Recently for my job I got to spend almost a week near Charleston, SC. Not actually in Charleston, mind you, but it's environs of Summerville, Monck's Corner and Goose Creek.
Luckily I did have some time to explore and was able to take a Saturday afternoon trip downtown to Charleston. The one good thing about working in a city is you spend time with the locals (the best way to find the best restaurant in any town). If we were going downtown, they said, then we had to eat at Hyman's Seafood on Meeting St.
Through the wonders of GPS we found a parking garage and set off on foot to find this fabled eatery. When we came around the corner to Meeting Street it was readily apparent we were in the right place from the throngs of people standing outside. We sent in one of our team to determine a wait time and found out it would be about a 45 minute wait. When you're hungry and the smells from inside are as intoxicating as these were (not to mention the server milling about outside offering free hushpuppies as a teaser) it was going to make that 45 minutes feel a lot longer.
We did what all groups who have a long wait for a table do in the city.....we went exploring. One of those trips where you are constantly checking your watch to make sure you aren't too far away from the restaurant (God forbid you lose your spot because you weren't there when they called your name).
We walked until we came across a cool little square at the corner of Meeting and Broad streets. Old buildings, plaques, statues, enough to keep our minds off our stomachs for a few minutes anyway. With a furtive glance at our watches we headed back.
After another agonizing wait on the sidewalk we we were finally called in. Oddly we were given a table number and directions (directions?). Through the bar, take a left, up the stairs and tell them our table number. Once we navigated to our table we were seated. After ordering a local beer (Thomas Creek out of Greenville for me and a Palmetto Amber Ale from Charleston for another of my coworkers) we decided on appetizers (crab and shrimp dip and some gator sausage).
Only then did we notice the plaques on the tables informing us of the celebrities who had eaten there. We got to share our space with Oprah Winfrey, Viccki Lawrence and Neil Armstrong. Now, eating at a table that had served a media icon, the first human on the moon and Mama herself, how can you beat that?
The walls are covered with celebrity photos with accolades of Hyman's food.
Now, what to order? Well, I just couldn't turn down the shrimp and grits while my coworkers went with the Low Country Boil and stuffed Red Snapper. The one thing that Hyman does not skimp on are the portions. By the time we were done we all had that leaned back, loosening the belt pose. One of our number even threw caution to the wind and had some pecan pie (not as good as Grandma's, he said, but pretty good).
Because of the long road we traveled just to get to our table I joked that we would probably have to exit through the gift shop (turns out we actually did) after following about a half a dozen exit signs pointing you through other dining rooms and down narrow stairwells. Back on the street we realized we were out of time and had to head back to get some rest for the next day's work.
During my short time there I only got to see a tiny portion of Charleston, but the part I did see makes me want to return for a longer stay.
