Charleston Recs w/ Keith Benjamin
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What's going on, everybody? This is Nick Norris coming to you from Pillows and Beer. For all of those who don't know me, I am the producer. I'm the guy behind the scenes. The boys are traveling a lot this week. I mean, we were just in Boston, Philly, New York. It was great.

And thank you to everyone who came out with us and heard a little review. But Craig got double booked, and so he's been traveling all week. Austin's dealing with some trop hop stuff. But with their new bar that's been announced, and now it's been announced everywhere. They talk about Watch What Happens. It's actually with a former guest of ours, Keith, and his Uptown social group,

and we figured we'd go ahead and just replay that because it's got a lot of Charleston recs, which I know a lot of our new listeners are asking about. We get emails and questions about it all the time. So what a better way than to reintroduce you to Keith, their new business partner. Check out their socials for their new bar and everything, but that won't be opening until the summertime, I believe, is the goal. But with that said, please enjoy this interview with

Keith Benjamin, and we will see you guys next week. And please let us know what you guys want to hear about. We love hearing you in the email. So email us at theboysatpillowsandbeer.com or DM us on pillowsandbeer on Instagram. You can find Craig at C.A. Conover on Instagram. Sewing Down South on Instagram. Kroll the Warrior King on Instagram. Me, I'm NicholasPalmer13 on Instagram. And otherwise...

Have a great weekend, everyone. And we'll talk to you next week. I would like to talk to you about one of our sponsors, Timeline Nutrition, and one product in particular, MitoPure. MitoPure is one of the first products to offer a precise dose of urolithin A to help upgrade your mitochondrial function, help increase cellular energy, and help improve muscle strength and endurance. I've started taking it recently and I've started to tell that there is definitely when I work out or I'm active.

But MitoPure does more than just help with my muscles. It can help with health stand as well. I want to be one of those granddads one day that you see in the video of him swinging his grandkid around. I want to rely on myself for as long as I possibly can. One way to think of MitoPure is that they are in your cells, chomping up the damaged mitochondria that makes you feel old and tired and helping to recycle it into new healthy ones.

Mitochondria, our cell's power generators, are one of the key influences in how we age. However, as the years pass, mitochondrial efficiency naturally declines, representing a large gap in the quality of life we expect in our later years and the one we experience.

Taking two soft gels a day for two months and you could see significant improvements in your cellular energy, muscle strength, and endurance. After four months of taking Mito Pure, you might feel yourself getting stronger, recovering faster after a workout, and experiencing less inflammation, all part of your healthier aging routine, which is honestly amazing.

Timeline is offering 10% off your first order of Mito Pure. Go to timeline.com slash pillowsandbeer. That's T-I-M-E-L-I-N-E dot com slash pillowsandbeer. These statements and products have not been evaluated by the Friedenslog administration. These products are not invented to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or condition. Enjoy.

All right. What's up, everybody? Welcome to this episode of Pillows and Beer. We're here right here, downtown Charleston at Sharehouse. Yeah. So special edition of Pillows and Beer. Craig, it is before noon.

Yeah, that's never happened before. No, we've never recorded a podcast this early. But like I said, special edition. We're with our great buddy, Keith Benjamin of Uptown Social Group. What is it? Uptown Hospitality Group. Uptown Hospitality Group. We nailed that. Listen, listen. Here we go. Good start. Because it's Uptown Social is a big bar here in Charleston. Anyways, so we're sitting at...

which is the new concept from Uptown Hospitality Group.

And I mean, if you could see what I see, I mean, it is quite the spectacle. It is like it's it's three bars in one. It is like 100 yards long. I'm sure that you can correct me, but, you know, open air. Our podcast from here, especially with all the garage doors open, looks great. And obviously we're going to get into the history and how we got here. Right. Right. So I love 100 yards.

It's probably like 100. It's like a football field. Yeah, it is. It is. 250 feet to be exact. It is. But I haven't Googled. Divided by three. It's less than a football field. So let's say that it's a football field. That works for me. Okay. That makes it better. I'm kind of digging this. I get shy, but there's no one in here right now. There's people at the bars next door. But I kind of like doing this outside of the house. Yeah. I mean, look. So...

So, Sharehouse, it is this beautiful space. As I said, if you've been to Charleston on a bachelorette party or if you plan on coming, you probably know exactly what I'm talking about when I say Uptown Social. It has exploded onto the scene like four, five, four years ago now? Yeah, April of 2018. April of 2018. And I met Keith through a mutual friend who reached out and was like, hey, my buddy's coming from New York, which we're going to talk about later.

you know, the tie into New York and Charleston.

And he was like, and you got to go and check out his new space. And it was on Upper King Street where if you've ever been in Charleston, Upper King Street was a ghost town. Like there weren't things on Upper, Upper King Street. It's all lower. And Uptown Social was kind of like the first spot up there. So when I went, I meet Keith and I'm like, what a great space. But I have no idea if this is going to work. And boy, was I just 1000% wrong. It is like the spot to go for Sunday fun days. I bet that...

Honestly, you guys should get a commission probably from one of the airlines because how many people come in on Sunday with their luggage and then change their flight to Monday? It's very funny you say that because approximately two or three months ago, we made t-shirts that say, change your flight. Oh, that's pretty great. With our branding all over it because people come in on Sundays having been there...

