Best Jewelry Store near James Island, SC

More often than not, tipsters, readers, friends, and family of Eater have one question: Where should I eat right now? What are the new restaurants? What's everyone talking about? While the Eater 18 is a crucial resource covering old standbys and neighborhood essentials across the city, it is not a chronicle of the "it" places of the moment. Enter the Eater Heatmap, which will change continually to highlight the spots crowds are flocking to at the moment or generating a big buzz. Folks are asking, "Have you been yet?" Try one of these newbies today.

This month, the new Jackrabbit Filly location joins the list.

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Eater maps are curated by editors and aim to reflect a diversity of neighborhoods, cuisines, and prices. Learn more about our editorial process.

Chinese American restaurant Jackrabbit Filly moved up the street to a bigger dining room and more prominent location. With the move comes a more extensive menu with exciting new options. Karrage, dumplings, and fried rice are still on the menu, but now there’s also a crab rangoon cheese ball, mapo tofu vol au vent, spicy Korean gnocchi, and Sichuan seafood wonton soup.

The couple behind Wagener Terrace hangout Berkeley’s recently opened their second restaurant, the Archer. They want it to have the same neighborhood vibes but raise the stakes with a full bar and fine dining-level comfort plates. Chef Paul Farmer (formerly of Three Sirens), puts out plates like duck frites, baked oysters, beef stroganoff, chicken liver mousse, and chilled crab dip.

Chubby Fish (most recently visited by Martha Stewart) has smartly expanded into the space next door with another cozy nautical space, but this time, the team is focused on world-class cocktails from Christian Favier (formerly of the Ordinary). Rum figures heavily on the list, but there’s also a delicious smoked dirty martini and plenty of fizzy drinks thanks to a fancy Japanese Suntory highball machine. Customers can order snacks from the ever-changing menu, including oysters, crudos, agnolotti, Iberico ham, and more.

Legami is a new Italian restaurant boasting a chef brought in from Rome by a family with roots in Turin, Italy. Washington Street Hospitality, which controls three Pasta Beach restaurants in New England, thought the King Street building would be another location for Pasta Beach, but decided to switch it up once they got into the historic building. Chef Andrea Congiusta cooks modern Italian fare with some influences from France. “We took inspiration from the classic fine dining, but we also want to have something fun, something that looks very fancy, and something you can crave,” says Congiusta. Dishes include king crab tagliolini, beef Wellington, and veal Milanese.

Modern steakhouse Marbled & Fin is giving all the other steakhouses a run for their money. The expansive dining room fills nightly with well-heeled customers ready to see and be seen. On the menu, chef Eucepe “Cepe” Puntriano includes all the steakhouse classics plus an emphasis on seafood dishes for non-meat eaters. Look for seafood towers, wedge salads, wagyu beef, bone marrow with oysters, creamed spinach, and more.

Charleston is going crazy for soup dumplings, and newcomer Chef Loong Dim Sum delivers. The restaurant offers four flavors (pork soup, chicken soup, pork tomato soup, and truffle pork soup). The rest of the menu is quite extensive as well, with selections ranging from Sichuan mala chicken, crab rangoon, dan dan noodles, mapo tofu, and more.

Chef Micheal Toscano recently opened a taco shop next to his Italian restaurant Le Farfalle. Blanca Estrada is Toscano’s ode to his Mexican mother and grandmother, whose cooking was an early influence on his culinary journey. The kitchen offers a selection of tacos, from cochinita pibil to lengua, several specials, like a lamb neck burrito, and several tequila drinks and pineapple vinegar soda.

Ice-cold martinis with a side of caviar set the vibe at By the Way, a new upscale lounge and restaurant in Cannonborough/Elliotborough hoping to draw a slightly more mature clientele away from King Street. It’s from Uptown Hospitality Group, the folks behind hotspots like Uptown Social and Bodega, in partnership with Craig Conover and Austen Kroll, two stars of Bravo TV’s Southern Charm. Fairly intimate with the feel of an old-world tavern, By the Way serves a menu of trendy pub fare like ’nduja deviled eggs, poutine, fried oysters with caviar, and steak frites.

