Not that cruise ship passengers worry too much about the impact their vacations have on local communities. Battles over local or federal legislation, like the Clean Cruise Ship Act, which died in Congress in 2010, are not as interesting as which name-brand chef is going to open a restaurant on board.
“Our audience doesn’t really respond to the municipal-level battles or the environmental stuff,” said Dan Askin, senior editor at cruisecritic.com, a consumer Web site dedicated to cruise ships.
Four-poster rice beds and chintz-covered settees have their place, just don’t expect to find any at Zero George, Charleston’s new boutique hotel. Owned by Dean and Lynn Andrews, the historic, eighteen-room hotel is set apart by its fresh contemporary design. A veteran in the hospitality business, Dean helped develop and then manage Charleston Place hotel before decamping to New York and then Charlottesville, where he and Lynn run Easton Events and Pippin Hill Vineyards—a winery, restaurant, and events space overlooking the Blue Ridge mountains. But, Dean says, “I was always trying to come up with a reason to return to Charleston.” After a tour of Zero George (it’s just a few blocks from our office), we’re glad he finally did.
CHARLESTON, S.C. — The cautionary tales came Thursday from our neighboring port city, but they were shared by others from Alaska and British Columbia and from Norway, Cozumel and Venice.
Once big cruise ships come to a city, they can overwhelm a community’s resources — crowding streets, jamming sidewalks and attractions, contributing to pollution and generating far less in spending and tax dollars than is usually anticipated.
For several Savannah residents, the message was coming through loud and clear at a conference called Harboring Tourism, an international symposium on cruise ships in historic port communities.
1. Earnestine & Hazel’s (Memphis, Tenn.)
A bona fide institution with a storied past. (Psst: It used to be a brothel.) You’re having: A Memphis-made Ghost River Amber Ale ($5).
2. The Griffon (Charleston, S.C.)
Dollar-lined pub of the English persuasion. Charleston chefs make a beeline here after their kitchens close. You’re having: A shot of whiskey and a beer back.
A SpaceCraft has landed in Charleston, but you won’t find any little green men inside. The recently opened Avondale spot is a mix between a boutique and a crafting workshop, and owner Allison Merrick hopes to make it a hub for Charleston’s growing maker movement.
Pack a week’s worth of carriage rides, antebellum-home tours, bluegrass evenings and shrimp-and-grits feasts into one long South Carolina weekend
lately, the public face of Charleston has seen a splash of new colors. Thanks to the ChArt Outdoor Initiative in Avondale and Park Circle, the number of local public murals has tripled in the past year. And then there are the murals that have existed under the radar. The rising popularity of Charleston native Shepard Fairey had street art popping up all over town in the early ’90s, and while much of that is gone now, locals like Ishmael, Sheepman, and Patch Whisky have incorporated the street ethos into their own art and continue to produce public works.
(via Multimedia: Murals in Charleston | Features | Charleston City Paper)
An absurdly long-winded endorsement of Jestine’s Kitchen in Charleston, South Carolina.