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, you check into your Airbnbs, and most of which are right behind Uptown Social, and they're spending all this time there throughout the weekend. So they come down on Sundays, throw their luggage down, go up to the roof, and go full send mode, and then change their flight. And then before you know it, and we've all been there, Craig and I are kind of the kings of this, we...

have tried to change our flights before. Remember Aspen? That was the last time that you and I tried to change. And it was like, it's a $1,500 change fee. And I was like, I don't know. And you started doing the math. Yeah, you started doing the math. I'm like, I don't know, man. That one only worked out because everyone fell asleep two hours after we left. And we would have stayed for nothing. But that is not the case when you stay in Charleston. Which, like,

Yeah. I mean, that does tend to happen sometimes though. It's like, you're like, yes, I'm riding this high. And then like six o'clock hits or whatever. And you're like, shit, I just should have taken a flight. But at, but at Uptown. And that's when the scary set in, right? Oh God. You got to run from the scary. We, another, you know, another, another kind of moniker we're going with here at share houses, the Sunday Sherry's. Oh, um,

You should serve sherry. Or an orange crush, which I know Craig likes. Okay, tell us what an orange crush is, just real quick. I'd like Craig to talk about the crush, and we'll just talk about how we got it here. But that's his drink. Because I...

Speaking of changing flights, I might be changing my flight today just to sit here and drink Orange Crushes. This might be my new safe place. So an Orange Crush is you use any type of orange vodka. I used to use Stolio. I know you guys use Smirnoff O. You crush a full orange. It's very important that you crush a full orange. If you've got a very...

special person across the bar. Maybe you do a orange and a half, but then you do a little bit of triple sec. And then I used to hit it with a splash of soda and a splash of Sprite. A lot of people don't use the Sprite, any lemon line soda. Yeah, that's, that's what we go with. And, and, and one of our, uh, one of our longtime bartenders from, from New York, which we'll talk about shortly, uh,

came down here and joined the crew at Uptown Social about a year ago and she had bartended in Dewey Beach for about 15 years. Yeah, obviously. Have you guys ever heard of The Crush? And I was like, what the hell is that? Why we don't do it in Charleston is insane. Yes.

We do. Oh, we're doing it here. It's happening. I actually started to go. I mean, I love Red's, but I started to go there because they had orange crushers and no one else did. Red's is awesome. That's great. But I love hearing that you guys are doing it. I mean, then your bartenders will kill you, but you can get into grapefruit crushes, you can get into lemon crushes. We're standing in our lane with one piece of fruit. It is the most perfect summer drink.

It just is. And they go down. Do you serve them in pint glasses? We serve them in these branded plastic cups, which are great. They're like 14-ounce cups, Greg. Uptown Social is known for big drinks. For big, girthy drinks and shots. Biggest drinks, strongest drinks. That's what Keith's going to tell us is...

How they make money. So that's great. But no, I love seeing you guys doing the crush. You got the mural on the wall mural. That's a weird word to say, but you got the mural on the wall of the made of bottle caps. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Then we've got Austin's tropop in front of us for the first time in a while on pillows and beer. I know. I was just telling Keith prior to the podcast. I was like, people reach out and make fun of us because our photo is Craig and I drinking beer.

Rose. Sure. And normally when we jump on here, we always kind of talk about what it is that we're drinking. And it's normally wine or Rose, you know, Craig's was crushing like a Bud Light. And and people are like, the podcast name is Pillows and Beer, and you're rarely drinking beer and you don't have pillows in any of these pictures or podcast settings. I think it's apropos because we hosted the kickoff party at Uptown Social for Trap Hop.

Yes. Yep. And that was all. That was chaos. That's chaos. No, it was. Me and Cameron came, remember? Yep. And. You guys almost got pushed down the back staircase. And we got locked into a corner. Yeah. And people were taking pictures of us like we were like zoo animals rather than like a line. And it's no one's fault, you know, but. But.

I always blame you. I didn't know. I didn't know. I was like, awesome. How could you not know that it was going to be? Well, it was kind of humbling for you because you didn't expect that many people to come. I mean, that was in what, 2019? It was 2019. We had DJ Natty Heavy went full party mode. And it was awesome. It was a really fun night. And then everyone kind of showed up. And Patricia was trying to walk through. And I was like, oh my gosh, you are going to get mauled. We actually hosted a podcast from there, too.

During the pandemic. That was fun. You guys were set up in front of the social butterfly, and there was no one else there, right? It was early on in the pandemic. Everything in Charleston was closed.

And you guys are like, we are by ourselves. There is nobody here. And I'm in the background on the other side of the camera feeding you guys drinks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. As the guy that wasn't there. You know, come on. But someone had to be there to let us in. It's not like you left a key under the mat and we were like, hey, we'll take care of this.

10,000, you know, square foot space for you. Right. Um, that was fun. The watching you guys do that through the pandemic was something else. Yeah, that was our roots. Well, Keith, why don't you tell everyone a little bit about yourself real quick before we get into your, and like, and like how you came to Charleston because I love this. Yeah. This is kind of my favorite. This is a fun story. I came here, um, in, in 2012 after getting engaged for the, for the first time there, there was a second time, uh, to a different woman. Um,

and came down here and, and decided to, to get married here. It was a, it was a destination wedding, um, originally from New York city and, and having seen Charleston all over, you know, every, every magazine, all over the media, um, as being a place to get married. We just kind of felt like this was, this was the spot. And,

came down and, and as I like to do when I go to different towns, I was, I was going to, uh, different bars and restaurants and felt like the King street was just, um, totally ripe and saw all of these people waiting on lines and waiting to get into these bars. And, um, at the time I was, I was running a bar on the Lower East side, uh,

called Hair of the Dog. Yeah, we guys have some famous bars in New York. Yeah, we have a big group and, you know, Hair of the Dog, 13 Step, Three Sheet Saloon, Off the Wagon, Down the Hatch, Stumble In, Jake's Dilemma, and the Gin Mill. Austin, how many have we been to together? I probably hit like, you know, five of those with you. Beer pong, right? Yeah, we stayed on the pong table for...

