Charleston Beer, Wine & Booze

North Charleston · ramen, izakaya

Weems Pennington taught himself to make ramen about five years ago, went to Japan in 2025 to study it, and opened this ramen bar on Reynolds Avenue in December 2025 with Sharon Brown as general manager. There are four bowls ... shoyu, shoyu lite, miso and a vegetable ramen on fennel and shiitake broth ... plus karaage three ways and korokke. Cocktails are named after albums. It serves food until 12:30am, walk-ins only, behind a bright green mural near King BBQ.

Folly Beach · $ · global comfort food, curry, indian, asian, global, international, comfort food

A small Folly Beach room with a courtyard out back that the street does not show. The saloon quotes Charleston Magazine on its own site: 'a haven for vegetarians, vegans and omnivores alike, with sidewalk booths and a sunny back courtyard'. City Paper's Top 50 for summer 2026 says co-owner and chef Lesley Carroll rotates the menu with the seasons, with dishes such as red curry mac and cheese and Tom Kha Gai gnocchi. The Post and Courier's food editor calls it his Folly Beach favorite.

NoMo · $$ · bbq, texas barbecue, texas bbq

Pitmaster John Lewis serves Central Texas barbecue here, sliced to order at the counter from smokers he designed and welded himself, as the venue tells it. The Post and Courier says the Charleston original opened about a decade ago and has since spawned rooms in Greenville and Atlanta. It is known for smoked brisket, beef sausage and corn pudding with Hatch green chiles, and it has a large bar and a backyard patio. This is Texas-style beef barbecue, not a South Carolina sauce tradition. It was named a Bib Gourmand on 3 November 2025.

Hampton Park Terrace · $ · pub food, burgers, bar food, american, wings

A Hampton Park neighborhood bar north of the Crosstown, away from the visitor streets. City Paper named it the 2026 Best of Charleston winner for Best Meal Value, and its Fig Lebowski burger ... whipped feta, bourbon onion fig jam and crispy prosciutto ... won the most creative category in the paper's 2026 Burger Throwdown. Owner Mike Tronoski told the paper the kitchen runs a different burger special every day.

Cannonborough-Elliotborough · wine, beer, snacks

A bar inside a bookshop on a residential corner. The Post and Courier (17 May 2024) wrote that when you walk into the corner store at 50 Bogard Street there is a long wooden bar with black barstools to the left and bookshelves of titles for sale to the right. Co-owners Jenny Ferrara and her husband, Michael Bourke, longtime Charleston residents, opened it in 2024 because they like to read while having a drink and wanted to build a little clubhouse. On 11 June 2026 the paper reported it ranked sixth in USA Today's 2026 10Best Readers' Choice Awards for independent bookstores, the only South Carolina shop on the list. It draws people before and after dinner at Chubby Fish, Vern's and Bistronomy by Nico.

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.

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.

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.

Mount Pleasant · southwestern, southern, texan

Chef and owner Ben Berryhill's restaurant, which the site calls 'the intersection of South by Southwest' ... Southern cooking crossed with his Texan background. It bills itself as the islanders' hangout, with a bar that opens at four and a Sunday brunch.

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'.