September 1st, 2010 by Currie
I like how my juice looks in this Piggly Wiggly cup
This week I have embarked into uncharted territory, not eating food! Om Cooking‘s Chef Ken Immer has created a three day juice fast for me. Ken sat down with me at the “Home of Om” his catering kitchen off of Remount Rd in North Charleston where he produces delicious things like his very popular “gRAWnola”. He spoke to me about everything from how our bodies metabolize food to how important it is to teach yourself will power. I left with a very heavy box of juice made of a special blend of mainly Kale juice. When it comes to food, I pretty much love it all! I do however acknowledge the health benefits of choosing one type of food over another. Last year I picked up a Raw Food Cookbook and fell in love. Mainly what I love about the Raw food is how quickly it erases the effect of too many super rich restaurant dinners. I also love that you can drink red wine. Most importantly the way it makes me feel! A couple of days of raw food only and I am extraordinarily energetic mentally and physically. The juice fast has been much easier than I expected. I pretty much drink this really hearty soup like juice and water all day accompanied by some supplements in pill form, also provided by Ken. Yesterday I drank juice at lunch while my client ate sweet potato cakes at Fuel. Last night I had some juice for dinner while my friend had barbecued chicken, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese and collard greens from Whole Foods in Mt. Pleasant. When I woke up this morning I expected to feel very hungry and deprived, but I feel great. I don’t think this will be my last Om Cooking juice fast.
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September 1st, 2010 by Currie
Yesterday I got a sneak peak at the new restaurant GRAZE coming to the Whole Food’s shopping Center off Houston North Cutt in Mt. Pleasant, Sc. The formerly Coco’s space is getting a major facelift thanks to the hard working owners who cleverly hired Erika Nadolny of Tabula Rasa salon and design to get the right look. I caught up with the team and Erika as they were doing their last minute tweaking before a planned opening in mid September.
Erika of Tabula Rasa design poses against her textural wall paper choice in the new restaurant Graze
Erika’s design is both elegant and earthy. She did not draw inspiration from other restaurants but pulled ideas from basic shapes, textures, and objects. Erika works in a very collaborative way. The owners Mike Karkut, Derrick Lathan, and Bradford Bobbitt were very involved in the process of renovating the space. Derrick’s Dad, Richard Rodger’s owner of Houseworks is the contractor.
Erika chose this retro light fixture for the new restaurant Graze
Erica was happy that the guys approved this chandelier. She made sure all of her choices were something they all approved of. For example, she presented three concepts for the design of the back bar. They chose a multicolored horizontal plant motif in grays and greens reminiscent of Piet Mondrian, the father of modern abstract art.
cool and modern textures and colors of the new mt pleasant sc restaurant Graze
Erika emphasized the importance of using the right materials in restaurant decor. She chose commercial grade finishes and fabrics that are “double rub”. Restaurants get a lot of wear and it is very important that the design looks good continuously. To interview Erika Nadolny contact her through the website www.tabularasacharleston.com to read more about Graze check out the very good City Paper article and interview by clicking here.
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August 31st, 2010 by Currie
Last week I took a short trip to visit Hilton Head Island. Hilton Head is only about two hours by car south of Charleston off of I95. It is the largest barrier island on the southern Atlantic seacoast. It is also a relatively ritzy development dreamland very similar to Charleston’s Kiawah and Seabrook Islands. We had a great time in one of the few remaining 70s era beach houses on what’s known as Hilton Head’s “gold coast”. The beach is really beautiful and very empty. We biked all over the island and had drinks and seafood at an outdoor spot called The Salty Dog. Our favorite lunch spot turned out to be in Bluffton at the May River Grill, we went back the next day only to find them closed, they only do dinner on Saturday. The dish to have at the May River is the oysters, they are fantastic and the tres leches dessert is divine. The Sage Room was our favorite dinner spot where I loved the asian menu especially the pea pods and the bar b que tofu. After lunch in Bluffton we did some antiquing and found a samuri sword which became the focus of the party game “watermelon decapitation”. The best find of the whole weekend was the Bluffton Oyster Company this seafood market is perched on the water with shrimp boats tied up out front. They have been in business for 100 years and still hand pick crab and sell the lump meat by the pound fresh. It is really a must see and taste. My take on Hilton Head Island is a perfect getaway for a few days with fun friends. The island is sleepy and relaxing compared to Charleston, Sc.