I mean, hours one night. Yeah. And ended up just blacking out it. What was that, three sheets? Yeah, it was three sheets. Yeah. We were definitely in three sheets. I think anyone listening knows those bars from New York. Yeah, they're just kind of iconic dating back to 1991 when we opened down the hatch. But, you know, fast forward to 2012 and 2013 when I got married for the first time, came down, checked it out, and felt like... Can you tell everyone where your...

engagement party was? Your welcome party, please? I mean, we're not talking about that weekend specifically, but it was at a place formerly known as Sticky Fingers on Meeting Street, which had its time and its heyday. But round two was way better. We're happy to have Stevie and my now wife and

But anyway, 2016, four years later, with a bunch of headwinds in New York City and payroll skyrocketing, rent skyrocketing, we felt like we needed to take the show on the road. And I pitched the idea of Charleston to my group.

We came down here on a weekend in April, and I don't have to tell you guys, but April in Charleston is just absolute money. It's so much fun. There's so many people around. The weather has just begun to change. Maybe like a month into the weather changing. I kind of like it. The bridge run is in April. I liken April in Charleston to the best college visit, right? When you go and visit colleges as a junior and you go to that college,

that school with a great campus, but it's a sunny day. And you're like, that's where I'm going to school that for me, that was Penn state. Yeah. See, that's actually, yeah. God, we could go in that direction, but I mean, how many college visits did I take? And it's so funny to look back on and like, I went and it was just the wrong weekend. And I was like, done, I'm done with that school forever. And then I went,

I only did one. I came here, spent a weekend in Charleston, and I was like, this is where I want to go to college. And 15 years later, Craig is here. Here we are. So that was us in 2016. We saw all these lines, and that was a Saturday night. And on Monday, we saw Uptown Social for the first time, which was an absolute blast.

disgusting shell. And there was three feet of dirt on the ground. Huge space. And there was wires everywhere. And it was a massive space. And the kitchen and bathrooms was just open air. There was nothing there. And I looked at my business partner, Mitch, at the time. And we looked at each other. And we went upstairs. And

and we saw this potential for a roof deck and we said, this is the spot. - Yeah, I remember seeing the pictures and just being like, how did you guys do, I mean, it's an incredible project that you did, but we needed it. I mean, there's still lines to bars now. I mean, there's just always going to be here.

And you guys took like a thousand people off the street and there's still lines. Well, our occupancy is 530. So it's definitely not a thousand, but maybe, maybe throughout the course of the night. But yeah, no, it's, it was just, we felt really, really good about it. And even at the time, Austin, you were saying upper, upper King was, was pretty, pretty desolate. And it was, it was,

And now there's like the Hyatt is right across the street. Blue Green Hotel. All of Leva's businesses are up there too. The furthest you used to go was, I mean, when I was in college, was the dollar was even getting up there. And then we went to Midtown, which is dispensary now. Right. And those guys do a great job. I mean, it all connects. And so for us to have that area of King Street now illuminated and vibrant and exciting and

and to be able to really capitalize on all of the people who not only live here but are visiting every weekend with bachelor and bachelorette parties and weddings and we have

private space and the roof deck. It all came together to the point where we said, what's next? But you started out as a bartender, right? I did. I started it off the wagon on McDougal Street in New York City in 2006 as a barback. I was humping kegs and ice and closing the bar down at 4.30 in the morning. All three of us did that actually, isn't that cool? Being a New York City bartender is just like...

it just sounds out of pocket because it's like, when do you close? Right. It's like two, three, four sometimes. Yeah, sure. And then, and then, and then like, then you close it down and then like, yeah, you're having some drinks maybe with, with other bartenders. And then, and then you don't get home until like, you know, like five 30 in the morning. You're like five 30 or seven ridiculous. Eight.

The trippiest part of that was all of my buddies out of school were taking finance jobs and waking up when I was going to sleep. And so I'd go to my apartment and there'd be the coffee carts outside serving bagels and scones and coffee. And I'm like, this is totally... Yeah, you're like, I'm about to sleep until 2. I'm about to sleep until 2, wake up, eat chicken wings, pizza, and drink beer, and then go back to work. Which, honestly, is a great life. It's not bad, guys. For a period of time, it is...

It's so fun. But that's one of the reasons I wanted to have you on, Keith, is because for a period of time, I feel like my bartending days really shaped me and taught me a ton. But you have to get out. Well, you don't have to, but a lot of people want to get out eventually. And somehow you went from bartender to now owning a couple of the most successful establishments in Charleston. So what was that kind of journey like?

Yeah, that's a great question, Craig. So I was really part-time barbacking and bartending and off the wagon until 2008 when the market –

obviously crashed. And all your finance guys were like, hey, can we come work with you? And actually, funny enough, at the same time, Jared Freed, who you guys have had on the podcast, that's when he started comedy because he was working in selling life insurance. So at the very same time... Good switch for him. He's extremely funny. So at that time, I was working in sports marketing for an agency and the agency went out of business and

I ended up helping out these guys open the Stumble Inn, which is another great spot on the Upper East Side, which formerly was Moe's Caribbean. When you say helping out, what did you just like? So I went up there as one of the opening bartenders at the Stumble Inn in 2008 and started making really good money. To your point, Craig, my buddies were out of work, and I felt like I had a good thing going. They asked me if I wanted to manage about six months in. I told them I needed to figure out what I wanted to do and then go get a real job.

