Charleston Beer, Wine & Booze

French Quarter · french, crepes, cocktails

A basement bar, which is rare in a city that floods. The venue's own site calls it 'one of the only below-street-level bars in the city' and a 'bar clandestin', located beneath the French restaurant Brasserie La Banque at 1 Broad Street. Guests go down the building's original historic staircase into a room with soft lighting and Art Deco influenced furnishings. The menu is crepes, cocktails and champagne, and walk-ins are taken first come, first served.

French Quarter · seafood, lowcountry, raw bar

Fleet Landing sits on the harbor beside Waterfront Park and bills itself as Charleston's best waterfront dining and raw bar. The venue says it has been open for two decades. It reports three Post and Courier Charleston's Choice wins ... Best Downtown Restaurant, Best Waterfront Restaurant and a tie for Best Seafood Restaurant. The largest party it can seat is 10.

French Quarter · southern, lowcountry, new southern

Husk has been cooking Southern food from local purveyors since 2011, and the Charleston room on Queen Street is the original; Nashville and Savannah came later. Sean Brock was the founding chef and is no longer involved, as The Post and Courier notes. Charleston City Paper lists Ray England as chef in its Summer 2026 Top 50. The Bar and Patio sits next door in a nineteenth-century kitchen house and pours a deep list of bourbon and Southern spirits, first come, first served. The Post and Courier ties the kitchen to biscuits, country ham and Carolina Gold rice. It is Recommended in the inaugural MICHELIN Guide American South.

French Quarter · southern, seafood

Iron Rose is the bar and restaurant of the Mills House hotel at Meeting and Queen streets. Explore Charleston reported in spring 2026 that Suzy Castelloe had been appointed executive chef, with a focus on seasonal Southern coastal cooking.

French Quarter · cocktails

A windowless cocktail room reached through a custard shop on East Bay Street. The Post and Courier (16 April 2024) called it about as close to a hidden bar as Charleston gets: it sits behind the drink fridge of Charleston Custard and Candy Co., in the back of Big John's Tavern at 251 East Bay Street, and ringing the bell takes guests inside. The room is decked out in antique furniture with tables separated by see-through white curtains. The name is a nod to the 2004 Lustra song written for the film EuroTrip. It accepts reservations and the menu leans on classics.

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.

French Quarter

The Gin Joint is a cocktail bar on East Bay Street that takes no reservations and no call-aheads; hosts seat people as they arrive. It also runs cocktail classes.

French Quarter

The Griffon is a pub on Vendue Range. Its site calls it Charleston's Best Pub and posts two rules: no reservations, no pets.

French Quarter · american

The bar on top of The Vendue hotel in the French Quarter takes no reservations. Its site says City Paper readers have named it Best Rooftop Bar every year since 2007, and they did again in 2026.