Day 01
Wish You Were Here
Some restaurants are made for celebrating over candlelight. Others are perfect when you're too tired to make your own hamburger. And then there are the neighborhood places we all dream of—the casually creative restaurants that ever so slightly elevate the everyday, where the ingredients and the menus are clever but never fussy, where the craft beer is cold and the wine list generous, and ten-year-olds are as happy as their grandparents.
I envy Charlestonians for a lot of things—their sunny climate, their smiling neighbors, their stunning houses—but perhaps for no reason more than the fact that their small city possesses such neighborhood gems, where the caliber of cooking is phenomenally high, the charm is undeniable, and the check still manages to leave your pockets jingling.
Whenever I find myself in the Holy City, it's at FIG that I want to spend my first night in town. Helmed by James Beard Award-winning chef Mike Lata, FIG's deceptively simple menu highlights fresh produce sourced from nearby farms and fishermen. And Lata's clean preparations belie an incredibly complex mastery of ingredient and flavor. A winter citrus salad peppered with radish and beet awakens the taste buds like a sparkling wine; the bowl of slow-cooked pork trotters, silky and salty and topped with a poached egg, never fails to make me fall off my chair. And the bar, well stocked and flatteringly aglow with the warm light of vintage milk-glass lamps, is the perfect place to nurse a nightcap.
FIG, 232 Meeting Street, Charleston, South Carolina (843/805-5900)
For more information on all that the Charleston area has to offer, visit CulinaryCharleston.com.
