9 - Charleston, SC (Part 2)

00:00
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Biscuits and Gravy podcast. I'm Michelle, I'm your host, and you are here for part two of my Charleston trip with my husband. So thank you for joining me. I hope you have listened to part one. If you have not, then if you'll go back to the last episode, then you'll be able to listen to that. That was where I told all about our hotel that we stayed at, what we did while we were in Charleston, and...

00:29
just some tips about traveling to Charleston in that episode. And this episode, we had so much fun just trying out the food in Charleston. We knew this was gonna be a foodie stop and we are foodies, so we knew this was gonna be a good thing. And so I've got a list of the places that we ate. That is where we chose to spend our money, a nice place to stay and a nice place to eat.

00:57
If you listen to the last episode you'll know that we didn't do any kind of tours or anything we had to pay for in that manner We did a lot of walking a lot of free things and then we paid for good food. So this is the food episode So I hope you guys will enjoy it. I will I will start with saying I didn't talk about the angel oak tree in the last episode as I meant to

01:24
So I'm gonna start with that and then the rest will be all about the food. So the Angel Oak tree is actually on John's Island so you have to drive to get there. You can't walk to the Angel Oak tree from from the historic district in Charleston but it's not a long drive. I think it took us maybe 20 minutes. It is free to get into the Angel Oak. It's owned by the city.

01:51
You can look online and get some information if you'd like to and find out their hours, but I think they have pretty good Hours so that's not you don't have to be super choosy about when you go when we went it was pretty crowded But I have since seen some Pictures and videos from other people that have been when it wasn't crowded So i'm like, well, we must have just gone on a popular day then I don't even remember it was a weekday, but I don't remember when exactly it was

02:20
So I did not know what to expect with the angel oak tree, but I had just heard this was somewhere that we needed to visit. So this is, they believe, one of the oldest oak trees east of the Mississippi, or if not the oldest oak tree east of the Mississippi. And it is estimated to be between 400 and 500 years old. And I remember seeing pictures of it online and just thinking.

02:50
Wow, that's cool, you know. But we parked and we walked up to the tree and you have to actually walk by the tree before you can enter into the park so you can see it before you actually get close to it. And I wasn't really paying attention but we were walking up to it and just walking by the fence there at it and Adam was like, wow. And I was just.

03:17
I didn't even know what he was talking about and I just looked over and I was just like, wow. Like, it's just, it was, it's hard to kind of put it into words because it's one of those experiences where you just, you just have to experience it, you know? You can't really convey how it makes you feel when you, when you see something like that. It's like it, like you're living in a movie or a dream or something. It's not, it doesn't seem like reality.

03:46
doesn't seem like that's actually a tree. You know? Like it could actually be that large. And all I can say is it made you want to whisper. Because it was something about the reverence of it. Being so old on the earth. And you know Adam and I talked about how it would have been so cool if we could find something like that. Even you know even just a portion of something like that on our own property sometime. And just

04:17
um just how awe-inspiring it is. So I think that was pretty much the

04:26
the thoughts and the feeling that most of the people that we were there with got. Because like I said, it was crowded, but everyone was very quiet. It was just one of those things like you felt like you were in church, you know? You felt like, you know, I should have respect here. I should just kind of try to take this in and understand it. And it was just, it was, it was a really, really cool experience. So I do recommend.

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that anyone in the area go and see this beautiful tree. I wish our kids would have been there with us, although they would have liked to climb it and you absolutely cannot climb it. They are very strict. I even saw there was a man there with a dog and there were all these rules everywhere. I took pictures, they had all these signs with rules up and everything about, do not do yoga on the tree, do not.

05:22
stand on the tree? Do you not? Because there are branches of the tree that come actually down onto the ground. And so, you know, you just, they're very strict about wanting to preserve this tree. But there was a man with a dog there and he put, he tied the dog to a picnic table or something that was off away from the tree. And then he walked up to the tree just a little bit to take a picture. And I saw

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I saw one of the workers there just make a beeline for him and walk over there and like, are you gonna, are you gonna stay with your dog, sir? And, and he was just like, oh yeah, I was just taking a picture. And they're like, well, no, you need to be with your dog at all times. Like, I mean, they were very strict about all the rules there, which is fine. But um, but anyways, it's, uh, it was quite an experience. So I do recommend you go check out the angel oak tree on John's Island. Um, it's

06:21
I was looking up why it's called the angel oak tree and a lot of people actually found a video which I thought was really interesting About a woman who said that the angel oak tree she was a youtuber said the angel oak tree Zapped all of her energy. So she actually had to Like go and lay down after she saw the angel oak tree and experience that and everything and whether that's true or not I don't know, but I think there is something

06:49
there is something to that. There is something to, you know, living things that have been living on this earth for hundreds and hundreds of years. So, but anyways, some of the people say that there are spirits of African slaves that are watching over the tree that they've seen in pictures and videos and things like that. That's why it's called the Angel Oak.

