Welcome in. The room's not even a day old, so ignore the echo.

Now the part I actually want to tell you about.

Over the next few weeks I'm walking into restaurants, shops, and bars across this city with one question: what will you do for my people?

Not a coupon book. Not 10% off a Tuesday nobody wanted anyway. The real version — a standing member rate, a table they'll hold, the thing that isn't on the website.

Every one of those I land goes to the First Seating.

What the First Seating is

The first 100 people to buy in, at $100 a year, locked at that price for as long as you stay. It's live right now. When the 100 are gone the price goes to $150 and never comes back down.

You're inside this community for free, and you always will be. Introductions, Charleston Chat, the newsletter — free, no catch.

The First Seating is the other half: the perks I'm out collecting, Dinner Club priority at the member rate, the full calendar, and a direct line to me.

Now tell me where to go

Everybody gets a vote on this one. Head to Charleston Chat and drop your spots — your Sunday place, where you take out-of-town family, the shop you'd hate to lose.

I'll start there, because a business says yes a lot faster when I can tell them their own regulars asked for it.

The names I land get announced in here first. Goal is to have the opening batch posted before the 27th.

Claim a seat.

A hundred-plus weeks of writing about this city and I've never actually had a room where the rest of you could talk back. Now there is one.

Here's how it works. Every Thursday issue lands in Newsletters. Charleston Chat is for everything else. And this channel is where you tell us you're here.

So do that. Two things:

1. What neighborhood are you in?

2. Where do you send people who are visiting? Not the tourist answer. The real one.

I'll go first. Mount Pleasant. And I send everybody to Pitt Street Bridge or Bowen's Island at sunset, because it's the version of Charleston I'd want to see if I'd never been.

Your turn.