View from our porch of Hilton Head Island's Gold Coast
Shrimp and Fishing boats at the Bluffton Oyster Company
The ladies picking the crabs don't like photos
Tom's uncle Bill takes a turn at Watermelon Decapitation
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August 12th, 2010 by Currie
One Respe Massage at 162 Spring in downtown Charleston Sc is offering some great “back to school specials”. This month students and teachers can “take 5″ massages for only $35 each! New clients first massage is only $40 for one hour. One Respe is all about showing your body love and respect, so start the school year off on the right foot, with a little therapy at this fantastic downtown spa. Visit the new website to read more about One Respe.
Visit One Respe on Spring St between Ashley and President downtown
Also in August the team of expert stylist and glamorizers at Tabula Rasa Salon (in front of One Respe) are offering a special to make sure everyone steps into fall looking their best. Take $5 off a haircut, $10 off color, and $20 off Keratin treatments all month.
Stop by Tabula Rasa to get the new look with special summer prices
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August 12th, 2010 by Currie
Attention Andre’s posse! Yesterday I screeched to a halt, jumped out of my car, and snapped this photo of Shepard Fairey caught in the act. It’s so nice to know that between designing logos and ad campaigns for everyone from the President of the United States to Levis, this Charleston Sc native, still has time to come home and vandalize some street signs. Luckily everyone in Charleston adores the artist and looks forward with pride to recognizing his tags around town.
Shepard Fairey caught in the act in downtown Charleston Sc
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August 12th, 2010 by Currie
Today I met my broker Chris Brand of Brand Name Real Estate, at Amen St. restaurant. Amen St. replaced the pitiful tourist trap known as the Crab Shack on the corner of Cumberland and East Bay. Now this brand new restaurant is Brand Name Real Estate’s most convenient eatery, and is far superior to the previous establishment. The menu has lots of good sounding options. Our group of three ordered the Chef Todd’s shrimp corn dogs as a starter, the fried green blt, the shrimp po boy, and the ceviche. The shrimp corn dogs were as silly as they sound, and everything else was equally underwhelming. My ceviche was mostly pineapple which was overpoweringly sweet. The food might be ho hum but the decor is lovely. The bar is nicely designed and everything is comfortably classy. This is a great place to spend a working happy hour. I also must add that the oysters seem to be the specialty, but I’m a local and August does not have an “R” in it. It just doesn’t seem right to eat oysters in anything but an “R” month. I’ll make sure to come back in September.
Chris Brand meets with agents at Amen St restaurant
Chef Todd's Shrimp Corn Dogs at Amen St on Cumberland and East Bay
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August 8th, 2010 by Currie
Barsa, 58 Line St.-corner of King & Line, beside the Post & Courier. Will be a Tapas Lounge inspired by relaxed-fun cuisine. The corner of King and Line had a major upgrade over a year ago and now it’s getting another one.
Barsa will open the begining of September with a couple sneak previews before that.
Drazen Romic takes out the Shine and adds the Barsa
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August 7th, 2010 by Currie
The article features one of Elliotborough’s treasures, and it tells a tale of the unique and textured lifestyle to be led in Charleston Sc’s only dual zoned commercial and residential neighborhood. Magar purchased the colonial era home on the corner of Felix and Cannon a couple of years ago and has settled in beautifully. The following is an excerpt from Food and Wine Magazine:
Party at the Drop of a Hat
Leigh Magar makes some of the most sensational hats in Charleston, South Carolina—a city where a hat really means something. She outfits cookbook authors Matt Lee and Ted Lee in fedoras for a wonderful outdoor dinner party.
Whether it’s a baseball cap or a straw boater, a cloche or a four-foot-wide church bonnet, Southerners love the blast of self-expression—and the shade—of a great hat. Our friend Leigh Magar designs ravishing ones for Magar Hatworks in Charleston.
