Let The Light Through--A Piece Of Charleston's French Heritage

French is considered to be "le langage de l'amour." So, one may ask: What is it about French that qualifies it to be called "the language of love?" One reason, French is very euphonious. The tone of the spoken words tend to be more delicate sounding to the ears. Also, vowels and consonants are well distributed resulting in more harmonious phrases. Finally, the need to conjugate verbs makes it ideal for writing poetry and music.

Take for example, the French phrase "claire-voie." Attempting to pronounce the phrase in English, a person may be inclined to say it as if it were pronounced "clairevoyee," when actually the correct pronunciation, as if it were spoken in English would sound like "claire-vua" in proper French. You would have to agree, it is more "poétique."

I first came across the phrase "claire-voie" while researching the history of Charleston's wrought iron legacy for a recent article. It was listed along with such items as nails, boot scrapers, horseshoes, balconies, locks, and latches, which were used by colonial Charlestonians. To me, it seemed to be out of place.

When I looked up the translation of the phrase, I discovered it to mean "let the light through" or more literally an "openwork." A "claire-voie" is typically achieved with hedging or it can be an ironwork screen, openwork fence, gate, or grille placed in a wall through which a vista can be enjoyed. One of the most famous examples of a claire-voie is a round opening in a hedge of the White Garden at Sissinghurst Garden Castle in England.

I have strolled the wrought iron rich streets south of Broad Street many times and never realized the grated openings in residential walls allowing passersby a peek into the beautifully landscaped gardens beyond had a name. So, armed with my newly acquired information, I packed my camera and headed for the downtown peninsula of Charleston to search out examples of a claire-voie. I found them to be everywhere. This is a small collection I gathered on my excursion.

The French language is no stranger to Charleston. There has been a French influence in the city since its early colonial days. The Hugenots, French Protestants fleeing persecution and seeking religious freedom, came to Charleston in 1680 to start a community. The early congregation was made up of these Hugenot refugees sent by King Charles II to establish themselves as artisans and tradesmen. Within the original walled city, the district became known as the now famous French Quarter.

Preceded by two other churches, the still standing Gothic Revival-style French Huguenot Church, located at 136 Church Street, was completed in 1845. It was the first building of this style constructed in Charleston. Wealthy French merchants established a business presence and built homes. Legare Street is named for goldsmith Solomom Legare "the Hugenot," who built the first house at 32 Legare Street.

Like a surging Atlantic tide, peoples of varying cultures spilled into a river fed inlet of a distant new world and washed unto the shores of an oyster laden peninsula where they established what would grow into a bustling international sea port called Charleston. In this shared space, their varying beliefs and distinct dialects converged. They exchanged ideas and architecture. The French claire-voie was one of those shared concepts that found its way into the beautifully fashioned gardens of the elegant estates of America's most celebrated historic landscapes.

The Highly Acclaimed Poogan's Porch--Charleston Restaurant Week January 2017

Charleston is brimming with grand stories from the ghostly to the inspirational, but the one I am about to relate is both exceptional and endearing. Its the American Dream at its best. Its telling will warm your heart and put a smile on your face because the main character was a bit of a wanderer who found his place in Charleston society and a permanent residence in an old French Quarter house built in 1888. His name was simply Poogan.

In 1976, it was decided the old house would be turned into a restaurant. Poogan presided over the renovations. Like many Charlestonians, the porch was his favorite part of the house, so on completion, it was christened Poogan's Porch. He greeted its first satisfied customers. Since then, the interior of the restaurant has been upgraded and a 1500-bottle wine cellar was built in 2005. It has been a favorite of well-known celebrities, politicians, tourists and locals alike in addition to receiving recognition from Martha Stewart Living, Wine Spectator and The Travel Channel.

Poogan is no longer here and if he could speak, he would have told you, "To succeed in life, never bite the hand that feeds you." You see, Poogan was a scruffy, neighborhood dog.

There's something appealing and fun about dining at a restaurant that once was a house. Poogan's Porch is all of that and also boasts credentials that make it one of Charleston's oldest and most reputable culinary establishments. It was my choice for Charleston Restaurant Week.

