Last weekend we spent Sunday afternoon downtown at the Culinary Village for the Charleston Wine + Food Festival!  I’ve lived in Charleston for 12 years, but this was the first time I went to any event during the festival.

The weekend is full of events like brunches, dinners, oyster roasts, yoga, etc and they all center around the Culinary Village in Marion Square.  That has all sorts of vendors & chefs serving samples of anything related to wine & food, plus there’s live music to top it off.  Some of the events can be expensive, so we all opted to do the Sunday Culinary Village, where there’s a locals discount (score).

Our group started by the rosé garden so everyone could meet up and take a few photos before we started exploring.

We headed to the biergarten, grill area and wine tents afterwards tasting and drinking as we went.  Some of my favorites were the Goose Island beer & cheese pairings, donut & candied bacon skewers, wine & Dubliner cheese tent, trying the 200 anniversary Charleston Guiness beer, and the ice cream!

The highlight of my day was meeting (read: fan girling) Sheldon from Top Chef! He had a booth and naturally was serving a dish my food allergies wouldn’t allow me to eat… but I got a picture and told him how much I loved watching him on the various seasons, and especially the Charleston season.

We easily got our money’s worth in the 5 hours we were there and were full, yet pooped by the end of the day.  It’s safe to say we both had a blast and would love to attend again next year!