Charming new hotel the Dunlin offers sweeping views of the Kiawah River, abundant hospitality, and coastal Southern fare in its signature restaurant, Linnette’s. Chef Michael DeCicco puts out dishes like a pressed and pickled watermelon salad, wood-fired oysters, cornmeal-crusted flounder, and a sorghum-benne lacquered steak with charred okra.

Chinese American restaurant Jackrabbit Filly moved up the street to a bigger dining room and more prominent location. With the move comes a more extensive menu with exciting new options. Karrage, dumplings, and fried rice are still on the menu, but now there’s also a crab rangoon cheese ball, mapo tofu vol au vent, spicy Korean gnocchi, and Sichuan seafood wonton soup.

The couple behind Wagener Terrace hangout Berkeley’s recently opened their second restaurant, the Archer. They want it to have the same neighborhood vibes but raise the stakes with a full bar and fine dining-level comfort plates. Chef Paul Farmer (formerly of Three Sirens), puts out plates like duck frites, baked oysters, beef stroganoff, chicken liver mousse, and chilled crab dip.

Chubby Fish (most recently visited by Martha Stewart) has smartly expanded into the space next door with another cozy nautical space, but this time, the team is focused on world-class cocktails from Christian Favier (formerly of the Ordinary). Rum figures heavily on the list, but there’s also a delicious smoked dirty martini and plenty of fizzy drinks thanks to a fancy Japanese Suntory highball machine. Customers can order snacks from the ever-changing menu, including oysters, crudos, agnolotti, Iberico ham, and more.

Legami is a new Italian restaurant boasting a chef brought in from Rome by a family with roots in Turin, Italy. Washington Street Hospitality, which controls three Pasta Beach restaurants in New England, thought the King Street building would be another location for Pasta Beach, but decided to switch it up once they got into the historic building. Chef Andrea Congiusta cooks modern Italian fare with some influences from France. “We took inspiration from the classic fine dining, but we also want to have something fun, something that looks very fancy, and something you can crave,” says Congiusta. Dishes include king crab tagliolini, beef Wellington, and veal Milanese.

Modern steakhouse Marbled & Fin is giving all the other steakhouses a run for their money. The expansive dining room fills nightly with well-heeled customers ready to see and be seen. On the menu, chef Eucepe “Cepe” Puntriano includes all the steakhouse classics plus an emphasis on seafood dishes for non-meat eaters. Look for seafood towers, wedge salads, wagyu beef, bone marrow with oysters, creamed spinach, and more.

Charleston is going crazy for soup dumplings, and newcomer Chef Loong Dim Sum delivers. The restaurant offers four flavors (pork soup, chicken soup, pork tomato soup, and truffle pork soup). The rest of the menu is quite extensive as well, with selections ranging from Sichuan mala chicken, crab rangoon, dan dan noodles, mapo tofu, and more.

Chef Micheal Toscano recently opened a taco shop next to his Italian restaurant Le Farfalle. Blanca Estrada is Toscano’s ode to his Mexican mother and grandmother, whose cooking was an early influence on his culinary journey. The kitchen offers a selection of tacos, from cochinita pibil to lengua, several specials, like a lamb neck burrito, and several tequila drinks and pineapple vinegar soda.

Ice-cold martinis with a side of caviar set the vibe at By the Way, a new upscale lounge and restaurant in Cannonborough/Elliotborough hoping to draw a slightly more mature clientele away from King Street. It’s from Uptown Hospitality Group, the folks behind hotspots like Uptown Social and Bodega, in partnership with Craig Conover and Austen Kroll, two stars of Bravo TV’s Southern Charm. Fairly intimate with the feel of an old-world tavern, By the Way serves a menu of trendy pub fare like ’nduja deviled eggs, poutine, fried oysters with caviar, and steak frites.

Charming new hotel the Dunlin offers sweeping views of the Kiawah River, abundant hospitality, and coastal Southern fare in its signature restaurant, Linnette’s. Chef Michael DeCicco puts out dishes like a pressed and pickled watermelon salad, wood-fired oysters, cornmeal-crusted flounder, and a sorghum-benne lacquered steak with charred okra.

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach on Johns Island is making sure adults know it is never too late to further their education with their GED program.

The South Carolina Revenue and Fiscal Affairs office estimates over 315,000 adults in the state between 18 and 65 have less than a high school diploma from 2018 to 2022. Charleston County alone tallies just over 18,000 in those numbers.

