One of the first things the driver who picked me up at the airport told me is that Charleston is the second-most haunted town in America. “That’s good,” I told him, “I’m searching for the spirit of Rhett Butler.” That he’s a fictional character makes no difference, I explain. “He’s the essence of southern hospitality and that’s what I’m here to find.”
The driver dropped me off at Charleston Place, a Belmond Hotel in the heart of downtown Charleston that epitomizes the style and luxury I imagined from Rhett Butler’s hometown. Like Butler, Charleston Place is fiction materialized in imagination. The grand hotel isn’t a relic of the past, but was built from the ground up less than 30 years ago. Stepping into the lobby resplendent with Italian marble, you’re greeted by the open arms of the double Georgian staircase overhung with a hand-blown Venetian glass chandelier. Everything in the hotel, from the spacious guest rooms, the regal meeting spaces and ballrooms, and the exclusive two-story executive club, speak elegance without ostentation. That, I’m told, is the standard of Southern hospitality.
Southern hospitality begins with food and drinks. After cocktails at the Thoroughbred Club inside Charleston Place, I headed to 39 Rue de Jean, a brasserie voted the number one French restaurant in Charleston year after year. Not a fan of haute cuisine? Try the brasserie burger, a 10 oz. beef patty grilled to order and paired with your choice of roquefort, gruyère or cheddar cheese. Or, you could defy the West and order sushi or sashimi. I am not kidding.
Caesar salad at Palmetto Cafe, Charleston Place.
Lunch at the Palmetto Café inside Charleston Place rewarded me with a Caesar salad fit for Caesar himself. Tossed with tangy Caesar dressing and wrapped in a slender circle of crouton, six grilled shrimp and copious shaving of fresh Parmesan cheese completed one of the most striking salad presentations I’ve ever seen.
The next night’s festivities began at The Gin Joint, a throwback to the speakeasies of the 1920s when cocktails weren’t watered-down rainbow juice, but heady concoctions that evoked the heady spirit of the time.
Moving across the street to High Cotton, dinner was a sumptuous round of low-country cuisine meets the high life. My blue cheese iceberg wedge salad came draped with bacon and instead of croutons, three glorious, golden brown fried green tomatoes. For a taste of the high-low mélange I’m talking about, try the wild American shrimp and grits, served with smoked chicken Andouille sausage, okra, tomatoes in sweet corn garlic broth.
Charleston Place outdid itself the final night of my visit while dining at Charleston Grill. General manager and maître d extraordinaire Mickey Bakst introduced each round of this prix fixe dinner with Butler-esque charm and wit. Executive Chef Michelle Weaver’s imagination with food produced sumptuous courses beginning with tuna sashimi; followed by perfectly seared halibut succotash; Indian curry with white sturgeon; foie gras with apple and mascarpone cheese in bourbon cider sauce and a side of doughnut. All of this was followed by beef tenderloin drenched in bourguignon sauce and as a finale, red velvet baked Alaska with cream cheese ice cream. Each of these courses was paired with wine, with the exception of the curry, for which ale was poured. Can you say extraordinary?
Charleston Place: www.charlestonplace.com
Charleston Grill: www.charlestongrill.com
Palmetto Café: http://www.charlestonplace.com/web/ocha/palmetto_cafe.jsp
39 Rue de Jean: www.39ruedejean.com
The Gin Joint: www.theginjoint.com
High Cotton: www.highcotton.com