Funny enough, here I am in 2022. This is my new job. But yeah, I ended up really kind of staying the course. About a year later, I accepted that management position with the caveat that I'd be able to, at some point, pretty soon thereafter, be able to buy into the partnership. Because you actually take a pay cut when you go to management. Yeah, absolutely. Because you're behind the bar and you're sacrificing one of those big nights to be on the floor and coordinate what's going on. But I really went all in on that. And having truly gone to...

you know, I touched on this, but having gone to Penn State, you go to CFC and Austin, Alabama, those are huge schools, really fun, big party schools. And I felt like after going to Penn State and being a part of these tailgates and fraternity parties and playing lacrosse and being part of the social scene, I wanted that to be part of my life. And so I bought into the stumble in in 2012. And then shortly thereafter, we signed the lease for Hair of the Dog on the Lower East Side and ended up

opening the hair of the dog and bought into a few more of our spots in New York City. And the rest, as they say, is history. I mean, I really kind of wanted to carve my own path, and Charleston was there. Yeah. So let me put this in a perspective, too. And I'm going to throw out some numbers here, Keith. And you can laugh at me, or you can nod and be like, actually, that's pretty spot on. So the success that Uptown has had, I just remember one time that you and I were talking

The number two seller of like Bud Light is Red's, correct? Yes. In Charleston, right? And it was at like 10,000 cases a year. Yeah. The number one seller was uptown at like 25,000 cases a year. That's far above what the actual number is, but we're proud of our partnership. Being a beer guy, you're really putting me on the spot. Hey, I'm just trying to. We're proud of our partnership with Anheuser-Busch, and we know that

Those guys put a lot of action behind their brands, and we're happy to sell them. I mean, Bud Light has been a horse for us in New York City for years. Well, Bud Light's a horse for everyone. It's a horse for everyone, but you go to the Midwest, and it's maybe a little bit more of a Miller Lite or a little bit more into Colorado. It's Coors Light. But here in Charleston and specifically at our bars in New York, it's always been Bud Light, and we sell a whole lot of it. Craig, Keith does not sell Bud Light.

Miller Lite at Uptown. That's not true. We do sell Miller Lite at Uptown. Wait, what? We don't sell Coors Lite. Coors Lite. Coors Lite. Actually, we're announcing a partnership with Bud Light in like a couple weeks here. My wife... We met them at Uptown. Our first meeting with them was at Uptown. Oh, yeah. They're great. Southern Eagle guys? Yeah. I don't know. Jerry's... My distributor. Right. So...

Yes, and they also distribute my beer, so it goes hand in hand. So I'm a Bud Light fan too, I promise. And Craig called me and was like, hey, I'm about to do this thing with Bud Light. Do you care? And I was like, no, dude. No, I don't care. I love...

We'll never compete with Bud Light. You know, it's just not going to happen. We hope you do at some point. Hey, hey, of course, you know. Or you partner with them. Or you partner with them. Yeah. Or they buy me. Quick break, everyone. And we'll be right back with Keith from the Uptown Hospitality. Okay, besties. Picture it. It's 4 p.m. and you're ready for a little snack before your after work gym class.

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And one product in particular, MitoPure. MitoPure is one of the first products to offer a precise dose of urolithin A to help upgrade your mitochondrial function, help increase cellular energy, and help improve muscle strength and endurance. I've started taking it recently and I've started to tell that there is definitely when I work out or I'm active. But MitoPure does more than just help with my muscle health.

it can help with health stand as well. I want to be one of those granddads one day that you see in the video of him swinging his grandkid around. I want to rely on myself for as long as I possibly can. One way to think of MitoPure is that they are in your cells, chomping up the damaged mitochondria that makes you feel old and tired and helping to recycle it into new healthy ones.

ones. Mitochondria, our cell's power generators, are one of the key influences in how we age. However, as the years pass, mitochondrial efficiency naturally declines, representing a large gap in the quality of life we expect in our later years and the one we experience.

Taking two soft gels a day for two months and you could see significant improvements in your cellular energy, muscle strength, and endurance. After four months of taking Mito Pure, you might feel yourself getting stronger, recovering faster after a workout, and experiencing less inflammation, all part of your healthier aging routine, which is honestly amazing.

Timeline is offering 10% off your first order of Mito Pure. Go to timeline.com slash pillowsandbeer. That's T-I-M-E-L-I-N-E dot com slash pillowsandbeer. These statements and products have not been evaluated by the Friedenslog administration. These products are not invented by no street pure company.

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Get your first month free at Greenlight.com slash pod. Greenlight.com slash pod. All right. Welcome back to this episode of Pillows and Beer. We're right here at the brand new ShareHouse in Charleston, South Carolina with our great friend Keith and my best buddy Austin, as always. Keith, I want to go back to how you made that transition from bartender and head bartender to owner, though, because...

it's great that that happened, but a lot of people listening out there is like, okay, so cool. They listened to their bartenders, which was smart because the bartenders know how to run a restaurant. But then you were like, Oh, I want options in the next restaurant. Like what, what was that process, that transition process? Like they, and they were like, sure. Like if you ever want to buy in, you're allowed. Yes. So the, the best kind of formula, um, I can speak to is, is the formula that my partnership established back in 91, which, you know, at the time I was eight years old. Um,

But, you know, really what Mitch Banchik and Michael Ash, who started our company, what they did was they created an expansion plan where as they grew and they brought people in to run their establishments, they offered equity to these individuals so that they weren't only there running the show until 4 o'clock, 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock in the morning, but they were actually supporting

seeing the profits from the business and so that started right from the get-go with these guys and as they grew throughout they made it known that if there were people that were to bust their ass and make it happen for themselves that they could truly create a career for themselves

in this group and within this group. And so it wasn't like, hey, someday I hope to get equity. I knew that there was a proven track record of a bunch of guys and women who came before me who had had this opportunity. And so when the time came and I looked at my degree, which was in broadcast journalism, I went into sports marketing, and then 2008 happened, and I started to go kind of full throttle with the bar gig, I knew that really to take that next step, that management and then partnership had to be in my future. Right.

