Food of Folly Part 2

Since we have eaten at so many places on Folly Beach, we decided we needed several posts to tell you about all of the restaurants. So here we are continuing from the last post about the Food of Folly. The next place that we went was a little place called Drop-In Deli and Bar.  It was a small place with a bar and several tables inside and only two small tables out next to the sidewalk.  We sat outside, like we always try to do, and ate our food.  I got myself a sandwich called the Redneck and Malori got a French Dip sandwich.  My Redneck sandwich was a chicken cheese steak sandwich with cheese whiz, bacon, caramelized onions, jalapenos and ranch on an amoros roll.  This is probably one of the cheaper places we went to and the one that stood out to me the most for having unique and good food.  The next time we ate on Folly was when Cortni, Britni and Sebastian visited.  We went down to Snapper Jack’s Seafood and Raw Bar for dinner one of the nights they were visiting.  Malori and I shared a plate of Fish and Chips.  It was a large plate with two big pieces of fried fish and fries.  The fish was delicious as was their tartar sauce!  This place had a large bar area and was not the cleanest place we have been, but we loved the food.  The windows facing the street were able to fold up to open up to the fresh air from Center Street looked like they would be a nice way to get some air in the restaurant.  Since have lived in the Charleston area we have found that brunch is very popular here, especially on Sundays. So Malori picked out a restaurant where she wanted to get some good brunch on Folly.  So we went to Black Magic Cafe.  It was a nice little café with some indoor and outdoor seating.  Unfortunately it was pretty chilly outside, so we sat at a little two person table inside. It was decorated with all kinds of food and beach sings with says on them and had a nice menu of drinks, coffees and lots of food. Malori got (?) and I got the chicken and waffles.  Malori’s plate was a pile of biscuits, pimento cheese, fried chicken, gravy and it was topped with a fried egg. She loved it, but only ate about two thirds of her plate.  We both agreed the fried chicken was delicious! It was nice and crispy but was also very moist and tender. The waffles came with a honey syrup and maple syrup. With the syrups it was pretty sweet, but with the chicken and waffles together and just a light dip in the syrup, it was very good!  Overall…there are many more places we have yet to go to but we’ll make it our goal to try them all.  There is even an Irish place I would like to visit, but it will take us many weekends to get through the rest of the places down there.

 

Food of Folly Part 1

So after spending each weekend trying out a new restaurant in one part of town or another we have eaten at enough places in Folly beach to write a little about them.  The very first one that we ate at when we were apartment shopping back in November was Taco Boy.  This is where we ran into our first seafood tacos.  I got a shrimp taco and a fish taco that were both pretty good.  Malori got a roasted cauliflower taco and Mexican street corn which she loved.  We sat outside on their patio since it was pretty warm and then walked around the shops on Center Street since that was our first time there.  Then about three weeks later Malori’s parents, Kevin and Julie, drove down with me to get our stuff moved and we took them down to Folly and went to Locklear’s Beach City Grill.  This is the restaurant at the top of the pier.  We sat at a table next to the railing so we could see out over the water and down the pier.  There we got some hushpuppies as an appetizer, they were delicious!  Malori got herself the Fried Flounder sandwich and I got the Boardwalk Burger.  The next place we ate was the weekend we ran into the Taste of Folly Beach.  We walked around looking at the food at the festival, but ultimately decided just to try out the Lost Dog Café.  We went there and saw that not only was it a dog friendly restaurant but many people actually brought their dogs with them.  It was a nice place just a block off Center Street and we got a small table out on their patio.  I got myself a Grilled Turkey, Bacon and Swiss Croissant and Malori got a Carmel Iced Latte and a Tomato Mozzarella Pesto Sandwich with some collard greens.  Our food was great and the croissant I got had a heavy load of turkey on it.  This was Malori’s first time getting collard Greens, and she loved them!  We feel that we are becoming true Charlestonians because we have been eating more seafood, rice, and grits.

