tartare and dark hearts

so a couple of weekends ago, tim and i made a trip to charleston to attend the food and wine festival. as we made our plans, we discovered that the band sparklehorse was also playing in charleston. it couldn't have been designed better...

we drove into charleston on saturday morning. the festival was made up of cooking competitions, demonstrations, book signings, etc. as we walked around, we stepped in for a moment to a cooking competition that tyler florence was participating in. you know, tyler florence of applebee's. i don't have anything against him, but in the 5 minutes we listened to him... he made the suggestion that using freshly ground pepper and sea salt would "really" make your food more spectacular. pepper and salt? that's the suggestion?

the rest of the food and wine discussion may at times seem vague...as i'm trying to protect the innocent.

we also attended a demonstration that was being conducted by a local chef and a food writer. afterwards, we spoke with the writer (who tim knows), who invited us to have drinks. as we started heading off for drinks, we realized it was a group of 7 of us. we walked through downtown Charleston for several blocks. i didn't know where we were going or who these people were, but i knew there was a cold beer waiting for me at the end of the journey.

finally we arrived at our destination. as we began talking, i slowly realized we were sitting at the table with an editor from an extremely well-known magazine, as well as a chef from a well-known restaurant in the south. i'm not trying to say, "oooooh, look who i was hanging out with"...which is why i'm not providing names, but it was more of a situation where you look around and think, "how the hell did i end up here?"

so, one beer in....people kept asking me if i needed anything else to drink...then they started ordering appetizers. the chef from the restaurant (who also happened to be the chef from the demonstration) came over, introduced himself, and then informed all the waitstaff that we should NOT be allowed to pay for anything. even better, right?

like charlie on lost said, "guys...where are we?"

the appetizers were so fucking delicious...so much in fact, that yes, it warranted me saying the f-word. it was a combination of sausage with pimento cheese smeared all over it. and i'm sure it helped that the beer just flowed freely.

after drinks and food, the group decided to head to yet another bar. so we all filed out into the streets of charleston. it was a perfect moment to be drunk in the daytime. the sun was starting to rest in the sky. there were people everywhere.

walking down the street, a suburban pulls up next to us...and a couple of guys from within screamed out the names of some of our co-conspirators. they jumped out and started talking to us, inviting us over to their loft apartment. so, just like that...we started going in a different direction.

next thing i know, we were in a fancy loft. someone handed me a whiskey. we sat around laughing, talking, and watching the sun start to set on downtown charleston.

afterwards, tim and i figured it might be a good idea to grab a bite to eat, so we stopped in the restaurant fig to have a couple of appetizers before the show. we ordered a cheese plate and steak tartare. tim broke his vegetarian rule for the tartare. there are few places and times that you would want to try this dish and we both figured this was the time, and most specifically, the place. given the fact that i was several hours into drinking, i even tried the tartare. for those of you who know me, this isn't normally a food i would try...but again, time and the place...and hell, well the alcohol made me feel more adventerous.

so only part of our day was done...and sparklehorse still awaited. as we drove to the hotel for a short siesta, we pulled up to the light across from the hotel...and coincidentally, my mom was also at the light. yes, mom was meeting us for the show. i think everyone knows she may be sparklehorse's number one fan.

the show was as fantastic as those delicious sausages. i've never had the opportunity to see sparklehorse, though i've been a fan for over a decade. i didn't know what to expect, but it well surpassed any expectations.

particularly...they played mostly songs of the first album, vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. this was the album that made me love sparklehorse. its what sparklehorse is to me, so i was extremely pleased that a majority of the setlist came directly from the album. i stood there blissfully taking in the songs, the memories, the sights.

we closed down the music farm.

then there was denny's. i don't remember exactly what i ate at denny's, but i do know that although its not one of the finest restaurants in charleston (and we had been to some of those earlier in the day), the food was exactly what you need at 3am.




i'm not sure exactly what i was pleaded with tim for in this shot, but i'm pretty sure it was so i could order the 5 dollar side order of bacon.

charleston was quite an experience. perfect in fact.