Because otherwise it was, you know, what am I doing with my life? Just pouring drinks. And talking about really fostering a culture of like, you know, community and family, right? So it's like when you go to Uptown, right? Everyone that works there is like so proud to work there, right? They like love to work there and at Sharehouse. And then like, you know, they're wearing shirts for like, you know, hair of the dog and whatnot. Right. And you have also done that here with...

you know, a lot of bartenders and now like, you know, managers and stuff are like in, you know, on the same track as you were and, and, and are now like, you know, owners of a piece of equity of the company. Yeah. And I mean, you nailed it, Austin talking about culture. I played lacrosse at Penn state and, and having that kind of team atmosphere and, and really building that camaraderie was something that,

I walked right into when I joined this company back in 2006 as a barback, but certainly something that I wanted to take to the next level and cultivate as I went from, you know, off the wagon to the stumble in to then hair of the dog where we had just this unbelievable cohesive unit. And when we signed the lease here at...

I actually brought down Cara Graves, Bryn Kelly, and Kat Moore all from Hair of the Dog who were my hires there. And so they came down here with me and then helped bring that culture to Uptown Social, which is now...

taking on kind of this whole new identity as the Uptown Hospitality Group. So you had worked your way... So when you, just to get, finish the gap to Charleston, you worked your way up through the equity you were buying in New York, became a manager, and then you got to a position where you were like, hey, I feel like we have a great, you know, some...

Yeah.

This is how many people are moving to Charleston. This is how many people live in Charleston. This is how many people are visiting Charleston. And this is how many years Charleston has been the top destination on every list around the country. And they looked at me with a more comprehensive look than that. But in presentation, they looked at me and said, let's go take a look. And within a week, we were on an airplane in Charleston. It's brilliant. Given your employees'

skin in the game is a genius plan and they just they already work so hard to be a part of the team the good employees but I wish that was an option back in my day once again it's just like it fosters that like you know family mentality and

like being proud to work there. And that's just, you know, it's so important. It's like, you can go to so many places and people are like, I just work here, man. Like, I don't know. Right. But you come here and everyone's like, I work here. Yeah. How many employees do you have? That's true. 200 employees in Charleston. Oh my God.

And what's crazy, guys, is like we look at the pandemic, right, where everyone specifically in the Northeast was looking in the mirror every day and be like, what the hell am I doing with my life? Am I going to stay here? Am I going to stay in New York? Am I going to go to Westchester or New Jersey or Connecticut or whatever? Or do I just move south? Or do I even like what I do for a living? Or am I happy to work from home? And everyone moves south. And everyone moves south. And here we are loving what we do, right? We genuinely enjoy what we do every day.

I wake up every morning. I can't wait to come to work. I can't wait to get it going again and talk to my team, whether it be here at ShareHouse and Bodega or down the street, up the street at Uptown Social. It's fun, right? And it's challenging. And we constantly push ourselves. And I always say like,

Stay in your lane, compete with yourselves, and make sure that we are the very best version of ourselves, and the rest will take care of it. I think Charles is a great example. Stay in your lane, Craig. That's a good piece of advice, Keith. Stay in your lane. I think Charles is probably Dr. Phil. A perfect example of...

You know, there's nothing wrong in certain cases of staying in food and bev and making it a career. Right. In Charleston, it is one of the main careers is career food and bev people. And you're giving people a chance to even, you know, rise into business people, which is really cool, honestly. Yeah. You know, and...

guys, the, the hospitality, um, industry takes a, takes a huge beating. Just, I think that the, that the, there's such a negative connotation about doing this for a living unless you've made it really big. Then, you know, what are you doing with your life? And, and what we've done here with our staff is show that whether you're, you know, a bar back, an essay, uh, um,

working in the kitchen, you know, the guy who helps clean the spot at night. I mean, there is tremendous value to every member of our organization. And we're just, we're really proud of the group that we've grown here. I mean, trying to run a restaurant,

I mean, obviously you're very lucky and you've had the group since 91, as you said. But there's something to be said for that when y'all moved and you opened, you already had...

Like, okay, here's what we're doing. You know, on Wednesday night, it's like a bottle of wine and like a slice of pizza for, you know, X amount of dollars. It's like you had like a rough outline or a pretty damn good outline of like what you wanted to do to make money, right? It's like immediately you're like, look, we have like, you know, pre-made shots that are $3.

All day, every day, done, right? Yeah, I mean, that's the formula that we've used in New York forever, having great promos and specials. One thing that we really kind of underestimated, I'll be honest, when we came down here was the live music scene and the talent in which lies here in Charleston, whether it be live music or DJs. And when we came down, we were used to having one or two DJs at our bars in New York, which were much smaller. And when we came down here at Uptown Social, we realized that...

Not only did we need more than one or two DJs, we needed 50-plus acts a week. Yeah, you can never be without a musical performance here at a successful bar. You can't. I mean, you guys have upstairs, you have downstairs. Sometimes you have three...

Three DJs downstairs for the Silent Disco. Which is tonight here at Sharehouse, actually. And you really hit in on... I'm a big Silent Disco guy. You and I both. Midnight City, you hit on... I mean, Midnight City's my favorite band, eh?

They're just awesome. And David Higgins, who I met right when I moved down here, he ended up playing my wedding. I mean, we just... The second wedding. We just are really lucky. What's going on this weekend? Like, people coming down Memorial Day, so this will come out in two days. Yeah, I've gotten lots of DMs, Craig, of you. A bunch of girls coming in town. You know, where should we go? Where should we go? This is your sign, guys. Like...

