Weekly Specials CHS: August 2-8, 2024
It's Renzo's red sauce week, the Archer opens on Meeting Street, Korean food and ramen come to Kultura, plus new menus from Baguette Magic, the Grocery, Frannie & the Fox, and Bearcat.
Happy August!
This week is Renzo’s red sauce week! It runs through Saturday, and their red sauce takeover menu features classic Italian-American fare with an emphasis on pasta, plus a special martini menu. This charcoal strozzapreti with crispy mushrooms had me exclaiming “Madone!”
Heads up that Renzo doesn’t run happy hour specials during red sauce week, and they’ll be closed the following week until the 14th of August!
Plus, a special shoutout to the best bite I had this week, Welton’s Tiny Bakeshop’s figgy kouign amann. I love a kouign amann no matter what, but fill it with vanilla bean and fig mascarpone cream and toss it in fig leaf sugar…that’s a whole other level. I cannot get over the fact that they made the fig leaf sugar with fig leaves from their own garden.
Weekly Specials
Sunday, August 4th
A new pop-up is coming to Odyssey Bottle Shop from 4:30-8pm: Silk Road Bakery will be serving their Central Asian desserts and breads. For more on this recently opened bakery, follow Silk Road Bakery on Instagram.
Kultura is hosting a Korean and Filipino collab dinner with seatings at 5pm and 7:30pm. Kultura chef Nikko Cagalanan and Charlotte-based guest chef YongWon Hwang will be cooking up a five-course tasting menu. Reserve your tickets on Resy.
The Little is back at Graft Wine Shop for Good Neighbor Sunday! Their menu will feature toasties, including a shrimp toastie with parsley aioli and a summer veggie toastie with provolone. Plus, they’ll have melon salad with fennel and a pistachio vinaigrette, and a dessert of macerated peaches and mascarpone.
Tuesday, August 6th
A chilled red in the summer is a thing of beauty! In collaboration with Charleston Wine + Food, Graft is hosting a happy hour featuring their chilled reds and small plates from the Little. Learn more and buy tickets on the CHSWF website.
Wednesday, August 7th
It’s the first Wednesday of the month, so you know what that means! Aswang Noodle Club is at Kultura for their monthly ramen takeover, accompanied by a sake drink menu. Snag a table on Resy, their tantan abura soba looks 🔥🔥🔥 :
Thursday, August 8th
At 7pm, Coterie and @thedroppingpin are hosting an interactive cocktail class so you can learn how to make a perfect party punch using El Jimador Tequila, Diplomatico Rum, and Jack Daniel’s Bonded Whiskey. Tickets include small bites by Coterie’s Executive Chef and are available for purchase on Eventbrite here.
New openings
Berkeley’s sister restaurant, the Archer, officially opened today! They’re located in the space where Gale used to be, on Meeting Street, and you can make reservations now on Resy! Take a peek at their menus here, too.
Lil’ updates
So many NEW dishes to try!
Bearcat just released their late summer menu last week! Their scallops, served with sun gold tomatoes, green papaya, nuoc cham, mango and herbs look absolutely breathtaking, below. They’ve also got a black truffle chawanmushi with Pacific red crab and Kaluga caviar that is calling my name!
Frannie & the Fox has a new lunch menu! I’m excited about their fire-roasted eggplant sandwich with Calabrian chili pesto, their Taleggio pizza with burnt honey, their gigante bean antipasto, and, of course, you all know I love a Caesar salad.
Baguette Magic just dropped their bread menu for August. They’ll be selling salted honey focaccia on Fridays, herbed sourdough on Saturdays, and lemon poppy babka (!!!!) on Sundays this month. Gotta get my hands on some of that babka.
The Grocery announced their pasta specials for the month: spaghetti and crab, corn and chantarelle campanelle, and tomato lumache. You can see all of these plated to perfection in their latest Reel:
Other lil’ updates
60 Bull just announced they’re doing 50% off of ALL sandwiches on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3-5pm!
If you’ve got friends in town next week or the following, you sadly won’t be able to show them the magic of Chubby Fish! They’ll be closed from 8/4-8/19 for a well-deserved employee vacation.
Coming up
August 9: Cousin Nik is headed back to Babas on Meeting starting at 5pm. He’ll be serving garganelli alla vodka, blistered shishito peppers, and a homemade peach sorbet. It’s first come first serve, but you can DM him on Instagram to secure a spot!
August 14: Yoga, puppies, and beer, oh my! Charleston-based Stretch n’ Sip Yoga is hosting a yoga class at Palmetto Brewing Co. from 6:30-7:30pm with adoptable pups from Southern Tails for Precious Paws. Venmo to register, and see more info in their Instagram post below:
August 18: The folks behind locally owned Korean mandu brand Sarah’s Dumps are hosting a Korean BBQ workshop at Odd Duck Market from 6-8pm! The ticket includes two beverages and 20% off market shopping, too. To learn more and buy tickets, visit the Sarah’s Dumps site.
August 23rd: Thanks to Joy F for sending me a heads up about this! Vegan comfort food pop-up Southern Fried Vegan is heading to Charleston and setting up at Fatty’s Beer Works! From 8-11pm, they’ll have Southern and BBQ classics like fried chickun, mac n cheeze, beer cheeze jambalaya, po boyz and Cajun corn. For more info, check out their Facebook event here.
August 24th: Girl Nextdough is back from summer break/mat leave and will be re-opening at James Island Business Park on Signal Point Road on Saturdays and Sundays. Gold Star Coffee on Johns Island is also starting to sell Girl Nextdough goods from Thursday to Sunday each week, too! Check out the drool-worthy menu for this weekend:
August 23rd & 24th: Wild Common’s Chef Orlando Pagan will be collaborating with guest Chef Juan José Cuevas on the grand finale of this summer’s Puerto Rican dinner series. Chef Cuevas, currently Executive Chef at 1919 (the flagship restaurant at the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel in San Juan) and Chef Pagan will be cooking up a menu (subject to change!) that includes dishes like diver scallop with sweet corn, cockles, Thai basil, and corn sabayon, plus halibut confit with freekeh, nduja, walnut and a parmesan-mustard jus. Book for the 23rd on Resy here and the 24th here!
That’s a wrap!
Know of a restaurant- or food-related event coming up that you think should be included in an upcoming Weekly Special? DM me!
Planning on going to one of the events, bars or restaurants mentioned above in the next week? Leave a comment and let me know your plans! I’m nosy!
Wishing you a wonderful week ahead!