My Stay in Charleston at The Restoration Hotel,
with a City Round Up
- *Comfiest robes, ever!
*Yummy breakfast basket they brought to our room
My Hotel Stay
When I think of Charleston-or, what I thought before visiting-is small, quaint, pastel houses and buildings, and good food. That’s all I really knew. Oh, and King Street. And Southern Charm. And that I had to go and find one or all of the cast members and make them my new friends. What I think now, after visiting, is that I was mostly right, except for it’s much bigger than I imagined, filled with loads of things to do and eat, and it reminded me a lot of my other favorite city…Boston! Charleston was built, so I’m told, around the time that Boston was established, which is why there are many similarities in the cities’ foundations. Think cobblestone streets, brownstone type buildings, gas lamps, window boxes, gorgeous neighborhoods and restaurants, the list can go on!
We were fortunate enough to spend almost 5 full days wandering around Charleston, thanks to The Restoration Hotel, and knocked off several items on our bucket list while there! The Restoration Hotel is tucked away right behind the heart of King St., and pretty close to the College of Charleston. I think it’s the perfect place for a weekend getaway with friends or your significant other. We arrived around noon on our first day and luckily checked in immediately. We were given a thorough tour of the property, and made sure to come back to check out their wine and cheese hour and rooftop cocktails in the evenings. Such a nice perk, right? If you are looking for an all-out relaxing weekend, with everything at your fingertips, then truly look no further than The Restoration Hotel. You won’t have to leave the property! Not only is one of Charleston’s fan-fave coffee shops attached to the hotel, The Rise, they also keep a cute mercantile shop next door called the Port, The Amethyst Spa and Nail Bar, The Indigo Pool, and my favorite, a rooftop restaurant with the best views of the city, called The Watch, right on property. Turns out that this rooftop spot is also recommended by many locals, to catch a great sunset, and we were lucky enough to do that on our last night. We also had the cutest picnic breakfast basket from The Watch delivered to the door of our room a couple of mornings, and the croissants were just delish. Our room was also QUITE comfortable, being a Signature Suite, with 2 bathrooms, which worked out perfectly for Schuyler and I both when it came time to getting ready, and me hogging all the outlets. Ha!
*The Rise Coffee Bar with my iced latte
*Our Restoration Hotel bikes at The Mills House Hotel meeting our friends one afternoon
What to do & Where to eat
After we checked in and freshened up I immediately had to get my first latte of the trip, at The Rise Coffee Bar. We got up around 3:30 this morning so it was more than overdue. I got an iced caramel toffee latte and it was so stinking good. It was also time for lunch, and the hotel front desk staff recommended a sandwich shop just a few steps away, called Circe’s Grotto, and oh my, we had the best paninis. I highly recommend the Cuban Press and Schuyler loved his Turkey and Swiss Sandwich. It’s a walk-up, made to order type of place, very casual, and close to the college, so we watched a few college friends lunch together while we were there.
After lunch we walked around a bit, stopping into a few local shops and boutiques on King Street, where I almost bought the cutest dress! You can’t go wrong on King Street, though, with a mix of local and nice chain stores. We took advantage of the complimentary beach cruiser bike rentals from the hotel to get to where we were going around the city, as opposed to uber, which was so nice.
Dinner on night one was at The Husk, which was in a beautiful, large, old home turned restaurant. This place came recommended by so many, and everyone said to make a reservation in advance, so for our party of six I made it two months before. I will say this was not anyone’s favorite meal of the trip. Nothing bad to note, and we had a few great items, like the mac and cheese and pimento cheese ball appetizers, but we just weren’t blown away like we had hoped.
After dinner we ended up at a restaurant turned live music spot, called Henry’s, where they had a really good band, that took requests. I’m notorious for requesting Wagon Wheel and they gladly did this for me! Two thumbs up to this place. Although this is probably the liveliest night of the 4 that we had, we couldn’t figure out how empty the streets seemed to be at night, but we may have been on the more calm side of downtown.
