Charleston Wine and Food Festival – Part One
Charleston, South Carolina is one of our favorite cities, as I am sure you may know. It is incredibly charming and romantic, teeming with history and by far, one of the best food towns in the country. We were excited to be there again this past weekend for one of their biggest food and wine events of the year, the Charleston Wine & Food Festival.
You may also know that we have been dealing with quite a challenge over the past four weeks with our very sick dog, Beamer, You can read the latest update on the blog I have started for him, Beamer’s Corner. We were not certain if we would make it to Charleston for this event under the circumstances, however, we did get there late Thursday evening with Beamer as our unexpected guest. While we did miss a number of events, we were still able to get a great feel for the weekend from the activities and dinners we were able to participate in.
Beamer seemed to enjoy his mini vacation at one of his favorite hotels, Charleston Place, along with his new friend and pet sitter, Kristen. I want to thank Helene Dujardin and Holly Herrick for making the introduction to Kristen. We would not have been able to leave Beamer and participate in the various events without Kristen’s visits to our hotel.
I was very excited to see Helene and her husband Bill again and I met Holly for the first time at Helene’s photography exhibit hosted by the Heirloom Book Company. This is a very charming bookstore on King Street, one of the many quaint shops that Charleston is known for. It was such a pleasure to be with both of these ladies last Saturday evening.
I will be writing a few articles with more details from the Charleston Wine and Food Festival in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I wanted to share a few photos of beautiful Charleston and some news with you.
First of all, I was excited to find out that my rendition of Chef Mike Lata’s (of FIG in Charleston) Chicken and Dumplings was featured with a few other bloggers on Bon Appetit.com in their What People are Cooking column last week. It could not have been more timely since we were in Charleston when this article was released.
The second bit of news is that there is a new look to the Homepage at Bunkycooks. We wanted to update the site to make it easier to navigate. Thank you to my designer Lindsay at Purr Design for making the changes. 🙂 Please let me know if you like the additions or have any other suggestions.
The third thing I wanted to mention is that we were flattered to be included in one of the recap videos from the Charleston Wine and Food Festival. You can see us having wine in the courtyard by the fountain before our Dine Around Dinner at Charleston Grill Saturday evening. I am sure that you will want to attend next year’s festivities after watching a few of these videos!
On a final note, I am not a big fan of asking my readers to vote for me in contests, so I avoid them when it involves getting the popular vote. However, this is one that would mean a lot to be able to be considered for, Saveur’s Best Food Blogs Awards. If you enjoy reading Bunkycooks and are interested in nominating my blog for one of the categories that you feel is the best fit, I would certainly appreciate your support and the time that it takes to put in the nomination. http://www.saveur.com/food-blog-awards/ Thank you!
Have a great weekend!
What a fun festival! Can’t wait to read more about it and see the delicious recipes!
Hi Marnely,
A few posts should be out next week!
Gwen
Charleston has been on my list of places that I’d like to see for a long time. Maybe one of these days….
Glad you got to take Beamer with you!
Hi Kath,
You definitely need to put Charleston on your list of must visit cities! It is such a lovely and charming city and the food is phenomenal.
Gwen
More, more.. we want more. I love Beemer and glad he’s fit and healthy and has a new friend Kristen. 🙂
I’m very envious about this Charleston Wine and Food Festival!
Hi Maureen,
Yes, Kristen was wonderful. We are still working on getting Beamer fit and healthy again. It may take some time, but we are convinced we can get our boy back.
Gwen
So beautiful..I’ve only heard great things about this town. And it was so good to see Beamer. Right now, I have my little Margot in my lap. I’ve been keeping sweet Beamer in my thoughts! Love and hugs.
Thanks, Monet. Yes, Charleston is a wonderful town.
Hugs to Beamer….the rest I say to you in private. I also have already nomniated you, with pleasure and joy, in Saveur’s Best of the Blogs in the category Culinary Travel Blog. You deserve this win and for so many of us Bunky Cooks is definitely the best of the best! I would love to visit Charleston (with you, Helene and Holly if possible) and it looks to be a gorgeous city. And I wouldn’t mind tasting the food, either. HUGSxoxo
Hi Jamie,
Thank you for the nomination. You must visit Charleston with us sometime! That would be an incredible trip. Let’s make that happen!
Hugs back to you!
Gwen
Looks like a wonderful time was to be had. Considering what you’ve been going through with Beamer, you look fantastic – beautiful and serene. That said, you know you’ve got my nomination hands down 🙂
Hi Lisa,
Thank goodness for Photoshop! 😉 Thank you also for the nomination. I very much appreciate your support.
Gwen
So glad that you got to go for at least a little while! And I just nominated your blog for you – I’ll cross all my fingers and toes for you!!
Love your new design on your home page, Gwen! It looks fantastic!
Congratulations on being featured in Bon Appetit, and again, I’m so thrilled to see that picture of you and Helène together!
When it comes time to vote for you on Saveur, I will gladly do so, since it seems you have been nominated by others!
I couldn’t think of who else to nominate for Saveur for best travel blogs…you are the only one on my mind. This is a classy blog full of delicious food, very interesting interviews with fabulous chefs…and fantastic photos. A favorite of mine since the beginning. LOVE this post about one of my favorite cities. You look fahbbbbulous, darling!:) (and so does Beamer…considering what he’s been through). Send you all love and hugs.xx
First – so glad to hear that Beamer is doing better and really hope he enjoys a full recovery soon!
Charleston is one of our favorite places ever. And it’s especially dear to us because hubby was stationed there with the Navy. We try to take weekend trips back there occasionally and even after all these years still find something new to enjoy on every trip. We’ve never been to the Wine & Food Festival, though, but I’m adding that to our to-do list right now.
Good to see that Beamer is up and enjoying Charleston with you. What a fun looking Wine & Food Festival you’ve attended. You look so elegant in the photo with Helene. Looking forward to reading more about it.