Basking in the aura of the historically renowned Mills House, Poogan's Porch gives off a singular vibe of its own. Flanked by the Husk on its left and a masterfully painted fresco on its right, the yellow Victorian restaurant's street side entrance, enclosed by a black wrought iron fence, opens into a beautifully landscaped patio with cozy table settings leading to the front porch and more outdoor seating. Upon entering the front door, you can sense the antiquity of the house. Adjacent to a stairwell leading to the upper floor, a long hallway decorated with pictures and memorabilia ends at the desk of the hostess where I checked in to confirm my 5:00 pm reservation--the hour the restaurant begins its dinner sitting. I was a few minutes early, so I took a couple photographs and then waited on the porch. For a January evening, it was a pleasant 65 degrees.

At the end of the hall, we passed the restaurant's full bar and I was seated in the front room overlooking the porch. The table arrangements were modest and comfortably spaced along the walls with a fireplace on one of them. There were fans overhead and large baskets decorated the walls. The menus were placed before me and I awaited the room's server, who I was informed would be someone by the name Rosa.

I quickly perused the Restaurant Week Dinner Menu, which was 3 courses for $35 accompanied by $15 wine pairing suggestions. Shortly, Rosa arrived and to begin, I opted for a Stella, yes a beer, as my drink selection. From the menu, I chose the Smoked Butternut Squash Soup with Curried Creme Fraiche and Pickled Apples to start. Butternut squash and apples come into season around the same time and they go well together. Curried Creme Fraiche is literally "fresh cream" that more closely resembles sour cream or yogurt with spices. The combination translated into a dish that was velvety smooth and a perfect balance of earlier stated ingredients--magnificent.

I chose the Plancha Roasted Flounder with Blue Corn Grit Cake, Local Purple Sweet Potato, and Southern Romesco for my entree--all foreign descriptions to me. Plancha is to 'barbecue like the Spaniards', which involves cooking at a very high temperature around 280 or 300ºC (flash cooking) and is considered a healthy way to cook. Nicely presented with greens and sauce, the flounder was laid over the grit cake. My first experience with Blue Corn Grit Cake was pleasantly surprising. The flounder was slightly crisped along its edges, but still flaky and flavorful. All local ingredients made this a thoroughly enjoyable entree.

To complete my sitting, my dessert choice was a tough one, but I finally chose the Chocolate Gingerbread Cake with plum filling--Yummy. Total cost for my dinner was $40.00--well worth it.

Rosa was a delight--very patient and attentive. From Mexico, she lived up north--I believe she said Boston--before she came to Charleston 35 years ago and ten years later began serving at Poogan's Porch making her a 25 year veteran. Her timing was spot on--delivering the courses without missing a beat. She answered my questions with a smile. I asked her about Poogan's statue at the front entrance, which was missing and about the resident ghost named Zoe, for which the restaurant is famous--The Travel Channel voted the restaurant "Third Haunted Place in America" in 2003.

Poogan's Porch is one of Charleston's oldest independent culinary establishments. Located just off of Meeting Street on Queen Street, it is in the heart of downtown Charleston. Its professional staff is excellent. It is like going to a friend's house for dinner, but this dinner invitation includes a top chef by the name of Daniel Doyle cooking in the kitchen.

72 Queen St, Charleston, SC
Phone: (843) 577-2337
Reservations

Superbly Different, Tastefully Done--An East Bay Street Cocktail Mixing Treasure

Discreetly tucked away in a quaint alley just beyond a black wrought iron fence, I had passed its intimate, bricked courtyard many times while walking the Venue Range in the French Quarter. No more than a passing curiosity over the years, an outing a week earlier included a brief, probing peek into its windows.

Back again and on the prowl for an untried place to have dinner, I was surveying the East Bay streetscape when the unimposing black and white sign marking its location caught my attention and rekindled my interest to take another look-see. Its name invoked thoughts of white tuxedo jackets, spat covered shoes, and Humphrey Bogart clutching a gimlet exclaiming, "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine."

