Dining in Charleston - Fast and French

Fast and French
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On Tuesday, October 11 2011, we decided to have lunch at the Fast and French cafe on Broad St. in the historic district of Charleston SC.

This restaurant had been recommended to us by our local host, who lives in the historic district of Charleston.  She said she and her husband frequently walk the 5 minutes it takes them to get to this cafe on Broad St.

That was good enough for us!

So, with this being a lunch destination, a small French cafe sounded just right!  And a 5 minute walk was just right to kick up a desire for a quick lunch!

The first thing you'll notice on entering the cafe is how small it is!  There's just enough room behind people to squeeze between their backs and the wall while working our way to the back of the cafe.  We were seated at a bar (all seats are at bars - plural, as they are each little separate island bars that seat 6 - 8 people), directly across from two people that had come in just ahead of us, along with 4 young ladies to our right.  The couple across from us, probably in their 60s, and judging from their accent were British, weren't too happy with their coffee.  In fact, after drinking their coffee, they departed!  They couldn't have been there more than 5 minutes total!  They weren't difficult or anything, just disappointed.   It was clearly something about the coffee.  So, we clearly had to have the coffee to see what the problem was!  Well, it was great coffee!  It was French Press style, and strong, our favorite method for preparing coffee and the strong, wonderful results.  The whole process of making French Press coffee was shown on the menu!  So, while it clearly wasn't their cup of tea (pardon the pun!), it was wonderful to us!

For lunch, I had an open faced ham & cheese with French Onion soup, while my wife had a Brie and Cheese sandwich with French Onion soup.  Both were excellent!

We very much enjoyed this little cafe.  With people being sat right in front of you (I could have easily reached across and sampled my neighbor's lunch), it's hard not to strike up conversations with the people around you.  In quick order we had had conversations with the 2nd couple across from us (from Statesboro NC), the young ladies to our right, and their replacement three-some from the Augusta GA area - the only people we didn't get the chance to talk with were the British couple, and that was only because they were gone so fast.

We will be back, and look forward to it!