07:18
Then some people say there is a guardian angel looking over the oak tree Maintaining its growth and all that kind of stuff So I don't know any of that's true and that's beside the point But I just wanted to give you a little bit of of the history of it and why it is called the angel oak tree I don't it's like with anything else. You really don't know You really don't know Where the origins of of things like the name are from so, okay

07:48
Now we're going to get to the food, which is something I love to talk about. All right, I'm going to save the best for last. So you'll have to stick around to the end to find out what the best place we ate was. Okay. All right. So I'm going to start with Cali's because I started mentioning that in the last episode. And as you, as you might remember, Cali's is one of those places that

08:17
kind of inspired this podcast to even begin. I watched Callie's Hot Little Biscuit, it's called How She Rolls is the show on PBS. I saw that at the beginning of the year, this year, and I was just really inspired because I really connected with her, Carrie Morey, because...

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I used to own my own business and it just kind of took you through the steps of growing a business from scratch and all that kind of stuff. So I really felt this kinship with her and so I like to watch the show and I really wanted to be able to go and visit a Cali's Hot Little Biscuit at some point in my life and Charleston is where they are. So I was really excited to get that opportunity. I did not realize that

09:15
Cali's was actually one of the locations that's actually inside of the Charleston Market, which if you heard on the last episode, was right by our hotel that we stayed at. So it was, I mean, just a block away from us at all times. So we walked through Cali's several times before we actually went and got a biscuit, just for timing reasons and things. We didn't wanna just spend our money frivolously. Like we wanted to make sure like we were hungry, we were ready to eat and that kind of thing.

09:45
When we finally got did get to go to Callie's it was actually Carrie Maury's daughter and I don't remember what her name is but she's on the TV show as well that was serving us she's the one that was at the cash register and And I got a t-shirt. So I got me a cute little t-shirt. I got to bring home with me That's got like a pimento cheese biscuit on the back. I actually didn't know it had anything on the back of it I just thought it had the logo but I thought it was funny because

10:14
y'all probably know I love pimento cheese. I love making pimento cheese. And that's actually what, that's the biscuit that I got from Callie's was a pimento cheese biscuit and Adam got the same thing. And then that's what was on my t-shirt. So I had no idea, but it just worked out. So I was really, really excited to taste the infamous Callie's. And we both enjoyed our biscuits. I will say, you know when you've,

10:44
Y'all know like when you have built something up in your mind That is just gonna be the most amazing thing in the world You have these really high expectations and then it's sort of a letdown when you're just like this is just normal You know, this is nothing spectacular and that's I mean, you know, I am always honest with you guys. I'm not going to Give you any kind of information that is not completely 100% true in my opinion and

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And so I don't want to just say to you right now, like Cali's biscuits are the best things that I ever tasted in my life, because they weren't. They probably weren't even the best biscuit I had ever had, but it was good. I did like it. The pimento cheese was probably better than the biscuit. And so that was good. But yeah, I wasn't like, this is the best thing in the entire world. So.

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So just keep that in mind. And it's kind of funny because after my trip, I started seeing some things online from some people who were kind of in the same situation as me. They were wanting to visit Cali's because they had seen the TV show or they had heard about it or whatever. And then they were a little disappointed because they were just like, these aren't even that great. Like that, you know. So, you know, I don't, no offense to anybody.

12:07
related to Cali's in the least because it was a very good product but I wouldn't say it was like the best biscuit I ever had or whatever. So that's my that was my take on Cali's. I can't even remember how much the biscuits were. I was going to give you a price point.

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I'm thinking they were like $8 a piece. I might be, it might have been seven, but I think they were about $8 a piece for a biscuit. And they weren't humongous. So, but I do encourage you to go by, give it a look, give it a try if you've been curious about it. I have a feeling Cali's is probably one of those places that people eat at regularly, you know? Like if they're in Charleston, they just kind of.