By definition, a joint is an unsavory place. Add gin to it, and you have an unsavory place serving alcoholic concoctions. The establishment in question on East Bay Street is anything but sleazy and even Bogie would be proud to be seen there as would any respectable local or tourist. It is a little piece of classy, French Quarter real estate lined with a liquor bottle menagerie of rainbow intoxicants served in varying sizes of glassware on a curved bar complimented by an assortment of unconventional dishes at surprisingly cheap prices. Ironically, it is called The Gin Joint.

After gleaning the menu, it quickly became apparent this was not the place for a full dinner. The drink portion of the menu was sizably longer than the food portion, but it was an attention grabber, especially the section called the Bartender's Choice. The bar was full and the leather booths against the walls looked comfortable, but the outdoor courtyard furnished with three sets of black wrought iron tables and chairs under the lights and the trees was the perfect choice on this beautiful Charleston early evening.

The menu was divided into two sections: drinks and food. The drink section was divided into alcohol categories: Gin, Agave, Whiskey, Brandy, and Rum but no Vodka--it is a pre-Prohibition menu. Under the alcohols were house names of mixes containing that particular alcohol--the mixes change with the seasons and inspiration.

While all the listed drinks were seductively tempting, the Bartender's Choice was the perfect match for my "throw caution to the wind" mood. From a list of 15 flavors and taste sensations, I was instructed to pick two of my favorite passions. Based on my choices of strong and savory, the bartender skillfully created my surprise cocktail using local sources of bitters and citruses blended with a shot of spirited imagination. When my highly anticipated libation finally arrived, the server detailed the ingredients and the alcohols used. It was the proper drink and exactly what I was looking for. An added striking feature of my Bartender's Choice was the single chunk of ice submerged in my cocktail cut to the shape of the glass--a chip off the 300-pound ice blocks whittled down by Joe Raya and company. All drinks are $10 each.

As to the food, the categories were Provisions, Cheese, and Desserts. My food selection came from the Provisions. The Duck Meatball Sliders with Fennel, Apple Slaw, and a San Marzano tomato sauce for $12 were very Mediterranean and delightfully exquisite.

Other choices were a Chicken N Waffle Sandwich with a Red Pepper Jelly for $12, a Benton's Country Ham wrapped in a Grilled Cheese and Wow Wow sauce for $9, Pickled Shrimp with Lemon, Capers, Onions and Sour Dough for $8, and a Pad Thai Popcorn for $6. Informed popular house favorites included a Soft Pretzel covered with Sriracha Cheese Sauce and Bull's Bay Salt for $7 and Pork Buns for $12. Dessert choices included a Coca-Cola Cake for $10 and a Peanut Butter Chocolate bar for $8.

The Gin Joint has been selected as one of "the 21 Hottest Cocktail Bars Across the US" by Eater and Garden and Gun rated it as one of the "50 Best Southern bars." From my experience, I see no reason to question their knowledgeable evaluation. With its idyllic location on East Bay Street right in the heart of the French Quarter surrounded on all sides by the best of the best, its contribution to Charleston's sizzling bar scene in my estimates is second to none and its drink offerings top shelf. Because the food menu consists mainly of small dishes, you would be more likely to choose it as a place to share a quiet cocktail with a special someone before a dinner outing or a drop in for a comforting drink and dessert diversion from an afternoon of sightseeing. Superbly different, tastefully done. For me, it is no longer just a passing interest. It is a on going interest.

Charleston's Own Unique Story Of Its Rise From Rags To Riches

Charleston's charismatic character has been molded over a long and illustrious history dating all the way back to the 1600's. Having now stated this obvious and unremarkable revelation on my part, there is nothing further I could add to what already has been eloquently set down on paper by pen or more consistent with the times, the keyboard, about Charleston's historic preeminence. The well thought out words and phrases may be arranged in different patterns styled by the unique point of view of its author and tinted with a hint of imagination to give it textual color, but the facts are inescapably the same. Since the Holy City's inception, it has survived a revolution, a civil war, great fires, a record setting earthquake, and several hurricanes. Hurricane Hugo, in 1989, is the most memorable of the catastrophes and without a doubt the most recent indelibly branded on the psyche of its highly faithful residents.

