stretching deep into the property, often with an elevated piazza porch along one side. This single house design strategically thwarted the 18th century taxman, who based his assessment on how much space the house occupied on the street.

Passing the First Scots Presbyterian Church we noticed a sidewalk We’re Open sandwich board and moseyed inside to enjoy the majesty therein: gorgeous stained glass windows and the white iron altar-back with a dozen stars acknowledging the twelve original Scottish founding families. Beautiful place.

An obligatory stop at the Pineapple Fountain branded us tourists, as did the thirst-quenching duck-in to the Griffon Pub, the currency-plastered walls and ceiling reminding us of a long ago quench at the Salty Dawg Saloon in Homer, Alaska.

We ventured through the renowned Charleston City Market (uhh, not so much), scoped out a potential Friday fireworks-viewing Rooftop at the Vendue Hotel, and sampled Turkish dessert treats at Ephesus Mediterranean Delights (no website, just delightful deliciousness).

After wringing ourselves out back at the homestead for a couple of hours, we walked six blocks to Malagón, a Spanish Mercado Y Taperia. We sat accustomedly at the bar where Anna took brilliant care of us. Cured tuna belly with marcona almonds, pork stuffed mashed potato bombas with tomato & aioli, marinated skewers of lamb & paprika, octopus with potatoes, and skewers of grilled grouper. A chilled bottle of Spanish Blanco de Albillo. And for dessert, genuine housemade churros and steaming hot cortados. Doesn’t get much better.