12:54
swing by the market and get a biscuit from Cali's. It was not crowded. That was another thing that surprised me. The market was pretty busy, but Cali's itself was not crowded. Anytime we went by there, there was no line waiting for biscuits. So I was just a little surprised, I think. I think because I had watched the TV show and I had in my mind that it was just this.

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booming business where they sell out every day and there's so much demand for it and everything went smooth go smoothly there and you're I don't know it just I Just got a different picture of it once I actually experienced it It was just a little I Don't know chaotic when we were checking out as well. I know I make mistakes as well, but

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her daughter who was checking us out actually rang us up for something that we didn't even order. And then I was getting ready to pay for it and I was kind of looking at it like, that is a lot for the two biscuits, you know? And then she was like, oh, I'm so sorry. Like that's not, I added something else on there or whatever. So she made it right and everything and that's fine. But it was just a case of like, you know, just like we all do every day, we have expectation, unmet expectations, I guess. So.

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Okay, next one. The first night that we ate out for like a nice evening out was at Hymen's Seafood, which is on one of the main streets there in the historic district. So this was a super busy restaurant and they brought food out while we were waiting. So that was nice. They brought like

14:47
hush puppies. the hush puppies were like donuts. they were very sweet. I don't really like sweet things like that. so I was a little turned off by it and I was like I hope this doesn't make me feel bad before we eat. but Adam enjoyed it and I thought it was really nice. they actually had a sign out there in front of the restaurant that said if anyone needs food then they'll give you food. like don't ask our

15:12
customers that are out here waiting for food or anything like that. Like don't haggle with people. Like just just come and ask us and we'll give you some food. So I thought that was really cool. They had lots of outside seating for waiting so that was nice too. They said that we would be waiting for an hour but it was really like 30 minutes so it wasn't that bad at all. Apparently lots of famous people have visited Hyman's because they have a whole like Hall of Fame.

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wall in there. And I mean all kinds of people, Oprah and lots of different sports stars and there's lots of people just I can't even remember all the people that we saw but we sat right there at this this wall with all these pictures on it where people had signed and and and then another cool feature was they had on the tables little um

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little metal tags that said who sat there. And so we sat at Patrick Ewing's table. That was the one that we were given. They had a little feature where you could follow them on Instagram and they would bring you, if you showed your server, they would bring you boiled peanuts and hush puppies. So that was neat. That's a good way to market and to get more.

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followers on Instagram, which is apparently is that's where they were wanting to get more followers. Adam got the captain's platter and it was just like fried food. It was fried everything, oyster, shrimp, flounder, sea bass cake. And he said that it was really good. He said that this seafood was better than anything that he had ever eaten in Calabash or anywhere in North Carolina that we had eaten seafood before.

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he thinks it's probably due to the fact that they switch the oil out every night which apparently is not a general practice. like that's kind of unusual for the oil to be switched out every night. so so i thought that was that was interesting. i got the she crab soup and a caesar salad and it was okay but it was nothing to write home about. the

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Seafood restaurant itself looked like a seafood restaurant. I know you've probably been to those restaurants before where you're just like Okay, you know like you look around you're just like this is a seafood restaurant But they had a big staircase kind of like You know it reminded me of something like in like on Titanic or something like that like a big staircase where you can see Everyone walked down. They had a winding iron staircase

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The whole place was wood paneling from floor to ceiling, low lighting. I really liked the vibe. It looked like you were inside a ship, you know? And it was there on the main street and all this historic stuff in Charleston. So I really thought it was a really good vibe for this restaurant. And like I said, Adam really really enjoyed his. Me, not so much, but maybe I just ordered

18:32
Okay, for dessert that night, we went next door to a place called Peace Pie, which is P-E-A-C-E pie. And they have like these ice cream sandwiches. So they have, I don't know, 20 different flavors of ice cream sandwiches or something all made there. Adam got a salted caramel and I got a pecan pie. And I will say they were both very delicious. We went back another night while we were in Charleston and got

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Well, he got another one. I think, yeah, I don't think I got one. I got some gelato somewhere else, but he got another one. So really, really enjoyed that. That was super good. Another kind of just, when you're walking around Charleston and you wanna stop by and get just a little snack, like you don't want a full meal, there is a place called Hot and Handy that is owned by Vivian Howard.

