Dining in Charleston - Blossom

Friday, April 8, 2011, we first had lunch here at the studio apartment (we were testing the beef - see previous posts), then we headed into Charleston SC where we met friends.

We parked at the public parking garage at the SouthEast corner of Queen and King Sts (32.777715,-79.932706). The ladies went North on King for some shopping, while we (the men) went East on Queen for 1 block before turning North on Meeting St.

We both smoke cigars, so we stopped at Club Habana here: ( 32.780325,-79.931595 ). We stayed about an hour. They have a nice parlor in the back, with 6 lounge chairs around a center table. Nice - we enjoyed being here. I smoked an Arturo Fuente cigar, and paid $8.00 for it.

After the cigars, we went up to Market St., (about 3:30 PM) turning East, and walked to E. Bay St. We had requests from our wives to get reservations for SNOB (Slightly North of Broad) restaurant, so we turned South onto E. Bay and walked the couple of blocks to SNOB, where we were told there were no reservations available for 6:00 PM, the first open table would be 9:30!

So we crossed the street to Magnolia's, and attempted reservations there; again, no joy.

We continued South to Blossom (there are three restaurants - Magnolia, Blossom and Cypress - in a row here and all owned by the same place. Cypress is currently an award nominee for James Beard Awards). Blossom had room for us so we made our reservations for 6:00 PM (32.778952,-79.92718), then continued South to Southend brewery (corner of Queen and E. Bay St) (32.778582,-79.927124).

We had a beer sampler flight (about $8.50), staying about an hour or so, then crossed the street East to go to a roof top bar at Roof Top Bar (32.778624,-79.926679). They were too crowded so we gave up.

We continued East to the waterfront park (32.778841,-79.925051), where the ladies met us. We stayed here until 5:45 PM, then made our way back West for dinner at Blossom.

I had been eating seafood almost everyday, so I wanted to try something different at Blossom. I got a chorizo sampler, and an entree of Balsamic Braised Pork Shoulder. It was wonderful, and I can't wait to try and create my own recipe for our pork at home. I found a recipe that I might try

After dinner, we walked around before having a beer at Tommy Condon's (32.780078,-79.929466).

Afterwards, we walked back to our garage, picked up our car, returned our friends to their hotel, then returned back to Edisto Island.

We will head back on Monday, when we go to Cypress Restaurant (32.778802,-79.927138).

Wednesday we return to Charleston, where we go to Middleton Place Gardens, then onto Bowens Island for Roasted Oysters (32.675464,-79.964702)