Adults 21 and older can sign up on the first day of the organization’s 14-week GED program starting Tuesday from 9 a.m. to noon.

The second day of registration takes place Jan. 21. Leaders say it is required for interested students to participate during the entire session to register. Registration will take place at the Johns Island branch at 1684 Brownswood Road.

Education Coordinator for Our Lady of Mercy Community Outreach, Lara Vo, says parents and older adults typically join the course. The education coordinator says older adults want to qualify for jobs with less physical labor. Vo says she finds the push for higher education inspiring.

“That self-determination and that empowerment within themselves to reach this goal because they feel like they deserve it, is something that I think is really inspiring and fairly common with a lot of our students,” Vo says. “We also have a lot of folks that are trying to get it because they want to improve their lifestyles.”

The organization partners with Charleston County School District’s Adult Education program. The program pays for testing fees for students which can run between $150 to $174 dollars in total depending on in-person or online testing.

Students also receive help through the organization’s career services.

“Once you get your GED, if you want, or even before you get your GED, we can meet with you and talk to you about resumes, interviews, things that you can do right now to improve your life if it’s coming for a job,” Vo says.

Other requirements for class registration include being 250% below the federal poverty line. The annual income for a family of four in this range is $78,000.

Leaders with the organization’s education outreach center have other programs available to the younger community. Volunteers participate in an after school academic support program in partnership with Angel Oak Elementary school. The program uses mentors to support 16 children from second to fifth grade on homework help and behavioral help.

Information on getting involved with the organization is on their website.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Published: Dec. 17, 2024 at 7:45 PM PST|

JOHNS ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Construction of a multi-million-dollar fire station on Johns Island that has been talked about for years is officially moving forward.

This project took a significant step after the City of Charleston approved a construction manager at risk, or CMAR, contract during Tuesday night’s council meeting.

A CMAR is when a construction manager agrees to take on a project and complete it within a set guaranteed maximum price, or GMP, and if construction services end up exceeding the GMP that was agreed upon, the construction manager is responsible for those costs.

The set GMP that City officials approved for the CMAR contract Tuesday night is $12.4 million.

Fire Station number 23 is planned to sit on Maybank Highway at Wildts Battery Boulevard. Plans call for it to include a training room, three bays and two units: an engine company and a ladder company. Officials say there would be four personnel working on each unit.

“To have enough apparatus and units to respond when we need it, so this will provide for growth as we go forward as well as we continue to plan for future growth beyond this,” Deputy Chief Forrest Cockcroft says. “But right now this will give us another engine and a ladder to really beef up that initial first response that we get on most of our fires, especially on our commercial fires.”

The Charleston Fire Department only has one station on Johns Island, which is Fire Station 17 located on Bohicket Road.

Cockcroft says that they currently have coverage of all of Johns Island between the Charleston Fire Department and St. Johns Fire Department, but they are looking ahead to meet the demand as the population grows by adding this new fire station.

“One of the things we try to look to is to make sure that we have the appropriate amount of personnel on scene for a structure fire or different type of call types, so we have some benchmarks that we try to meet with that and this will allow us to meet those benchmarks much more quickly because we’ve got much more density of stations going in and additional firefighters on the road,” Cockcroft says.

City of Charleston council member, Jim McBride, who represents Johns Island says that this new fire station will also help out other stations in the surrounding areas.

“Sometimes fire stations from James Island and West Ashley have to come augment us if there is a big fire, so getting this station on there on Maybank will actually free them up to focus more on their areas, so it impacts not just Johns Island, but also James Island and West Ashley,” McBride says.

McBride says that the City of Charleston Fire Chief, Dan Curia, has been working ahead and training two fire teams that will occupy the new fire station once it is built.

He says that they expect shovels in the ground for this project in early 2025 with it expected to be finished by the end of the year.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.

|Updated: Jan. 15, 2025 at 7:04 AM EST

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - The City of Charleston is looking at the application of a potential new development off Folly Road that would include a mini golf course and a new retail center.

In addition to the mini golf course, this potential new mixed-use development would include a food court, a coffee shop, a wellness facility and a bar. There are also plans for over 120 parking spaces to accommodate patrons, according to the developer.

If approved, the development, which has been named the “Community Corner,” would take up 2.9 acres of land on Grimball Road Extension.

