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Happy Thursday, Charleston. On this day in 1780, Fort Moultrie surrendered to the British without firing a shot. The 200 defenders inside the Sullivan’s Island fort — the same one that had famously beaten back the British four years earlier in the war’s first major Patriot victory — gave it up after a months-long siege closed off Charleston Harbor.
Five days later, the city itself fell, and more than 5,000 Continental soldiers were taken prisoner. It remains the worst American defeat of the Revolutionary War, and it started with a quiet surrender at a fort that should have been the hardest to crack.
How close are you to pulling the trigger on a new ride?
Congrats to Dale C. of Johns Island who guessed correctly in last week’s “Where Are We?” I was in Fort Moultrie on Sullivans Island looking over at Fort Sumter.
WEATHER
Thursday 77° / 59° ⛈️ 💧43%
Friday 72° / 64° ☁️ 💧6%
Saturday 77° / 65° ☔ 💧39%
Sunday 78° / 67° ⛈️ 💧65%
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THE BIG ONE
Where to live. Where to skip. What locals don't say out loud.
You know the conversation. A friend from college, a cousin, an old neighbor — they visit Charleston, fall for it, and a few months later the texts start.
"What neighborhood would you actually live in?"
"Is Daniel Island worth it?"
"Where do locals eat that's not on every list?"
I've answered these for seven years now — for friends, for clients, for strangers at parties who heard "Charleston" and cornered me. The answers got long. The texts got repetitive. So I wrote it all down.
The Charleston Insider's Guide is thirty neighborhoods, ninety local picks, and zero polite hedging. Free. Built for the people you love who keep asking.
Send it to the cousin who's been Zillow-stalking for six months. Send it to the friend who said "we'd move here in a heartbeat" three Christmases ago.
If anyone deserves the real answer, it's them.
WHERE ARE WE?
Just reply to this email, or if you’re reading on our website, email me here. The first person to guess correctly will get a shout-out at the top of our issue next week!
HAPPENINGS
Thursday
North Charleston Farmers Market | 3 - 7 PM | Park Circle Pavilion, North Charleston | Park Circle's after-work Thursday ritual is back. Opening day energy.
Live Under The Oaks Concert Series | 6 PM | Mt. Pleasant Towne Centre, Mount Pleasant | Free Thursday concerts under the oaks. Bring a chair, a thirst.
Starlight Yoga | 7:30 - 8:30 PM | Johns Island County Park, Johns Island | Flowing yoga under the stars. Glow-in-the-dark prize included.
Friday
Lighthouse Inlet Bird Walk | 8:30 - 10:30 AM | Lighthouse Inlet Heritage Preserve, Folly Beach | Spring migrants on Folly's wild northeast tip. Bring binoculars and coffee.
55th Annual Charleston Greek Festival | 4 - 9 PM , all weekend long | Greek Orthodox Church of the Holy Trinity, Charleston | All weekend: gyros, baklava, dancing. Charleston's oldest festival turns 55.
Firefly Karaoke Night | 7 - 10 PM | Firefly Distillery, North Charleston | Karaoke at a distillery. Liquid courage already on tap.
Saturday
Every Paw Counts: Southern Paws 6th Annual 5K | 8 - 10:30 AM | Boone Hall Plantation, Mount Pleasant | 5K at Boone Hall for the rescue pups. Bring kibble, save $10.
Holy City Burger Battle | 12 - 4 PM | Holy City Brewing, North Charleston | All-you-can-eat sliders. Local brews. Bragging rights on the line.
Saints with Soul: Charlton Singleton and Friends | 7 - 9 PM | Firefly Distillery, North Charleston | Two-time Grammy winner does James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Al Green. Yes.
Concert in the Park: Charleston Jazz Express ft. Zandrina Dunning | 7 - 9 PM | Smythe Park, Charleston | Free jazz under the oaks at Smythe Park. Bring a blanket.
Sunday
Pickers Hullabaloo Flea Market | 10 AM - 4 PM | Firefly Distillery, North Charleston | 100+ vintage vendors, food trucks, live music. Sunday treasure hunt.
Mother's Day at American Gardens | 12 - 5 PM | American Gardens, Charleston | Flowers, food, music in the gardens. The Mom move this Sunday.
2nd Sunday on King Street | 12 - 5 PM | King Street, Charleston | Five car-free blocks of King Street. Charleston's best Sunday plan.
Two Markets, One City
There isn’t one Charleston market right now, there are two. The well-priced homes are getting offers in three to four weeks. The overpriced ones are watching May turn into July. The gap between them keeps stretching. Sellers who watched their neighbors close fast in March are assuming the same playbook still works. It mostly doesn’t. The list price is now doing more work than ever, and getting it wrong by 5% can cost months instead of weeks.
Jimmy Farrell
Broker, The Farrell Group
ICYMI
A Charleston pizzaiolo just placed third in a global cheese-pizza contest, then promptly opened his third storefront in the area.
The old Select space on Meeting just reopened as a Michelin-pedigreed Italian dinner spot designed to outlast its own dessert course.
Twenty-five years in one Wentworth Mansion kitchen, and the chef behind it is still rewriting his own menu every season.
A 140-foot Charleston-built schooner that’s been dry-docked for years is about to play a British warship in a Sullivan’s Island re-enactment.
Little Jack’s Tavern just hit 10 years on Upper King — and the burger that put it there started as a dessert-menu joke.
LIVE MUSIC
LIVE MUSIC | THIS WEEKEND
FRI — Kane Brown at North Charleston Coliseum — country arena energy, the biggest room of the weekend. Or STS9 at The Refinery — night one under the stars, the kind of room they were built for.
SAT — St. Paul & The Broken Bones at Charleston Music Hall — horns up, lights down, the room people clear schedules for. Or PITSTOP at Music Farm — garage-punk bill four bands deep, no breathing room.
SUN — Waylon Wyatt at Charleston Music Hall — songwriter on the rise, the marquee’s still warm from Saturday. Or Nekrogoblikon at Music Farm — comedy-metal cult act, exactly as weird as it sounds.
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