Charleston Beer, Wine & Booze

Downtown Peninsula · pub food

The Blind Tiger is a pub on Broad Street with an outdoor patio. The site explains the name: blind tiger was the late 1800s term for an illicit drinking and gambling house.

Middle King · $

A King Street address with no King Street frontage. The bar's own site calls it a local dive bar, and its structured data gives the address as 354 Unit B King St. The local guide Exploring Charleston (8 November 2025) says it opened in 2006, sits down Burns Lane between Meeting Street and King Street, and is reached through a hidden entrance off King Street, with live music on weekends.

James Island

The Pour House has been booking live music since 2002 and runs two stages on Maybank Highway, an indoor room and an outdoor Deck Stage. Its site lists Kwei Fei and Jack of Cups Bebop as the food on the property. City Paper readers named it Best James Island Bar for 2026.

Folly Beach · global, tacos, vietnamese, mexican, caribbean

Chico Feo was founded in 2013 and calls itself a permanent fixture of Folly Beach that is always evolving. The site carries a surf report next to the menu and a calendar of music. City Paper readers voted it Best Folly Beach Restaurant, Best Folly Beach Bar and Best Folly Beach Happy Hour in 2026, and it is the first taco answer from the beach on r/Charleston.

Upper King

Forte is a ticketed jazz room on Upper King with one set on Wednesday and Thursday and two on Friday and Saturday. It was the Jazz & Blues Club runner-up in City Paper's 2026 readers' poll.

Park Circle · brewpub, raw bar, pub food, bar food, oysters

The Post and Courier calls it 'the mecca of family-friendly restaurants': covered outdoor seating, picnic tables, and beyond them a large area for children with a basketball net and full-size Jenga blocks, on a property that sits along Noisette Creek. The Walrus is the in-house raw bar. The venue lists four event spaces, live music on Fridays 5pm-8pm and team trivia on Wednesdays.

Hampton Park Terrace · bbq, southern

Founder Aaron Siegel came from fine dining, per Destination BBQ, and Home Team cooks a multi-regional menu instead of one barbecue tradition: smoked wings, pulled pork, brisket, ribs, turkey. The frozen Gamechanger cocktail is the house drink. The venue lists a kids menu and a sauce list; wood species is not stated on the pages fetched. Charleston-born group, also in Columbia, Greenville and Aspen. The downtown room has a fenced gravel yard with chalkboards for children, a large bar and a big courtyard.

Sullivan's Island · bbq, southern

Founder Aaron Siegel came from fine dining, per Destination BBQ, and Home Team cooks a multi-regional menu instead of one barbecue tradition: smoked wings, pulled pork, brisket, ribs, turkey. The frozen Gamechanger cocktail is the house drink. The venue lists a kids menu and a sauce list; wood species is not stated on the pages fetched. Charleston-born group, also in Columbia, Greenville and Aspen. The venue says the Sullivan's Island room is a block from the beach, with band posters and island artifacts on the walls, an open window bar, a covered porch, and regularly scheduled live music from local and touring artists.

Isle of Palms · seafood, raw bar

A marina restaurant on the Intracoastal Waterway. The venue calls itself family-friendly, with direct access by boat, weekly live music and sunsets. Explore Charleston lists yard games, kid-friendly trivia nights and a full kids menu; the Post and Courier mentions corn hole on the spacious patio and says to start with hushpuppies.

Folly Beach · polynesian, seafood, tiki

Koko's is the tiki kitchen and bar at the foot of the Folly Beach Fishing Pier. It calls its food 'Follynesian' ... Folly's island mood with the flavors of Polynesia ... and books live music and Music Bingo. The careers page ties it to Avocet Hospitality.

Folly Beach · american, burgers, breakfast

Planet Follywood says: 'Since 2004 we're a family owned island staple for good times, great food and southern hospitality.' Breakfast is served Friday to Sunday mornings, burgers and daily specials after that, with late night snacks and live music until 2am.

Mount Pleasant · southwestern, tex-mex, tacos

A Southern take on Southwestern cooking, with a wood fire in the kitchen, fresh-juiced margaritas and a long tequila list. The bar is built from a reclaimed cotton mill. Sunday brunch comes with endless mimosas. It is a small local group with other Charleston-area rooms.

Shem Creek · $$ · seafood, bbq, oysters, lowcountry

A seafood and barbecue house on the Shem Creek docks, opened in 2017 by Wade Boals, Brett Yearout and Joel Olindo. Wade is the son of Ronnie Boals, who opened R.B.'s Seafood Restaurant next door in 1985 and was one of the people who turned the creek into a place to eat; the menu still carries the Boals Family Crab Dip and a coconut cake. The restaurant closed from 5 to 12 January 2026 for its first major renovation, with a food window called The Wagon serving at the Mill Street entrance in the meantime. It has a Gazebo Bar and prints a dog treat menu.

