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taste
- Taste the spirit of Charleston at Mills House’s Iron Rose Bar & Restaurant. With its black interior, charming courtyard, and elevated Southern Coastal cuisine, this sophisticated signature eatery celebrates the city’s many secret gardens and the flowered wrought iron railings and gates. Here, diners can tuck into a delicious array of Southern-inspired bites, like pimento cheese, crispy chicken thighs brined in sweet tea and served with hot honey and peach compote, blue crab fritters, and local shrimp with house-made andouille sausage. Then, cap it off in true Mills House fashion with a craft cocktail and a toast to former Mills House bartender Jerry Thomas, widely considered the father of American mixology.
- Sample the bounty of the Atlantic Coast by diving into one of South Carolina’s many delectable seafood dishes. Oyster roasts are a popular culinary pastime in the Lowcountry, particularly in the wintertime. During the season, these shellfish feasts take over backyards, beaches, and church parking lots. (Contrary to the name, the oysters are steamed beneath wet burlap on a plate-topped wood fire, not roasted.) Accoutrements like lemon wedges, cocktail sauce, hot sauce, crackers, and plenty of napkins are provided. Another seafood staple is she-crab soup, a decadently creamy Charleston original with roots in Scotch-Irish culinary traditions. The dish was born during a dinner for President William Howard Taft at the home of Charleston Mayor R. Goodwyn Rhett. His chef and butler, William Deas, put the “she” in she-crab soup by adding a cluster of crab roe, elevating the dish from ordinary to extraordinary. Those hoping for the complete ocean-to-table experience can even arrange a crabbing expedition through Mills House with Charleston local Tia Clark. Throughout this culinary adventure, guests get their hands dirty by throwing out the net and even baiting fish before taking their catch to Iron Rose Restaurant for an upscale Lowcountry boil served family style.
- Savor the culinary heritage of the Gullah Geechee people and the South by dining on some traditional South Carolina dishes. Southern cuisine is deeply intertwined with African culture, from the time when enslaved people stirred the pots and cooked the meals in plantations across the American South, fusing Central and West African cooking styles with local ingredients. Gullah Geechee food, in particular, focuses on seafood and seasonality. Must-have dishes include: okra soup, a gumbo-like Gullah staple with a tomato base in place of a roux, and Charleston red rice, a Lowcountry classic with tomato paste and bacon similar to West African jollof rice. Shrimp and grits, South Carolina’s official state food, is another Southern favorite with African roots. Although the Gullah people descend from what is a rice culture, they were introduced to corn and grits during mealtime on the plantations, combining it with the shrimp they caught on the Sea Islands. Enjoy a bowl of shrimp and grits and other Gullah soul food at Charleston eateries like Hannibal’s Kitchen, James Beard Foundation-recognized Bertha’s Kitchen, and My Three Sons of Charleston.
- Drink in South Carolina’s spirited heritage with a stop at one of Charleston’s local distilleries, breweries, or taprooms. In the state’s early days, settlers would imbibe in glasses of madeira wine brought over by sailing ships, picked up in casks at the Portuguese port before setting off across the Atlantic, or swigs of rum from Barbados, a popular last stop for European settlers before dropping anchor in Charleston. Although those libations are still popular around the city, today's locally made drinks tend to be heavy on grains, like malty, hoppy craft brews, boozy bourbons and rye whiskeys, and potent moonshine in flavors like peach, coconut cake, and banana pudding. Meanwhile, vodkas get a Southern makeover, too, infused with the taste of sweet tea, lemonade, and the Carolina reaper pepper.