Uptown Social will be bumping all weekend. And we haven't really touched on Bodega at all, which kind of launched during the pandemic. But I'll talk to that in a second. Specifically this weekend, we're throwing a big summer kickoff party Thursday night here at Uptown Social. I'm sorry, here at Sharehouse.

with DJs Dala Menu and Seth G. If you have not seen Seth G. He's unbelievable. He plays the violin to all of these kind of top 40 hits. It's a sight to be seen. That's Thursday night. That duo also plays every Monday night at Uptown Social. And then we also have this. It's not to be missed either.

by the way. Any chance you get it. If Seth is playing on King Street, I'll walk into that bar. Yes, that's awesome. And then we also have a silent disco on Thursday night. And then it's just...

Full throttle all weekend long. Music, live bands, DJs, specials, Orange Crushes. And then Bodega, which is this crazy concept we came up with during the pandemic and we launched out of Uptown Social. But it's next door to where we're at right now. Yeah, and it's iconic breakfast. It's in the end zone of the football stadium.

ball field. The end zone of the football field. Is where it is. Yeah. But it's this iconic breakfast and lunch spot where the sandwiches, much like a New York City bodega, are these incredible bacon, egg, and cheese, Taylor ham, egg, and cheese if you're from Jersey. And we have a lot of kind of Southern twists on our sandwiches, an Italian sandwich, et cetera, et cetera. And then at night, bodega turns into a really funky, cool cocktail lounge. And it's

It's open 19 hours a day, 7 a.m. daily for coffee and breakfast, and it goes right to 2 a.m. I feel like you can always get a... As I look around, I see there's multiple bars in this place. You can always get a drink at your establishment, which is crucial for Memorial Day because, God, we're going to have so many people in town. What are the do's and don'ts to getting in? Do you have any recommendations for getting into Sharehouse Bodega uptown this weekend? Because there will be a line guaranteed every single evening at...

Yeah, guys, I'll be honest. I mean, you know, it's not rocket science. You show up a little earlier, right? And if you show up a little earlier, which I would say, you know, 9 o'clock is kind of that sweet spot. You can avoid the line, but you start getting here after 9.30. Well, that's plenty early. I mean, that's plenty, like...

Nine. You don't have to get that in. Nine's early? That's what I mean. Nine is, I mean, I don't know. If you're good at nine, come in at seven and just let it ride. And don't leave. Now, can you bar hop between? You can. You can bar hop between Sharehouse and Bodega. We're just going to call it the football field for now. It takes up three quarters of a city block. We're on one of the, you know.

We're like, you know, banging on the end zone door. We are. Which is where, like, you know, we're sitting. This is the red zone. We're in the red zone. We're in the red zone right now. Yeah. And then, so, downstairs, because I know early on, you know, upstairs at Uptown's a little less capacity than downstairs. Have you worked? So, it seems that downstairs is the same vibe as upstairs, but I like kind of moving around and switching it up. Yeah. So, during the pandemic, we took some time and kind of...

figured out what we wanted to do with that downstairs because it's such a great dining space and we have that great pizza which you guys have had before. The Bleeker Street Pizza. Which is my favorite pizza. We brought Anthony Falco, formerly of Roberta's and now kind of the top pizza czar on earth. Guys, this guy's job is

is to go and teach people how to make dope pizza. Like, how sick is that job? It's got pepperoni, jalapenos, and this ranch sauce. Just follow Millennium Falco on Instagram because the guy's a wizard. I mean, he's a pizza wizard. If there ever was one, he's the guy. And then he rolls in and he's like, you gotta make the crust like this. And then he's like, you guys name the pizzas whatever the hell you want, but I'll show you how to make them. That's cool. What a job, Craig. It's a great job.

It's a great dining space during the day. And then we've transitioned...

into just an awesome nightclub at night. I use the word club loosely because we really pride ourselves on being a bar and not being a stereotypical club, but we have many components of that. We put in a massive video wall during the pandemic. We built out this great stage area and we started to bring DJs down from New York, New Jersey, the metropolitan area. We've flown in this guy, Austin James, from

And then we have our local guys who are just unbelievably talented from DJ Boogie, DJ Eclipse. I said Dollar Man, Seth G, Sparkbox. Isn't he? Who's that? Isn't R. Dot? R. Dot has been doing some other stuff. Oh, yeah, that's true. Natty. Natty.

Natty Heavy is awesome. He's more of a wedding guy. You should follow him on Instagram because he's hilarious. A club in Charleston, a lot of times, it's like you want to go dance. We don't have typical clubs, but I always tell people that are looking for a club to go to Uptown because you'll find the DJ, you'll find the dance. I mean, can we just call like a spade a spade? The amount of times that Keith has texted me after like a big night and been like,

Hey, buddy, you can't lean your head underneath and just open up like a beer spout. I know that you know our buddies, but this is not your personal playground. Or take off your shoes. Yeah. I'm sorry, man. Sorry. I just have so much fun.

It's like I start to like, you know, waltz around like do to do. It's like we have like a dress code and like rules of admission on the door. And it's like that's for everyone. And then there's Austin's rules. And Austin just just makes those up as he goes along. You guys have been very gentle. Yeah, we've had some we've had some discussions, some Monday morning quarterback discussion, if you will. Yeah, we've had some huddles. Yeah, we've got some huddles. It's like, hey, you can't do this and you can't do that. I believe you've given out some apologies the next day.

I have apologized to you before. I definitely have. Not to me, but to Kara. To Kara, to whoever is managing that night. My cards have not gone through before. I had to drop off cash. I think we had Craig on credit for like three weeks straight. I was up to like five, six hundred bucks. And I had lost my wallet. And they just...

