Blossom Restaurant, in Charleston South Carolina

Charleston Marina

Charleston has grown into one of the best gastronomic destinations on the east coast.  I know there are doubters, but I’m used to it.  Hey, I’m married!

People from Baltimore will bring up blue crabs.  New Yorkers will scream….New Yorkers seem to favor screaming…Hey, buddy, we got every-ting heah.  Miami citizens like to tell the world about Cuban cuisine.

Yes, I’m going to tell you a great place to eat, but first there’s a necessary digression.  You need to know the city you’re dealing with.  Otherwise you’re just going to crawl away imagining four walls with food on the table.  See part of the master plan is to erase ignorance and I’m starting with you!

 

Live Oaks at The Battery, White Point Garden

Gotta admit, there are some lackings in Charleston choices.  Mexican comes to mind.  But, what Charleston does offer that’s so much more attractive than a sandy day at the beach, is sumptuous atmosphere to go along with the freshest of seafood. Stroll around this stately old town for a bit and you’ll get in the spirit.  See the craggy, gray bearded oaks, huge black cannon and grand, stately homes along The Battery. 

Confederate Rodman Cannon

Rainbow Row of Porgy and Bess fame is nearby.  Look out across the rippling confluence of the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, that come together to form the Atlantic Ocean.  Yep, that’s Fort Sumter in the distance, awash in the ocean tides and tide of history.

Rainbow Row

You catching the drift? When you eat in Charleston you’re flooded by atmosphere you’ll find nowhere else.  The salt air.  The cobblestone streets.  The horse drawn carriages. The old vegetable market and the ladies weaving sweetgrass baskets.

These cobblestones date from the days of sailing ships and were used for ballast 

So when my close friend said we would meet with some of his rowdy companions for lunch at Blossom, my mouth watered.  Blossom is a fairly new establishment near the marketplace.  In Charleston, new means the Civil War (War of Northern Aggression), or the Revolutionary War do not need to be mentioned as you ease from the heat into air conditioned comfort.

Bright.  Sunny as outside, but cooler.  The whitewashed, exposed beam interior gives you a sense of having lunch in an elegant flower garden.  Ditto the white cloth napkins, sparkling silverware and glistening white china.  Yes, I am a secret snob.  Some would say not so secret. Maybe it’s more accurate to say I find solace in colors and design and attention to detail.

“Ok!” you impatient bastards are screaming, “What about the flapping food?”

  

The flapping food is extraordinarily delicious, with a wonderful presentation and service that makes lunch a celebration of hunger!  Seafood is the main attraction and the freshness is mouthwatering.  Yes, for non-seafooder swine there are other choices.  Just want to sip wine and nosh a salad?  You’ve come to the right place.  The Riesling St Urbans-hof, direct from the Mosel River was fruitily fantastic.  Of course, both my faithful readers already know I favor Mosel wines for breakfast, lunch, dinner, as well as for brushing my teeth.

I ordered some fried clams and calamari, just to warm up my taste buds and followed that with a cup of creamy She Crab Soup.  Polished those off just as my Crab Louie Salad arrived. A companion went with Caeser Salad and blacked chicken, while another one fussed over a juicy cheeseburger and the fourth got a wedge of fresh lettuce with a creamy dressing.  But see, these folks live here and need a break from indescribably luscious seafood once in awhile. I do not need that break. I eschew that break.  I SAY….no I don’t say that.  I’m too polite.

She Crab Soup, a Charleston Speciality

Crab Louie Salad

Blackened Chicken Breast on Caesar Salad

A wedge of iceburg

As our waiter brought the platters, conversation stopped. Yes, I wanted another glass of wine and I got it.  No need to wander through descriptions of every bite. The dishes were….Just check  out the photos!  Thousands of mouthwatering words written all over them!

Conversation?  Didn’t start up again until our very efficient waiter removed the plates and brought the bills.

Will I go back to Blossom?  Stupid question.  Make that INSANE question.  I will go back and I will bring along my ravenous appetite.  Companions are optional.  More Riesling is not.

Rutledge Cab Co. Charleston, SC

Time for some Americana.  Yes, I am still American, even though I live in Europe and I love BBQ joints and burger joints. 

But, let’s make a distinction. There are burger joints and then there are special burger joints.  The Rutledge Cab Co snuggles neatly into the second category.  I was there on a packed Monday night for a half priced burger. First time, but I’ll go back.  

Huge, crowded bar, but well stocked and quick service. Couple of guys eating at the bar offered to slide down and make room.  It was that kind of group.   Fairly long wait for a table, that with the milling crowd and everybody sipping, I had some interesting conversations with some new close friends and waitstaff who were interested that I was interested.  Always nice to meet people who are enthusiastic about what they do.

“So do your enjoy waiting tables?”

Bright smile, nice pony tail.  “Yessss!  It’s so much fun! I’d work here for free!”

