Happy Friday morning, Charleston! Today is National Hug A Plumber Day. A day when you hope you actually don’t have to hug a plumber ‘cause it means everything’s flowing.

Congrats to Cheryl A. of West Ashley, who was the 1st to guess correctly in our “Where Are We” segment last week! Our photo was the mural on the side of the John L. Dart Library on King Street downtown. This was a tough one, we didn’t get nearly the response we normally get.

I think we’ll continue with the mural theme this week. 😏

In today’s newsletter:

• Talented ladies bring it every day in Charleston. A new female-owned bakery opens today!

• Since human nature means we love knowing what other people like…We’re introducing the 3 Most-Clicked this week, highlighting what y’all clicked on the most last issue.

• ICYMI. Millionaires on IOP, an excellent dining guide, and a long-running deli opens another.

Friday 79° / 66° ⛅ 💧19%

Saturday 81° / 65° ⛅ 💧23%

Sunday 75° / 63° ⛅ 💧7%

Friday, April 25

• Art Charleston 2025 | 11 AM - 1 PM | Gibbes Museum, 135 Meeting St, Charleston | A five-day celebration of the arts featuring a culinary street festival, a designer luncheon, a captivating fashion show, a YouTuber panel, and a special screening and discussion of André Leon Talley’s documentary with director Kate Novack. Daily tours, workshops, lectures, and exhibits will also be offered throughout the festival.

• Mount Pleasant Towne Centre Spring Boat Show | 12 - 6 PM | Mt. Pleasant Towne Centre, 1218 Belk Dr, Mount Pleasant | Join us Friday through Sunday! This is a spectacular event featuring the latest and greatest in boating from local dealers including Longshore Boats, Seel’s Outboard, and Cape Romain Marine!

• The 2025 Black Food Truck Festival | FRIDAY NIGHT OPENING PARTY Rhythms & Booze Opening Soiree | 7 - 11 PM | International African American Museum, 14 Wharfside Street, Charleston | Start your Black Food Truck Festival weekend in style at Rhythms & Booze, our exclusive opening soiree on Friday, April 25th, inside the International African American Museum. This semi-formal event sets the tone for an unforgettable weekend.

Saturday, April 26

• Pat Tillman Honor Run I 9 AM | Credit One Stadium, 7596, 161 Seven Farms Drive, Charleston | Join us for a 4.2 mike run/walk in honor of American hero, Pat Tillman, at Credit One Stadium.

• Much Ado About Reading: Independent Bookstore Day 2025 | 10 AM - 7 PM | Itinerant Literate Bookstop, 4824 Chateau Ave, North Charleston | Hark! Gather, good readers and rogue poets alike—for a day of revelry, rhyme, and revelatory reads! Join Itinerant Literate as we don our doublets and dive headfirst into the literary mayhem of Independent Bookstore Day 2025 with our Shakespearean-themed celebration.

• Havana Night with Paquito D'Rivera I 8 PM , 37 John Street Charleston, Charleston | Havana Night with Paquito D’Rivera I Get ready for an extraordinary night of music as the Charleston Jazz Orchestra proudly presents Grammy Award-Winner Paquito D'Rivera, a Cuban-American virtuoso known for his mastery of the alto saxophone and clarinet.

• High Water Festival | Riverfront Park, 1061 Everglades Avenue, North Charleston | ALL DAY! I High Water Festival will return to Riverfront Park on Saturday, April 26 + Sunday, April 27.

Sunday, April 27

• 38th Annual Blessing of the Fleet & Seafood Festival | 11 AM - 5 PM | Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park, 99 Harry M. Hallman Junior Boulevard, Mount Pleasant | The 38th Annual Blessing of the Fleet & Seafood Festival pays tribute to Mount Pleasant’s local shrimping and fishing industry, offering a boat parade, live music, craft show, Mount Pleasant Artists Guild juried exhibit, shag-dance and shrimp-eating contests, and family-friendly activities.

• Beetlejuice Jr. - Green Cast I 3 PM | South of Broadway Theater, 1080 E Montague Ave, North Charleston | Beetlejuice JR. promises a chilling and entertaining experience that will leave you on the edge of your seats! Based on the hit movie and Broadway show, Beetlejuice JR. is a story of friendship, grief, and adventure. Lydia, a teenager fascinated by death, befriends Beetlejuice, a mischievous demon. Chaos ensues when Beetlejuice's true colors are revealed.

• Charleston Jazz Festival: Big Chief Donald Harrison Quartet | 5 - 6:30 PM | Circular Congregational Church, 150 Meeting Street, Charleston | The grand finale of the Charleston Jazz Festival is presented in partnership with Spoleto Festival USA and will feature the incomparable Big Chief Donald Harrison Quartet from New Orleans. A National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master and cultural ambassador, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison masterfully blends traditional New Orleans sounds with modern jazz, funk and more, creating a style as vibrant and dynamic as the city he calls home and as broad as jazz gets.

We’ve changed the URL for our events calendar! For a COMPLETE list of events in the Charleston area, bookmark the site below!

