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A few months ago Sergio Tosi and his wife Audrey Marques sold their house, packed up their two kids, and left Belgium to embark on a Charleston adventure. Their quest: Give the Lowcountry real deal Belgium waffles. Thus James Island’s new Sweet Belgium was born.
The small bakery sits at 327 Folly Road just beside Roper Hospital. There Tosi and Audrey make to-go plain and frosted waffle options, but their big goal is to make a go at the catering business.
“I worked for a catering company back home. I got to know how to provide good, tasty waffles,” Tosi says.
But why Charleston and not, say, Seattle? “I’ve been coming to South Carolina since I was kid and I have cousins who live in Greenville,” he says. Tosi studied English in school in Belgium, so he felt confident embarking on a business abroad, and so far so good. Clients West of the Ashley seem to be finding his shop and he hopes wedding business takes off this spring.
So what do traditional Belgian waffles look like? Sweet Belgium’s are a little bigger than the circumference of a soda can and can be topped with all manner of options:
coconut extract white icing with shredded coconut, dark Belgian chocolate with rainbow sprinkles, white Belgian chocolate cover with dark chocolate sprinkles, Almond extract brown icing with sliced almonds, and, my favorite, “Fun Orange” — orange extract and icing with a Belgian chocolate drizzle.
The shop is open daily from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Visit sweet-belgium.com for more.
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