Leigh Magar and Johnny Tucker. Photo © Fredrika Stjärne.
We first met Leigh and her architect husband, Johnny Tucker, at a crab boil on the banks of a creek south of the city. The two of them appeared to have stepped out of a 1930s film. Her hat, a spray of feathers, was perched rakishly over an immaculate bob; he wore a three-piece suit and a leopard-print fedora. And then Leigh pulled from her handbag a red polka-dot apron, tied it on over her vintage dress, and proceeded to pick apart and devour the crabs on the table with a gusto unmatched by any of the good ol’ boys in their camouflage caps.
At any party, Leigh and Johnny are always the first to hit the oyster-shucking table and the last dancing on the porch, even when the candelabra above has begun to drip wax on everyone’s heads. When she shows her hat collections, she turns that into a party, too. People come to the garden of her studio to drink tea (and quite a lot of wine), eat pimento-cheese sandwiches and watch models circulate among the fig and mulberry trees wearing Magar Hatworks’s latest trilbies, fedoras and cocktail hats. Recently, Leigh packed up her fall collections and sent them on their way to Barneys New York and the Tokyo retailer Isetan. There was a brief lull before she would embark on a series of exclusive designs for New York designer Gary Graham. As her occasional cohosts, it seemed to us as good a time as any for a party in her garden.
Photo © Fredrika Stjärne.
When guests arrived and began to gather on the porch, we passed around lacy squash blossoms stuffed with red-pepper ricotta—our riff on Leigh’s pimento-cheese sandwiches and a tribute to Tuscany, where she and Johnny tied the knot. Leigh ladled out a fiery watermelon gazpacho with crab and avocado—a twist on Mary Randolph’s “gaspacho,” from the seminal Southern cookbook The Virginia Housewife, and our nod to Johnny’s home state.
“Ruined finery—that’s all I have left,” Leigh exclaimed wryly as she poured the magenta-hued soup into an antique bowl, quoting actress Mary Astor in the campy 1965 film Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte. She was apologizing for chips and hairline cracks in the bowl, from a treasured floral-patterned set handed down from her great-grandmother. That’s so Leigh: A lot of folks in Charleston keep their heirlooms under glass, but she and Johnny refuse to. They’re always in their best vintage clothes, whether at the farmers’ market on any given Saturday or at a tony Spoleto Festival music fete; they clatter around town in an old Mercedes. Click here to visit the magazines website and read on...
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August 7th, 2010 by Currie
Thursday night I was lucky to join the team from Ben Arnold (in turn of the century garb) along with Charleston’s finest bar tenders and lead by award-winning mixologist Charlotte Voisey and a panel of guest judges. We crawled through downtown Charleston sampling cocktails made from Hendrick’s Gin. The crawl began at Social and then the entourage continued to High Cotton, Club Habana, Rue de Jean, Halls Chophouse, Chais, O-Ku, and Midtown Bar & Grill. The Midtown Bar & Grill was the final stop hosted the awards ceremony and celebration!
Charlotte Voisey (left) and Gin Lovers caught on film at Rue de Jean
Photo by VANESSA MC GUIRE PHOTOGRAPHY
Ben Arnold Spirits Reps sample cocktails at Chai on Upper King
Photo by VANESSA MC GUIRE PHOTOGRAPHY
The view from the roof at Midtown Bar and Grill
Photo by VANESSA MC GUIRE PHOTOGRAPHY
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August 7th, 2010 by Currie
Downtown Charleston’s milliner extraordinaire, Leigh Magar of Magar Hatworks at the corner of Cannon St and Felix St next to Sugar Bakeshop is hosting an opportunity to pick up that new show stopper topper for a bargain. FOR MORE INFORMATION:
HAT SALE-VISIT THE NEW BLOG
http://magarhatworks.tumblr.com/
OR COME BY THE STUDIO THIS
WEEKEND (TAX FREE HOLIDAY)
Leigh Magar
Magar Hatworks
57 Cannon Street
Charleston, SC 29403
843-345-4483-by appointment
magarhatworks.com
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