Dessert for Two

I know it has been a little while since Valentine’s Day, but I figured I should mention the places we went to eat that night. Since we just moved and neither of us wanted to get reservations at somewhere we could spend a fortune on food, we chose a different route. As we have mentioned, there are way too many new places to eat around here! So we chose a barbeque place called Home Team BBQ down on 61. There are a few of these restaurants around the Charleston area, but hadn’t been to one yet. It was pretty crowded and there were not many seats left. We ordered our food, Malori got a pulled pork sandwich and I got a pulled chicken sandwich (they were out of the brisket). We both had some fries with our sandwiches and managed to find two barstools and find space on their bar seating against the wall and ate our food. We both enjoyed our food and tried out a few different kinds of barbeque sauce. After we ate dinner we were talking about trying to find a place to get desserts and drinks since our dinner was not up to Valentine’s Day standards. So we found a place down by Avondale called Gala’s Desserts. This was a fancy little place with couches against the wall like a booth would be and small two or four person tables down the wall. They all had colorful mint chairs on the other side of the tables. There was a bakery display case up by the register at the back of the place that showed off some of the dessert items on their menu. Their menu consisted of mainly desserts, coffee drinks, some beer and I believe some sandwich foods as well. We looked over the menu and ended up getting a Peanut Butter Mousse dessert with a couple scoops of vanilla ice cream and drinks, Malori got an iced coffee and I got a beer. The mousse was very sweet, but extremely delicious! We were glad we got the ice cream to go with it. We sat and took our time eating and talking about the weekend and the things we wanted to do. This place was a fun little place to go to, especially if you have a sweet tooth! Hopefully next Valentine’s day we will be more motivated to try one of the fancy places downtown Charleston, but we were both very pleased with our choice to go for desserts this year.

History in Charleston

Easily one of my favorite places to visit in Charleston is Rainbow Row.  Rainbow Row consists of 13 houses located on East Bay Street and dates back to 1770. They were originally built as retail shops on the first floor and residential on the top floors.  After the Civil War this area was in slum conditions, however in the early 1900’s a couple of women started renovating the homes to what we know them as today.  Some say that the houses got their iconic pastel colors to reflect coastal Caribbean colors and to keep the houses cool inside during the hot summer months.  Others say the houses were given these different colors to help the drunken sailors find their way back to their correct bunks. Either way, many people continuously flock to see these beautiful homes. I love walking down East Bay Street and picking which house is my favorite.  Although the mint colored house is by far my favorite color, it is not my favorite architectural design. When we see these houses with people that are visiting, we always discuss which of these are our favorites based on the colors or the designs of each one.  Each of these houses are different and have their own unique character.  Some having fancy wrought iron railings while others have bright colored shutters.

When we go to downtown Charleston on the weekend, we always like to walk through the City Market.  It is a fun strip of vendor booths that is full of people selling anything from Charleston rice, sculptures made out of bottle caps and a fragile knife made out of the nose of a swordfish.  This interesting place is a historic market complex that stretches four blocks and was established in 1807 and was originally a meat market. It is always packed full of locals and tourists.  There are always a few boys running around the outside of the market trying to sell or give away Gullah sweetgrass flowers and older men sitting on the sidewalks making Gullah sweetgrass baskets.