“Well, good.  I’ll remember not to leave a tip.”

“I’ll remember not to put in your order.”

Followed by much laughter and a wink.   

Makes me wonder what it’s like on a normal night when the beef burgers are ten bucks.  No matter, I would pay full price for a thick burger, cooked medium and stacked with lettuce, tomato and onion on a soft bun, accompanied by thin, crispy fries.

Find a good burger joint and you’ve found the heart of America.  Older, well-dressed men and women.  Ripped jeans and tattooed youngsters who punctuate every other word with ‘like.’  Every ethnicity.  Everybody smiling and chatting.  Don't’ believe all the bullshit in news. It’s America! How can you not like it?

Here’s the web site, so you an check out the full menu.  http://rutledgecabco.com/

Friendly crowd.  Friendly wait staff.  Friendly is good in my book.  And the food is delicious.

The National Naval Aviation Museum

Yes, sir, this is one hell of a wondrous place tucked away on Naval Air Station Pensacola. If you breeze through this part of the Gulf Coast, don’t you dare let the pestering wife and screaming kids make you miss one of the great military museums in the world. Before you come in, have a short talk with the fam and mention a whole section dedicated to the important role women have always played in aviation.  For the kids, promise them sights, hands-on exhibits and rides that take them into the wild blue with the Blue Angels.

Do you find yourself saying: “Yeah, sure, another stack of dusty old stuff sitting around for me to stare at.  All the same to you if we just go have a beer?”

No, you dull minded nitwit, it’s not all the same to me.  There are more tentacles of history running through this museum than you’ve ever imagined.  Important history and not just history, but heroic, breathtaking stories that you’ve never heard. History streaked with the blood and gritty determination of men and women who took us from wood and cloth covered airplanes, dangerous and freakishly chancy, to air travel that’s as necessary to the 21^st Century as trains were to the 19^th.

“Wait a sec,” you’re saying, “I thought you said this was Naval Aviation!”  See, you just lack the knowledge, and it’s another reason you need to visit a few museums.  When the dream of manned flight escaped from Orville and Wilbur’s bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio and took it’s first gasping breath on the sandy hills four miles south of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a new world was born.  Maybe it was a new wing (pun intended) of the library.  One giant lift-off for mankind. Pick your own metaphor.

Orville Wright

Wilbur Wright

The reality is it’s only since the middle of the 20^th Century that aviation really untangled itself and spawned Army Aviation, Naval Aviation, Air Force Aviation, Commercial Aviation, and General Aviation.  In the beginning, there was only aviation, period.  Yes, yes, I know a stickler will claim the aviation branches came along much earlier.  Ok, you’re right, but Jimmy Doolittle’s 1942 attack on the Japanese mainland was Army B-25 bombers lifting off from a Navy carrier. And who provided the Intelligence?  A naval officer.

B-25 Mitchell 

 No, I’m not going to lead you through all the trials and successes, failures and growth.  And yes, of course the National Naval Aviation Museum focuses on the Naval part, but this museum has so much more to offer, and is superbly organized into World War I, between the wars, World War II, and modern aircraft.  Along the way, you’ll meet the Curtiss Jenny, an aircraft that trained so many pilots following the First World War, including Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and military pilots from all services.  The Jenny in the museum is a cutaway and affords you a firsthand look at the delicate design that just barely kept pilots away from violent death. 

Amelia Earhart

You’ll see flimsy craft like the British WWI airplane the Sopwith Camel. Know how long the average British fighter pilot lasted on the Western Front in World War I?  Three weeks.  How much flying time did the lads get before going to France?  8-12 hours.

Even in World War II, we lost over 14,000 aircraft in training accidents.  Aviation has always required courageous people.

See the bullet hole patches?

How about the Douglas Dauntless, the primary Naval dive bomber of World War II?  You’ll learn all about it and especially the unlikely story of the Dauntless on display. Retired Naval pilots weave through the museum to explain and entertain and thrill and make even the seasoned aviator stay glued to the tales of desperate heroism and miraculous survival.

It’s not just U.S. Naval aircraft on display, also a slew of aircraft flown by the opposition:  the German Fokker D-VII from WWI, Japanese Zero and German Me-262, and Soviet MIGs.

Fokker D VII

Me 262, one of the first jet fighters

Korean War MIG 15

I could write forever, but instead check out a few photos to whet your appetite.   This museum won’t just entertain, but quickly turn you into a budding aviation historian.  Your kids will suddenly want to be aviators and you’ll hear your wife whisper, “Honey, is it ok if we spend the night and come back again tomorrow?”

“Yes, dear, if you insist.”  I applaud your unselfish spirit and budding interest in aviation.  High five!  I take back the part about you being a dull minded nitwit. Now let’s go grab that beer.

http://www.navalaviationmuseum.org/

P-40 Warhawk in the colors of the American Volunteer Group in China

Ball turret from a PBY4, the Navy version of the B-24 Liberator