Bring Your Favorite Wine to Some Great Restaurants in Charleston!!

Have you heard of the trends in other parts of the country where people can take a bottle of wine to a restaurant for free to minimal charge corkage? This is commonplace in California and many other big cities..

Guess what? Charleston is catching up to the times with this. There are several restaurants who will allow you to bring your own wine to enjoy with dinner for a fee. I wanted to highlight a few for you to take advantage of while you are out for a night on the town or a simple dinner with family and friends.

Free Corking Fee with a wine bought at WineStyles in Mount Pleasant ( the best place to get fantastic wine in Charleston):

Outback Steakhouse (Mt. Pleasant location)

- 715 Johnnie Dodds Blvd, Mt Pleasant, SC - (843) 849-9456

$5 to $15 Dollar Corking Fee

Fleet Landing http://www.fleetlanding.net/ (one of my favorite seafood restaurants with a great view)

- 186 Concord StCharleston, SC 29401(843) 722-8100

Sienna http://www.siennadining.com/

- 901 Island Park Drive Daniel Island, SC (843) 881-8820

Locklear's (Mount Pleasant Location) http://www.locklears.com/

- 320 W Coleman Blvd # QMt Pleasant, SC 29464(843) 884-3346

Mistral http://www.mistralcharleston.com/ (great live music and food! a definite must for downtown)

- 99 S Market St, Charleston, SC - (843) 722-5708

Blossom Cafe http://www.magnolias-blossom-cypress.com/ (lovely, elegant food with a homemade feel)

- 171 E Bay StCharleston, SC 29401(843) 722-9200

$20 to $25 Corking Fee (these places also have great wine selections, so if you take a wine, make sure it is worth the fee)

Samos Taverna - great greek food like your yiayia would make!

- 819 Coleman Blvd.Mt Pleasant, SC 29464(843) 856-5055

http://www.charlestonmag.com/charleston_magazine/feature/samos_taverna

McCrady's http://www.mccradysrestaurant.com/ ( great place for fine dining with a great Sunday musical theatre dinner by Robbi Kenney and friends)

- 2 Unity Alley Charleston, SC 29401(843) 577-0025

High Cotton http://www.high-cotton.net/ (great happy hour)

- 199 E Bay StCharleston, SC 29401(843) 724-3815

If you know of any other places that allow BYOB, please email me at charlestonscstyle@gmail.com and we will be glad to post it on the blog.

Enjoy!

A weekend of wine and celebration

This past weekend was one of the most relaxing in months. Starting out with an afternoon at WineStyles at Towne Center where we had a white wine class followed by a great wine tasting of some great new wines...new summer whites and lush reds (Il bastardo and The Red Mullet being my favorites - and no, the word mullet doesn't have anything to do with hair :) ). Another great treat we had was ruby stout (infused with port wine), a lovely Rousanne (very rare wine due to the persnickety vines it comes from from Zaca Mesa winery), almond champagne brought by a friend to the class, and a lovely crisp Riesling named Blue Fish, which was very light and refreshing. We ended up getting lunch in there for the afternoon from Orlando's Pizza on Daniel Island, a traditional Jersey pizza, which if you haven't had, is really wonderful and filling!

Sunday was encompassed by a Church Celebration Sunday at First (Scots) Presbyterian on this 5th Sunday of Lent. First Scots was founded in 1731 as the first Presbyterian Church in Charleston. Founded by 12 families, many of whose descendants are still active in the church today, the church thrives on worship and fellowship, and today was no exception. There was only one service for the church this day, followed by a procession down to Hibernian Hall for a traditional southern sunday picnic with all the trimmings! Yummy! This outing was spurred by the Generations Campaign at the Church for new buildings as well as the need for fellowship and truly doing things as a church family, something that is duly missed these days. I haven't seen the pictures yet, but I'm sure that there was fun had by all!

The Best Wine Shop in Charleston, WineStyles

Have you ever gone to winetastings not having a clue what you are drinking, much less tasting....Well we started going almost a year ago cause it seemed like a fun thing to do..learn about wines, taste some, have some appetizers too...great start to an evening, right? Well, let me tell you that it depends on where you go.

Having gone to a couple of places and trying them out for awhile, we literally stumbled into a wineshop called WineStyles at Towne Center in the middle of december 2008. They had just opened, it was a saturday afternoon, and they were having a tasting...well first off, the shop itself was large, really beautiful, had lots of cool accessories, and most of all, had wines on the wall so you could find what you were looking for (even if you weren't quite sure). The other big thing that hit us was the warm welcome that we had when we came in...We were greeted, served (not pestered or ignored), and really had the feeling of being welcomed, which in these times really can be hard to come by...

So go figure, we went back...and have been going at least once a week ever since...Between the great wine, food, classes, atmosphere, and great chats with Martha and Joe, the owners, who are some of the coolest people we know, it is by far some of the best afternoons....

They have such a great selection of wines that they handpick and taste as well as awesome cheese and nut trays that we enjoy frequently....

Come and Join Us for a glass or a bottle!!

For your information, they have tastings every thursday from 5:30 - 7:30 and saturday from 2-7.
http://www.winestyles.net/mtpleasant