Tickets for Charleston Wine + Food (CHSWF) 2025 are on sale at 11 a.m., Oct. 24. This upcoming festival was planned with the past in mind.
You can’t talk about the super popular, hyper-local food festival without mentioning the weather troubles it faced in March 2024. High tides and unprecedented rainfall led to the cancellation of two days of the fest’s most popular attraction, the Culinary Village, and forced several outdoor events into indoor venues.
For the 2025 festival, scheduled for Mar. 5 through Mar. 9, the CHSWF team sought to utilize new, more versatile venues.
“We really looked hard at where we are producing events and how we’re handling contingency [plans] because, I mean, there is no mitigation for water in a venue,” said CHSWF’s executive director, Alyssa Maute Smith. “[That way] we can make sure that we’re elevating the guest experience and that [the venue] offers us the ability for a quick pivot if we have to because of the weather.”
“We learned a lot from last year,” Smith said. “It’s a beauty to live so close to the water. But water will always win.”
Old favorites, new faces
With more than 80 events, from signature dinners to bar takeovers to, of course, the Culinary Village, CHSWF 2025 has a little something for everyone, with individually ticketed events starting at $85.
You can peruse the full schedule at charlestonwineandfood.com but in the meantime, we’ve highlighted some noteworthy events.
Returning favorites:
- Opening Night will kick off at Cistern Yard.
- Shucked, an oyster-focused event, will take place at Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park on Thursday.
- The Day Party, which Smith said has a “fun dance vibe,” will be held at Founders Hall on Sunday.
- Jackrabbit Filly’s Hangover Dim Sum Brunch will be held on Sunday.
- For One Night Only, the festival’s recurring series that brings a shuttered restaurant back to life, will turn into For One Brunch Only this year and features Hominy Grill’s chef Robert Stehling. Head to the Rutledge Room, the former location of Hominy Grill, for a nostalgic morning featuring the local favorite’s beloved bygone dishes.
- The festival’s drag show will return after a year hiatus with High Tea With The Queens, a tea party with lots of sass “and just a tiny bit of class.” Smith described it as “Bridgerton meets Marie Antoinette.”
New and notable:
- One Night in NOLA, Friday night’s signature event, will feature a mashup of Creole and Gullah-inspired bites and cocktails.
- Big Shrimpin’, held on Sunday afternoon, will highlight shrimp, crabs and crawfish.
- Good Vines Only will look at higher-end wines from small producers.
- Several Michelin-starred restaurants will head to town this year, including D.C.’s Oyster Oyster and its James Beard Outstanding Chef winner, Rob Rubba, who will join Estadio for a signature dinner.
- Recently opened and soon-to-open Charleston restaurants will join the fun this year, including: Marbled & Fin, which hosts a martini lunch; Seahorse, James London’s forthcoming concept, which hosts a bar takeover; The Archer, which hosts a signature dinner; The Italian Boy, chef Anthony Marini’s new concept, which hosts a signature dinner; La Cave, which hosts a wine lunch; Park Circle’s Sissy Bar, which hosts a bar takeover and Makan, which hosts a wine lunch.
- James Beard Award winner KJ Kearney will bring his curated conversation series, Bite the Power, to CHSWF. This dinner centered on activism will feature storytelling and food from local chefs Marcus Middleton and Marcus Shell and local baker Danetra Richardson.
Notable new (and returning) venues include:
- Johnson Hagood Stadium will serve as the site of the 2025 this year’s Culinary Village. The village has been held at North Charleston’s Riverfront Park for the past several years; and prior to that, it was historically held in downtown’s Marion Square.
- TD Arena will serve as the backup site for opening night at the Cistern Yard.
- Memorial Waterfront Park in Mount Pleasant, Founders Hall in West Ashley and Firefly Distillery in North Charleston will host signature events.
Smith said that she always recommends the festival’s signature dinners to new and returning festival-goers. “It’s a way to experience that restaurant in a way that you haven’t experienced it before,” she said. The festival’s extensive lunch and brunch options are ideal for early birds, and anyone looking for a taste of just about everything should probably check out the Culinary Village. If crowds aren’t your thing (the Culinary Village hosts thousands of attendees), signature events have a lower head count with the same high energy.
The festival’s beverage workshops and cooking classes are great for culinary nerds, and this year’s lineup includes a new beverage session on American cider and a class with Lowcountry legend Michelle Weaver.
“I feel like Charleston has built such a reputation for culinary excellence,” Smith said. “[The festival] is not only an opportunity to be creative, but it’s an opportunity to really practice hospitality … people go into that industry because they love to serve others and they love to see the joy somebody experiences from something they’ve created. And that, I think, is the most rewarding factor to really hard work.”
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