This project is still very early in the approval process and would require several other steps and approvals from the City to move forward.

Though nothing is finalized, this potential project has garnered quite a bit of attention on social media with residents sharing mixed feelings. Some shared concerns about an increase of traffic and the construction harming wetlands, while others say they are excited about the idea and feel the area needs more recreational activities.

Chad Biel is the owner of Bohemian Bull, a restaurant that is just half a mile from the location of the tentative development. Biel shared his thoughts on the proposed “Community Corner” project.

“I would say I see two sides of this,” he says. “It’s inevitable that the city’s going to grow. I think that there needs to be some better city planning. We have a lot of flooding on this street and a ton of traffic on this street. So, I would ask that, you know, that gets thought of when they’re doing these plans, but then, as a resident that’s kind of the piece of the pie, right? I have kids. So, they’re going to enjoy the mini golf but then we also will deal with all the traffic that comes along with that as more and more people come down this way in a relatively small highway that runs through here.”

Biel says he likes the idea of more activity options coming to the area and believes it could help foot traffic for his business, but he calls on city officials to consider some of the flooding issues and road traffic in the area. If that is addressed, he says he welcomes the idea.

“As a business owner, I think it’ll be a positive impact. I mean, every single time that we see other businesses opening up in the area, we always see a positive impact from it and we’ve had sales growth year over year, and that’s because the area is continuing to grow, we are continuing to get more people that move to James Island, we are getting more businesses on James Island,” he says.

The developer of this tentative project says that they plan to create a world class space that does not exist anywhere in Charleston.

While there is no form for public comment on this project, the city’s Technical Review Committee Administrator, Eric Schultz, welcomes questions about any of the items up for discussion by the committee. Schultz can be reached at 843-724-3790 or schultze@charleston-sc.gov.

The committee will meet Thursday at 9 a.m. to discuss this application.

This item is scheduled in the agenda to be heard at 11:30 a.m.

Click here for the Zoom link to join the meeting.

To call into the meeting, dial 1-312-626-6799, then type in Webinar ID# 832-2640-6779, followed by the password, 721363.

Guests are encouraged to join the meeting 20 minutes before the agenda item is scheduled to be discussed. The “Community Corner” is up for discussion at 11:30 a.m.

Copyright 2025 WCSC. All rights reserved.

Updated: Dec. 24, 2024 at 8:15 PM PST

JAMES ISLAND, S.C. (WCSC) - Several people decided to celebrate their Christmas Eve at the Holiday Festival of Lights at the James Island County Park.

From riding through three miles of light displays to visiting Santa, checking out the sand sculptures, shopping, exploring the reindeer workshop, or enjoying delicious treats, the festival offers something for everyone to enjoy.

Many say coming out to the festival has become one of the many Christmas traditions in their families.

“Besides coming here on Christmas Eve, I would say the other thing that we like to do is have a family dinner of course. We do have some inlaws that live here now, in addition to that a lot of facetiming, so with parents that are not here in Charleston,” resident Kellan Stephens says.

One family says they even drive hours to come to the festival every Christmas.

“We come every year,” Benjamin Singletary says. “It’s a lot of fun. The lights are super cool and we try to look for the new one.”

Others shared some of their longtime favorite things to do during the holiday season.

“Making Christmas cookies. My mom does that every year and so I always look forward to that and then just you know like Christmas movies, waking up on Christmas and opening stockings,” Tanner Bachtel says.

One Festival of Lights goer says that this year was his first time visiting the event and he even found a favorite light display when coming in to check out the Christmas magic.

“On the entrance, there is a construction company’s one. It was pretty cool, it was like a treasure island-type vibe with some gold,” first-timer Hunter Leyva says.

Another festival-goer says that growing up in Charleston she actually worked at the Festival of Lights and has seen more people come out each year to be a part of the holiday spirit. She herself also has some favorite parts about the event.

“The smores. I love making smores, so that’s probably my favorite part and I like the gift shop like the big building with everything. That’s probably my two favorite things,” Shaniya Hawkins says.

The Holiday Festival of Lights will be open until December 31 from 5:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. each night.

To learn more about what the Holiday Festival of Lights has to offer, you can visit here.

If you would like to purchase your tickets online you can click here.

Copyright 2024 WCSC. All rights reserved.