Like the Art Walk on Friday, Sunday’s Taste of Charleston festival at Boone Hall drew a huge crowd, with bumper-to-bumper traffic leading into the historic plantation and slow-moving lines at the ticket booths. The morning started with a refreshing, misty rain that quickly gave way to typical Charleston stickiness. Once inside, however, the food booths were spread out well enough to avoid feeling squished, and you generally didn’t even have to stand in line to get a small plate of food (paid for with one to five food tickets worth $1 each). The event included chain businesses like T-Bonz, Longhorn Steakhouse, Applebee’s (represent!) and Ben & Jerry’s, but I saved my tickets for the double rows of fine-dining restaurants. Tristan, Robert’s of Charleston, Mustard Seed, and Atlanticville were just some of the restaurants serving up tasty goodies like chocolate barbecue spare ribs, seared scallops over lime risotto, and bacon wrapped fillet, along with wine pairings for two extra bucks. Unfortunately, most of the food suffered from mass-quantity syndrome, but it was a fun way to sample a variety of foods. It was also an expensive way… sure, that tiny plate of food only costs three tickets (five with wine), and that little pecan pie from Kaminsky’s is only one, and a can of coke is only one, but if you sample from just four restaurants (with wine) and get dessert, you’ll have spent well over $20 (not including the $10-$12 entrance fee). It was enjoyable, but I would have liked it better if the food was free.
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