You guys let me come in and eventually I just settled up with you guys at the end of the week. Yeah. It got to the point where like I had to bench myself. Okay. We're just talking like, you know, football. So I benched myself and I was like,

man, Charleston King Street will get you. Like, it will get you, which I think is why Craig and I try to be on the move as much as possible because Charleston King Street can be very, very dangerous. Well, you have the photo ops, which are great, and you actually know the importance of an Instagram wall, but you have the photo thing in the front of Uptown. Yep. And then you've got Instagram opportunities all over here. And to, like, wrap up right before a commercial, just this little sharehouse thing,

Breakfast and lunch. Are you guys open? Bodega's open every day of the week? Every day of the week at 7 a.m. And then Sharehouse opens 4 p.m. Monday to Wednesday. But we can go to breakfast at Bodega and stay. Yeah. You can go full send until 2 a.m. That's amazing. Yeah. Pace yourself. Yeah, it's dangerous. Eat and drink responsibly. Because then you're over at Bodega and you're getting like a bloody or whatever. And the thing is, is that Charleston doesn't have any brunch spots. Well, maybe like, you know, one or two. That, that...

are available other than the weekend, right? So it's like you can come here and it's like, you know, like you could treat it like a brunch spot if you wanted to on like a Wednesday, right? So it's like if you're on a bachelorette party and you get in early, like you come here on a Thursday because no other places really have brunch until Saturday, Sunday, and maybe even just Sunday. And so you come here, you know, bloodies, mimosas, and I give our chef some coffee. Our chef Alex, so much credit because, you know, the employee shortage is,

worldwide is a real deal thing and and there's a reason why certain places are not open all the time and and alec has made a commitment to finding the staff we need to be open seven days a week at 7 a.m and make sure that we're putting out that breakfast and lunch daily that is impressive to him and uh okay that's amazing well that sounded rushed it's not rushed but when we come back

When we come back, we are going to give you our takes on the perfect Charleston weekend, give you some recs of what we're doing when we're not at these bars. Just a perfect Memorial Day in Charleston, which you guys ask us all the time. So we will be back shortly. Customers are rushing to your store. Do you have a point of sale system that you can trust, or is it

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All right, everyone. What's going on? Welcome back to this very special episode of Pillows and Beer. I'm joined by my best bud, Craig Conover, Craigie C. And we are at Sharehouse downtown Charleston with our very good buddy, Keith Benjo, Keith Benjamin. And nicknames now. And we are just and we are just, you know, riffing, just kind of talking about business and kind of picking Keith's brain on things.

how he rose the ranks to become a successful entrepreneur from the North. It doesn't happen that often.

Where a Yankee comes on down and makes good in Charleston. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. There's two of us at the table. I'm a Yankee too. Is that like the new thing? If you can make it in Charleston, you can make it anywhere? No, if you can make it in New York. If you can make it in New York. That makes sense. You ever hear the song New York, New York, Frank Sinatra? Who's that? Yeah, just some guy with an angel's voice. I think I've heard of him. I'd say good old Yankee game, but I'm a Mets guy, so...

Well, we've talked a lot about... You're also a Rangers guy, so... Big game tonight. Big game tonight. Should we talk about you chirping me? No, let's not do that. Okay. Yeah, go for it. Sure. Keith went to Raleigh just recently, right? The Rangers are playing the Canes. Yep. Being from Charlotte, I am a Hurricanes guy. Which is not Raleigh. I'm not a diehard... Okay. Keith, which is... And... Okay. So, go on. Well, all the pro sports teams...

North Carolina, Keith, come on. I have to say the obvious. It's just like a different... So all the pro sports teams are in Charlotte, right? Sure. Except for the Canes. And it just is what it is. So anyways, I chirped Keith and I was like, get the fuck out of Raleigh, buddy, after we beat them on game one. And Keith got salty. He started... No, he started chirping me. I only said one thing to you. He also said that right after the sudden death overtime game winner...

And then approximately 36 seconds later, Austin texts me as I'm in a cab escaping from PNC Arena, to which my response was something along the lines of...

Please refer to Craig's Instagram where you have a Capitals jersey on March 29th with your name on the back. So your finger was just on the trigger waiting to send it to him? Perhaps. Yeah, that's a good comeback. He's like, bro, when you get free jerseys and free tickets. What are you supposed to do? Right. So big Caps guy over here. When I wear another jersey, let's think. Yeah. Well, no. I don't know. No. You are a Caps fan. Yeah.

Not if it's like your arch rival, right? But it's like the Caps. I was born in D.C. It was like the very first...

professional sports game that I ever went to was a Caps game. So when we were going to DC and they reached out, I was like, this is kind of perfect and really cool. They personalized a jersey for me, Keith. What am I going to be like? Sorry, Caps. I challenge, I challenge LSU to get Austin a jersey for this coming football season. That would never, okay, that's different. That's funny. That would never happen. They'll put his last name on it, give it to him for free. Here we go. Keith is still salty. Uh,

I'm like really loving it. Keith is still salty. And game four tonight, bud. Are we going to watch together? Would you like to? Sure. Stevie's out of town. I just won a bunch of money on the Rangers on Sunday. Not that Stevie wouldn't want you to join us. She would love that. But she's out of town. Stevie's out of town, so yes. So come watch with Robbie and I. Wait, Austin's gut's kind of hot because we went – that sounded weird.

Craig, I really haven't focused on my diet, so thank you. We lost every bet for the PGA Championship, but Austin, towards the end, because we...

It was a unique way of putting in our bets, but we, we, Austin's like, dude, I'm just saying like, JT's been hot. JT's been hot. And I was like, fine, fuck it. Like, let's put 50 bucks on JT to win. No, 50 bucks on JT to be a top 10, a top five and a winner. I thought we had lost all our bets. And then I like Austin texted me on Sunday cause I wasn't watching once DJ got kind of fucked up. Um,

And he won, and I looked at my account, and it was like, you know, plus a lot. Let's give everyone listening right now a piece of advice. That piece of advice is if you come to Charleston and you see Austin and I out watching a game, do not jump on our wagon. Do not jump on our wagon. Bet against both of us.