West Ashley · bbq, southern

Southern Roots says it works with local meats, produce and beers. It has live music, outdoor seating, a private room called The Edisto Room, and a locals night every Wednesday with half-priced prime brisket smash burgers.

Shem Creek · lowcountry, seafood, sushi

A Shem Creek bar and restaurant pairing Lowcountry classics with sushi, with weekly live music on the water. It stands where Ronnie Boals opened R.B.'s Seafood Restaurant in 1985, according to the history page of Saltwater Cowboys next door. The contact address points to Bottlecap Group. Mount Pleasant Magazine still lists it under its earlier name, Sunsets Waterfront Dining.

Johns Island · sandwiches, bar food, wings, pub food

Tattooed Moose is known for Mike's Famous Duck Club, which the site says was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, and for duck fat fries. City Paper readers voted it Best Fries in 2026. The kitchen runs late ... to midnight most nights and 1am on Friday and Saturday ... and the bar stays open to 2am.

Shem Creek · new american, seafood

A Shem Creek restaurant with an indoor bar and a waterfront dock bar, owned by Andy Palmer and Jeff Condon; the site credits Dianne and Cecil Crowley as co-founders and Denis Crutchfield as executive chef. Live music plays on the creek Friday and Saturday from 6 to 9 pm, and the T&T Room seats up to 32 for private dinners.

Isle of Palms · seafood, southern

A seafood house at the foot of the Breach Inlet bridge, family-owned since 1997. The restaurant says it pioneered a focus on fresh local seafood when it opened, and the daily fish comes grilled, broiled, blackened or roasted. Upstairs is a rooftop bar; the screened Waterfront Deck looks over the inlet, the marsh and the sunset. Sundays are seafood boils.

Eastside

The Commodore is a live music and dance room on Meeting Street. Its site says the club started in the early 80s as A Touch of Class before it was revived under the current name, and that entry is ages 23 and up. City Paper readers named it Best Jazz & Blues Club for 2026.

French Quarter · seafood, new american, lowcountry

The Establishment opened in May 2018 in the James Gregorie House, built around 1791 and named for the Scottish merchant who lived there. Executive chef Elliott Howells has been in the kitchen since opening and took the top job in 2021; he came to Charleston in 2002 and trained at the French Culinary Institute, per Charleston Wine + Food. The menu centers on sustainably sourced seafood and changes daily. The house has two dining rooms, a wine cellar, two private rooms and a chef's counter on an open kitchen, plus live music on Saturday nights. It is Recommended in the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South.

NoMo · $ · american, bar food

A bar and music room in an old ironworks on the upper peninsula. The venue says it is in the Ole Charleston Forge building and has served food, drink and live music since 2011, with the kitchen open until 1 a.m. every day. The Post and Courier's 2026 itinerary sends readers there for $5 pitchers of Miller High Life on a patio that faces the Ravenel Bridge, and City Paper (June 2026) points to the $13 disco fries and the $12 patty melt.

Johns Island · southern, cocktails

A bar in a small building behind a roadside Southern restaurant, a few miles from the Ravenel line. The Post and Courier (16 April 2024) described it as a neighborhood hideout in a small structure behind Angel Oak Restaurant, with specialty cocktails, live music and most of the restaurant's food menu. Chef Jay Kees, a Culinary Institute of America graduate from Mississippi, opened the restaurant with his wife, Nicole, in 2012 and follows what the paper called a plow-to-plate philosophy using Johns Island farms. The restaurant's own site tells guests they can 'enjoy the speakeasy bar behind the restaurant'.

Park Circle · sandwiches, american, pub food, bar food

The Moose is known for the Duck Club ... duck confit, applewood smoked bacon, hickory smoked cheddar and garlic aioli on a Hawaiian roll ... and for a long craft beer list. Guy Fieri featured it, and the venue notes a 2024 return on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Its own site now lists two rooms, Park Circle and Johns Island, and the tourism office says it has been a local favorite since relocating to Park Circle.

Isle of Palms · bar food

The Windjammer has stood on Front Beach at Isle of Palms since 1972, with an indoor stage, an outdoor beach stage and sand volleyball courts. Shows at 9pm and later are 21 and up. City Paper readers named it Best IOP Bar and Best Waterfront Bar for 2026.

Upper King · pizza, pub food

Uptown Social opened on Upper King in 2018 and calls itself a cornerstone of the King Street scene, with live music every night, pub fare and Brooklyn-style pizza by Anthony Falco.