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of Chef and the Farmer, which if you've listened to the podcast from the beginning, you know how much I love Vivian Howard. And she really inspired me to do our YouTube channel back in the day. She inspired this podcast. And I just love the way she tells the story of people and places through her food. And that's really, really my intention. Eventually with this podcast and with our website.

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is to be able to dig deeper and get into the stories of food more and more. But anyways, she owns two restaurants in Charleston. They're side by side. The Hot and Handy is actually attached to a hotel. I can't remember what hotel. If it's a Marriott, I think maybe. You can order little hand pies in there. So...

20:25
We got, we shared a spicy pecan hand pie and yes, I say pecan. I don't say pecan or pecan. So it was a spicy pecan hand pie and it was so delicious. So delicious. Probably the second best thing I ate while I was in Charleston was this hand pie. So highly recommend the hot and handy if you need a little snacky snack while you're walking around Charleston.

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So her other restaurant, Lenore, this is where we chose to spend the most money on a meal out, I believe. And it was just a very nice, fancy restaurant. And we knew it would be because we had visited Chef and the Farmer many, many years ago with some friends in Kinston, and we knew Vivian Howard would have an amazing restaurant in Charleston as well. The...

21:23
The atmosphere was beautiful. It was very, they had like an outdoor seated area that was like a little garden patio. The inside was just really clean and had some nice like greenery and things that just made it feel, I don't know, just really fancy and really just kind of posh. So I enjoyed it.

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Adam always gets a little uncomfortable in situations like that. I guess I do too probably because I'm just not used to being in situations like that where you have to dress nice and look nice and behave nice and everything but I actually really really love fancy things so I loved it. I got a K-Town burger which was not fancy I wouldn't say but it was so good. The chili that was in it just completely made.

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burger. So loved it. Adam got the grouper and which was an expensive fish anyways but he got a very small portion but he said it was good too. We got fried collards because we had eaten fried collards at Chef and the Farmer many many years ago and we knew they were delicious. They're just like chips.

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so we got those so good so yummy but very very messy. in fact the server even said yeah this is not something you want to order on a first date that's for sure. it'll get all up in your teeth it'll be all over the table all over your all over your clothes all over the floor so um but they were really really good. so um lennor is the name i don't even know if i said the name i'm sorry lennor is the name l-e-n-o-i-r is the name of this restaurant.

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by Vivian Howard. Very cool experience, glad I got to go. All right, now, favorite place I ate. Okay, so if you'll remember in the last episode, I said that we went with Adam on a whirlwind trip through Charleston on one of his work trips, like five or six years ago, at least. No, it's been longer than that. It was probably six years ago or seven.

23:47
Um, it was when Travis was a baby and we ate because my friend Summer, so shout out to my friend Summer. She had recommended a place called Page's Ocher Grill in Mount Pleasant, which is right outside of Charleston. And she just highly recommended it. She said, this is the place you need to go. And I trusted her. I was like, okay, we'll go there. So we ended up going there and, um,

24:15
I had such a terrible experience with my children that day. Other mamas will know what exactly what I'm talking about that I couldn't I don't I couldn't even tell you what I ordered. I was so looking forward to this one stop in Charleston. This was our one stop in Charleston and I was so looking forward to it. You remember you know just a few minutes ago unmet expectations that was what got me in trouble this day as well.

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you know, I had a baby in diapers and potty training was not going well and I will spare you the details but it was an ugly situation at this restaurant. And I just remember making multiple trips to the parking lot, to the car, it was so hot it was in the middle of the summer. And my food getting cold, I had barely eaten anything, kids were screaming, Adam was mad and on the phone probably the whole time because he was in a job that he hated.

25:13
um it was just not a good experience so this time we we had a few suggestions but my friend summer again said you got to go to page's ochre girl and she in fact told me something i needed to order she said you have to order the redneck rolls and i was like oh okay that's interesting so she highly recommended that i was like okay we're gonna go back we're gonna we need a do-over without the children this time

25:44
So we went and walked up to the restaurant and I was so excited to try this one again. And there was a wait, so I think we went for lunch. Yeah, I'm pretty sure we went for lunch one day. So there was a wait and we were standing there getting ready to put our name in and this man kind of jumped in front of me and he said, oh, excuse me, I was here first. And I was like, oh.

26:14
I was like, okay. And so, like the two people that were taking names for pages, they kind of like looked at me like, oh good. And anyways, they talked to him and he, they said, he was, he was making reservations for his whole party. And they said, was your whole party here? And he said, oh yeah, we're all, we're all here. We're good. And they said, what's your name? And he said, Curtis.