Charleston Hotel 1901

Before Hugo made its imprint on the landscape of Charleston, the city was grappling with a more perverse threat to its continuity, an insidious evil you will not read about in any great detail, and with the influx of so many people not of Charlestonian decent, quite unknown. An adversary that threatened to voraciously consume the wood, stone and iron structures of Charleston's eminent past. It was a blight common to most cities called urban decay and indifference. This is Charleston's uncelebrated story of its rise from rags to riches.

In 1979 an Atlanta magazine described a Charleston unknown to us today. At that time, they wrote an article of an unflattering truth about Charleston's present ever-popular Historic District. It stated, "Downtown Charleston, in many ways, epitomizes the decaying American city." "We were dying," said a store owner on King Street by the name of Mariana Hay. "It was just a big blight. Downtown was really kind of a no-man's land." The new mayor of Charleston, Joe Riley, agreed with these conclusions and likened the downtown area to a poisoned ecosystem. The demolition of the 120-year-old Charleston Hotel on Meeting Street epitomized the city's decay. Downtown commerce was looking like the Ashley River in Summerville at low tide. Empty storefronts were common and pedestrian traffic was deficient for a thriving market. Property values on King Street headed south like today's Northerners.

Charleston Place

Then, plans were set in motion to reverse the city's progression into a kind of Black Death. Charleston Place was conceived. In the beginning it faced opposition, but the planners persevered. A huge, sandy lot where a JCPenney's once stood was the chosen location for the groundbreaking. The centerpiece of the project would be a four star hotel with 440 guest rooms and suites with a rooftop pool. It now houses Charleston Spa, the Mobile Four-Star restaurant Charleston Grill, and an exclusive collection of world-famous stores located on the ground floor called the Shops of Charleston. There was no stopping the city's ascension from there. Charleston's "gold bug" was found. The restoration sparked by Charleston Place set the city ablaze and the fires of transformation moved quickly from building to building like the Great Fire of 1838.

Since my arrival in 2005, the growth has continued. At that time, there were only two bridges crossing the Cooper River with a view of the bay and skyline, one called the Silas Pearman Bridge and the other named the John P. Grace Memorial Bridge. They were two majestic icons that were feeling their age. I remember the first time I drove over the narrow bridges with both hands on the steering wheel accompanied by the uncomfortable feeling of possibly going over the edge. The old bridges eventually came down section by section and were replaced by the Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge. This year, March 31st, the new Arthur Ravenel Jr. Bridge will be covered with a sea of humanity in the 10k Cooper River Bridge Run starting at 8:00am. Taylor Hicks, Season 5 winner of American Idol, and his full band will perform on the Main Stage at the Finish Line.

1939 Riviera Theater on King Street now a Conference Center

Today, the old cobblestoned streets and waterfront walkways are filled with conversation and the clip-clop of horses' hooves. The Old Market is packed with souvenir-collecting tourists and the launching point for all the highly sought after horse-drawn carriage tours. The French Quarter is filled with camera carrying amateur and professional photographers alike looking to get the perfect shot. King Street is no longer a silent, faceless collection of once-upon-a-time stores, but now prime shopping real estate for an imaginative, thriving boutique. World-class luxurious accommodations touting the famous southern hospitality are plentiful. The finest dining establishments in the country with world renowned chefs featuring their own unique take on the famous Lowcountry cuisine are ready to serve you. Beautiful old plantations, antebellum homes, museums, sandy beaches, theaters, a thriving night life, and festivals year round will satisfy the most diverse of travelers.

Busy King Street today

Like I stated earlier, what else can I say that hasn't been already said, except the following parting words. The Holy City welcomes an estimated 4 million people every year. Charleston has been named the top American travel destination by the readers of Conde Nast Traveler. Travel and Leisure Magazine named Charleston "America's Sexiest City". Southern Living Magazine named Charleston "the most polite and hospitable city in America." It was also named the city with "the most attractive people". So, don't just read about the queen of cities, come and see for yourself. It is truly a story of rags to riches.

Chalmers Street is the longest surviving cobblestone street