Waterfront

On the east side of the Charleston peninsula is a 12 acre grassy area with a pier called Waterfront Park.  This park runs along the Cooper River for a half mile.  Prior to 1955 this area was a popular maritime shipping terminal.  When a fire on a steamship terminal burnt down the docks in 1955, the area became abandon.  In the 1980’s they began restoring the pier and creating the park.  At the north end of the park is a large fountain and a long pier.  The pier is a popular destination to sit on one of the many benches and look out over the water to watch the boats float by and occasionally a few dolphins.  From the pier you can see the Ravenel Bridge leading from Charleston to Mount Pleasant, the U.S.S. Yorktown aircraft carrier just across the water, and Fort Sumter where the Civil War began.  Just off the north side of this park is a port for a cruise ship.  Occasionally on the weekends there is a Carnival cruise liner sitting there which would account for higher traffic for the restaurants up the road and a large number of people walking up and down the pier.  Adam and I are planning on taking a trip on that cruise once we have the time and money to take a nice vacation.  We always enjoy swinging on the porch swings and listening to the local street musicians on the pier.  When you walk south you will run into another fountain, which is shaped like a Pineapple.  There are always a few people sitting around this fountain or taking their picture next to it.  On either side of this fountain are large grassy areas which are usually occupied by kids and dogs playing.  From the south end of the park you can see a house that was built on a pier out on the water. It would be awesome to live in an old house where your yard is occupied my marine life.  The park is a great place to sit and enjoy a good book under the Palmetto Palm trees or on any of the many benches that line the pier.

Edge of America

Is exactly 13 miles from our current residence.  Never in our lives did we think we would be living so close to an island lined with white sandy beaches. The eccentric town of Folly Beach is full of surfers, shops, and local eateries just a block off the water. This little place with only one bridge connecting it to the larger island just inland is the most popular tourist beach in the Charleston area. Several times we have ventured over that one bridge and have often come across a large amount of traffic. The first time we ran into traffic the bridge was closed for a local Christmas parade. This is when we discovered that in a coastal town people use boats for floats. The second time this happened, I insisted we look for a schedule of events that are going to happen on the island. This time it turned out to be the “Taste of Folly.” Most of the time when we venture to Folly, we bring a blanket and sit on the beach and read for an hour or two. There is a pier right where the main road T’s into the beach, generally we sit in the sand close to this pier. On one side of it, there is a popular spot where people are often surfing or paddle boarding. I will say that, though they usually wear bodysuits, every time we have been to this beach it has been below 60 degrees. Most of the time when we get to the beach if we are not reading, we are looking for shells, playing Frisbee or seeing how cold the water is. We started picking up shells to fill a glass jar in our bathroom, since our bathroom decorations are already along the nautical theme. Malori has always had an obsession with anchors and nautical themed decorations. Here it makes sense, but in Indiana it was a little out of place. We also like to walk up the little strip of road with all the tourist shops and see what little trinkets and t-shirts they have inside. Right now our supplies for fun on the beach are minimal, so we always check out the things we need to stock up on for when we have visitors. We are excited to try all the restaurants down in Folly beach and will make sure to post about them as we try out each one.

An Introduction to Us

We are Adam and Malori. We are a husband wife duo who recently packed up and left Indiana to move to the beautiful east coast city of Charleston, South Carolina. We both love to travel as much as possible and have been on many trips together. That is probably one of the reasons we both decided to get up and leave our home state and see something much different. As you can tell by the contrast of Indiana with its cornfields and flat land compared to South Carolina with its beaches and history and some mountains. We specifically chose Charleston because the city is such an old and historical place. It has an old downtown with old military bases and the warm weather with nice beaches all along the coast just a few minutes away. We will be posting about a lot of these trips to visit cities nearby and beaches down the road. We both loved Indy and did a lot of things to explore there but are excited to be exploring something that is new to both of us and has so much for us to do, plus the change in weather is very nice! Since we moved we made it our goal to find cool new places and try all kinds of foods and restaurants. Even though we have only lived here for a couple months, we have been trying a new restaurant or two a week and are still looking for cool places to explore around the Charleston area. We will be writing about the places that we visit and the things that we think you will find interesting or helpful. We are not exactly the most open to the kinds of food we eat (specifically we both do not really eat seafood…kind of an issue living on the coast) but we will not let that get in the way of trying all kinds of new places and foods that we are not used to eating. I am sure you will hear a lot more about that in our posts. We will not just be posting about restaurants, we also like to visit used bookstores, pawn shops and consignment stores, so we will be posting about the exciting or interesting places that we visit.