RESTAURANTS & CAFES

Grit Bakery Opens Downtown Today

By the time you read this, Charleston will have a new bakery. And I couldn’t be more excited, since baked goods are a vice I readily indulge. When it’s served up by another in a long line of talented Charleston female entrepreneurs, I’m doubly ready.

Grit Bakery opened at 7:00 AM this morning at 601 Meeting Street in the Meeting Street Lofts apartment building. The same one where The Archer is. Which has plentiful and easy-to-access free parking, by the way!

I chatted this week with Allison Anspach, Grit Bakery’s owner, who had a soft opening last Saturday.

Allison grew up in Stuart, Florida. When I asked her if she grew up learning the craft at the hip of her Mom or Grandmom, she said she really didn’t start feeling it until college.

When Allison attended Tulane University—located in one of the country’s most dynamic food cities, New Orleans—she learned something about herself. She loved baking.

The start of her unofficial apprenticeship was when she “found a bakery that would hire me” after college. A year in, she decided to try an opportunity in DC. Where she realized she didn’t like cold fall and winters.

The city that’s always 75 and sunny—San Diego—beckoned. She spent 8 years there, where she attended culinary school and started selling her breads at farmers markets around town.

She came to the Lowcountry with her husband in summer of 2023 and started scratching her entrepreneurial itch by scouting locations. Allison knew a more walkable environment would be where Grit Bakery would shine, so Meeting Street Lofts was the choice.

Grit Bakery is inspired by the Swedish tradition of fika, where every day is an opportunity to share a pastry, a coffee, and a chat with friends.

OUR 1ST GIVEAWAY HAS A WINNER!

And Her Favorite BBQ Joint Is Yours, Too

First things first, a clarification: In last week’s issue, I mentioned we surpassed 1,000 “followers”. I should have said Instagram. Thanks to y’all spreading the word, CHS Happenings is gonna blow through the 5,000 subscribers mark in the next week. Keep chatting us up!

I did a random drawing of those who voted in last week’s poll, and the winner is…

Kim C. of Sullivans Island! Here’s hope for all of you for our next giveaway (and there will be more): Kim told me “I’ve never won anything!”.

She won a $50 gift card to her favorite—and very close—BBQ Joint: Home Team BBQ. It was a favorite for the rest of you, too.

Thanks for voting! Stay tuned for more.

Interested in being a sponsor?

CHS Happenings has a fast-growing and super-engaged subscriber base. We’re going to start offering local Charleston businesses the opportunity to reach this audience soon.

If you’re interested, click below and we’ll reach out in the next 30 days.

WHERE ARE WE?

Each week, watch this space for a random snap from somewhere in Charleston. Where are we? Only true locals will know. DM your guess on Instagram, or email me here. The first person to guess correctly will get a shout-out at the top of our issue next week!

SPONSORED BY FLOPPIN’ FLOUNDER 5K & CHARLESTON RUNNING CLUB

Charleston Running Club is the O.G. of Chucktown running clubs. In the 70s, the club helped start two of our largest races, the Cooper River Bridge Run and the Kiawah Marathon.

And for over 25 years, the Floppin’ Flounder 5K Run and Walk has been one of Charleston’s favorite races.

With help from the Sullivan’s Island Fire & Rescue Dept., this is a fun family-friendly event starting from the Fish Fry Shack on Sullivans Island and features a beautiful, nice-and-easy course.

All participants get a race t-shirt and finishers medal. Sign up before the price goes up on May 16 at this link!

3 MOST-CLICKED FROM LAST WEEK

• Our events calendar. Keep checking it out, it’s nice and easy to filter, sort, slice-and-dice.

• Party At The Point. Who went last week?

• Charleston County School District pays students?! Maybe the surprise factor?

HELP ME SPREAD THE WORD!

If you like what you’ve been reading, I’d be SUPER grateful if you click the button below and leave a testimonial. Make it as long or short as you’d like.

It’s a nice, easy, fast setup and should take you 30 seconds or less.

I’ll add your testimonial to my subscription page. Think of it like a Yelp review which lets newbies know “This is definitely worth your time”.

It’ll help me grow CHS Happenings and keep bringing you cool new perks like our events calendar. 🙏🏼

ICYMI

🛒 Big news this week was the opening of Charleston’s newest grocer. If you were a subscriber, you got this news early. 😉

🍽️ Since we can never have enough dining guides about Charleston. Here’s the excellent Eater Carolinas’ “highly-opinionated” version.

🏠 Who knew there was a “Millionaires Row” on Isle of Palms? That’s what this fancy magazine calls it and here’s one of the newest homes for sale.

🐟 A new Italian restaurant opened downtown last month. Volpe comes from a chef who’s run an excellent Isle of Palms seafood restaurant for years.

🥪 This deli’s been slinging sandwiches in SC for close to 80 years. There’s a new West Ashley location.

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FEEDBACK

Got 15 seconds? Let us know what you thought about today’s newsletter by voting in the poll below (you’ll be done MUCH faster than cars on Johnnie Dodds at 4:00 PM on a Friday). 👇