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so this is I'm just putting this out there. I'm sure Curtis won't ever listen to this podcast, but Curtis if you're listening to this podcast you are a jerk. Quit being a jerk, Curtis. Because he was bold face lying. His party was not there, but they went ahead and they seated him and then we had to wait for a while for our table and when we I mean it wasn't a long while we had to wait. I wasn't upset about waiting or anything like that. Like that's no problem whatsoever.

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But when we sat down, I saw Curtis walk by us again and he went to meet his party that had just arrived. So he had already gotten his seat, you know, totally lied to the server and saying that he was, you know, his whole party was there, they were ready and they weren't ready. They had just arrived there probably 10 or 15 minutes after he had gotten his table. So anyways.

27:43
Curtis, quit being a jerk. All right, so pages, let me, I'm looking at my notes right now, so I don't forget anything.

28:03
There were lots of suggestions to eat here. When I looked online at places to eat in Charleston, Pages was one of the most popular places it looked like. And for very good reason. So this is absolutely at this point, my favorite place that we've eaten in Charleston. Okay, the redneck rolls, I made sure to honor my friend Summer that we would get the redneck rolls.

28:33
and I am so glad that she suggested this because these were probably the best and most delicious things I have ever put in my mouth. So they are like wonton rolls with barbecue and pimento cheese inside and they had a dipping sauce. It was amazing. I'm going to make these at home. I've got to. I haven't done it yet, but I have got to figure out how to make these taste that good at home.

29:02
okay so we got that for an appetizer and i even took a picture of it soon to summer and i was like summer i'm having the redneck rolls and you were not lying because she told me she said they're so delicious i dream about these things and i'm like i will probably dream about these things now so um adam and i are going back to charleston in october and i'm like this is going to be a must on our on our list to go back to have some redneck rolls

29:29
So for our meal, I got chicken and waffles and crab soup. And the crab soup at Page's was much, much better than the crab soup I had at Hymen's, one of the previous nights that I had that. Chicken and waffles was delicious. Let's see, what did Adam get? Adam got a sandwich of some sort, but I cannot.

29:57
I didn't write it down and too much water has gone under that bridge for me to remember so I cannot remember what he got but he said it was good as well. So I think Pages is a winner winner chicken dinner. You have to eat at Pages if you go anywhere near Charleston. It's our favorite place. We ate all week like I said and I think it was the best and most food that you got for the value.

30:27
You know, like I said, we ate that really nice meal at Lenore, but the portions were super small. Um, it was, that is not the case at Pages. Portions are large. We had, um, actually I ate half because we don't usually get appetizers. So I ate half, um, of my actual meal and then saved the rest and ate that for supper that night, or me and Adam actually shared it for supper that night. It was so much. Um,

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so that is all. i cannot believe that it took me two episodes. i actually can believe that it took me two episodes to get through my charleston trip but i wanted to go ahead and get this done because we're actually going on a another adventure next week and i did not want another week or two to go by without finishing up my charleston episode and

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and getting this out to you guys. So I hope this is helpful. I hope that when you plan your trip to Charleston, you will look back at this transcript that we have on our website, biscuitsandgravypodcast.com. You can read the transcript and see the pictures from this whole episode right there under the episode. And it reads just like a blog. So you can go and check that out if you'd like.

31:48
and see all the places that I'm talking about. I've done, like I said, we're going actually with some couples from our church in October on a couples retreat to Charleston. We're actually gonna stay at Folly Beach, which we didn't actually get to go to the beach while we were in Charleston. We just spent all our time in the historic part and I really did wanna go to the beach. So I'm excited we're gonna be staying at the beach in October, but I will definitely.

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I've still got things on my list. I think I told you in the last episode that I was still making notes in my Charleston, in my Charleston note on my phone about where I wanna go next time and some places that we wanna go back to or places that we wanna try next time. So I'll have even more stuff to show you guys in October after I go there. But next week, we are headed to Bryson City in the mountains of North Carolina.

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for our daughter's birthday. So we're gonna have more things to share with you when we get back from there. And in real time, I'll be on Instagram posting some pictures. So if you don't already follow us, it's just Biscuits and Gravy podcast on Instagram. And you can check us out there and you can see things in real time as we're traveling around. So, all right. Thank you guys for joining me for this episode and I will talk to you soon. Bye.