*Dinner at Husk
*The last tour of the day at Fort Sumter they ask for volunteers to help fold up the flag, and all of these men just so happened to be Veterans
*A cannon replica that was fired from Fort Sumter at the beginning of the Civil War
Favorites:
Some of our favorite things of the trip, and things I highly suggest adding to your Charleston bucket list is a horse carriage history tour; breakfast at Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit at the market location (get the PB&J biscuit!); try she-crab soup almost anywhere-every place we had it, it was good, especially at Poogan’s Porch! Also keep in mind that anytime I travel near a coast I usually order seafood at most meals. Tour Fort Sumter, as it’s such a cool piece of our American history; visit one of the beaches or do a day fishing trip in Shem Creek; see the Pineapple Fountain during the day, and while you’re there walk over a few blocks to see the infamous rainbow row. Another favorite of ours was when we ventured off of the beaten path of King St. and had bbq at Rodney King’s-look this place up. He’s won a pretty cool award for his bbq, and you may know about this if you are a foodie. We stopped here for lunch on our way to our day of fishing and boat riding in Shem Creek with All in One Charters. Highly recommend them, as I believe it’s a one-guy show, and he is incredibly down to Earth and fun to hang with for a few hours! It’s BYOB and he takes you around to the best spots where the fish are biting. It was about $100 a person for our group of 6.
Overall, our days were so jammed pack, and we hadn’t seen each other in years, so it was all well worth it to us to go-go-go, because we got home and slept for like 4 days, ha! If I could suggest the best time to visit, simply for more pleasant weather, it would be the fall or early spring.
*It may not look it, but this location of Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit was SO tiny! I wonder how people get in and out of there.
*I loved this Starbucks’ design and architecture.
*A non-glamorous food picture but the BBQ at Rodney King’s was so good!
*It was so very hot on our trip but I happened to stumble upon this gorgeous fall-colored leaf!
*Thomas Ravenel’s house that was recently sold.
*Our gorgeous horse that carried us on a quick history tour ride
*Caviar and Bananas Bakery area. Yum!
*Infamous Rainbow Row
*Stumbled upon this cemetery on a late afternoon walk and captured this gorgeous shot.
*Jeni’s Ice Cream. This is now my favorite ice cream, and that says a lot, coming from someone from the South, that is obsessed with Bluebell.
*Out on the boat on our fishing trip
*Didn’t get to make it during the day but the Pineapple Fountain looks pretty at night
*Another cute coffee shop!
Bucket List:
As a last and more streamlined list, see below:
Breakfast-Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit
Coffee-The Rise Coffee Shop (right downstairs and one door over from The Restoration). Bitty and Beau’s was also great, and run by Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD) employees. They’ve got several television network accolades, and they give you a playing card and call it out when your order is ready, so unique and cute!
Lunch-Circe’s Grotto
Snack-Sugar Bake Shop and Jeni’s Ice Cream (YUMMMM)
Boutique for shopping-Beckett-super cute place on King St., with a mix of high/low clothing and accessory pieces. I got a fun pair of earrings here.
Dinner-Poogan’s Porch. I want to try Paw Paw’s next time!
Drinks- The bar at Husk, although we didn’t go out much specifically for drinks, but had drinks at dinner each night.
Entertainment-Horse carriage history tour and the nighttime haunted tour of the old jail! Must-do, it’s so cool.
Nightlife-Henry’s for live music. We wanted to check out a couple of rooftop places, but they closed before we could make it for the night.
*Dinner on our last night at The Watch Rooftop Kitchen & Spirits, on top of The Restoration Hotel
*I became re-obsessed with French 75s on this trip
*I really loved the decor and feel of our suite
*Such a great set-up in the kitchen. You could fill out this breakfast menu and put it outside of your door in the evening and have hot breakfast delivered.
*This was one of my favorite details of our room. Be sure to read the letter.
*Is this not the cutest hotel? I truly was obsessed.
If there are any questions you have that this post does not answer, feel free to reach out to me via e-mail (hello@brandisoileau.com), or leave me a comment below. Thank you for taking the time to read!
*This post was done in collaboration with The Restoration Hotel. All thoughts and opinions are my own.