Keith and I lose every bet that we've ever put in together. Stevie, my wife, has consistently started betting against us. No way. It's like 6-0. That's amazing. Keith and I lose every bet together. That's really funny, actually. But I did win money on the Rangers the other night because I was like, there's no way that Carolina goes up 3-0.

And lo and behold, I was right. Oh, you bet against your own team, too. God, Austin's all over the board. No, look, look. It was a plus. His own team. I have air quotes up. Look, I took them at plus one and a half. So if the Canes would have won by one, dude, the other night I took them at plus one and a half. And then we score in an open net with 1.8 seconds left. What?

We. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I'm a man with multiple homes, Keith. I'm allowed to root for the Canes. You know what? You are a man with multiple homes. I don't know who I'm rooting for. This weekend, right? Yeah. True. True. Oh, yeah. You guys are going to. Yeah. So we are going to give you recs for what we would do on Memorial Day weekend. Unfortunately, I will not be in town and neither will Craig. Well, you will. And neither will Keith, actually, because Keith is coming out to my parents' new house on Saturday.

Seabrook on Saturday with the family. That's still Charleston activity. And I'll be here the other parts of the weekend. But there's a lot going on. I will be possibly in the bottom. In Charleston, you're saying? In Charleston, yeah. This is one of the best weekends of the year in Charleston. And it's before it's too hot, which the heat doesn't... I mean, whatever. The heat shouldn't keep you from coming, but it's just some months are better than others, and this month is going to be great. So, perfect Memorial Day. If you get into town, let's say on like...

Thursday. Thursday. Afternoon. What are you doing?

So it's funny because I just had some friends reach out and I said, oftentimes if you're staying kind of on that strip of Spring and Cannon Street, which is where most of the Airbnb's are. A lot of people stay on Spring Street. I always say, and I don't say this selfishly, but I do because I'm on this podcast and I've been given the platform. Take it away, buddy. The rooftop at Uptown Social would be a great spot to start. I feel like when I get into town anywhere,

I'm like, okay, let's, let's like go find a good spot with a good roof. And in this case, I mean, we have a great roof at Uptown. And so you definitely should just go and get a couple of cocktails. And that's like a good place to like, like feel out. And there's not a lot of rooftop bars. A lot of people don't know that when they get to Charleston there, you can count them on one hand, the rooftop bars in Charleston. There's like stars. There's,

Then do. Yeah. There's a citrus club over at the club. Right. Right. And marketplace. Marketplace. I mean, there's not I haven't been to Marketplace Pavilion and I can't tell you how long it's because it chose to stay closed during quarantine to all. Yeah. So, you know what I would do, guys, when I would get here on a Thursday and if I were here the whole weekend, especially if I were staying at a house, my first stop would be to go to uptown and get a couple of cocktails, maybe a pizza. And then I would go over to Graft Wine Bar.

And I'd have a glass of wine and I would stock my house with all the wine from their place. Because you guys are big wine drinkers. Yeah, Graft is great. And I think their selection is awesome. And Femi and Miles are the owners. Yeah, I went to college with Femi, actually. He's such a good guy. Definitely wanted their support to local entrepreneurs. Yeah. So it's Femi. Yep.

Would not have gone that route. Would not have thought that you were going to go that route. But you are walking distance to that. I live right around the corner. And what's the coffee shop right there? They're great. The Daily? Yeah. Didn't they come see us at the podcast tour? Or Harbinger. No, The Daily. Yeah, The Daily. Both are good. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, they're good. That's a great little breakfast spot, too. Were they in Atlanta, maybe? Yeah, they do have a spot in Atlanta. Okay, so maybe that's where they are. And then on...

well, and then Thursday night you can pop all over. Thursdays are my favorite night. So like even Austin and I love dispensary too. So midnight city is usually at dispensary on Thursday night. If you can see midnight city. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. They're here on Sunday, but you know, most of the foot traffic, most of like the going out foot traffic, uh,

It's funny because when you leave Uptown and you're walking to Dispensary or vice versa, you see a lot of your friends that are passing you. And then it's like, hey, man, how was Uptown? It's like, you know, great. We're just going over here, though, to check it out and vice versa. And people walk back and forth between the two. It's too funny. Yeah, shout out to their bandmate that just passed away. But, yeah, Midnight City is great. Seth's great. I would do...

So Friday, yeah, or Thursday, bar hop, and then on Friday... Let's not sleep on a David Higgins song or two over at Cocktail Club. Yeah, Cocktail Club's great. David Higgins is just an incredible musical artist. I feel like if you're coming into town, you need to get some oysters at some point, right? So it's like what? You go get a cocktail at the rooftop and then you go get oysters? I would say if you can hit

the Darling. The Darling is like a 4 p.m. open and that's right in the mix. And it's a beautiful people-watching spot, too. You and I have done many. A big, wide-open glass. Yeah, we've done many times there and you can people-watch like crazy. I mean, their Raw bar is right there, right on King. Yeah, you can visit my store right after or right before. Yeah, that's true. Right next to the store. Yeah, right there. Well, I mean, Raw has the best

oysters in my opinion, but I would hit it during the day, raw 167 and you got to go put your name in for two hours. It's closed on Sundays, by the way, folks. It's closed on Sundays, so there is no like brunch at 167. Put your name in there and then go have wine and cheese at bin 152 while you wait for your table at raw. We did that recently. We literally just did that. We literally did that like last... Two weeks ago. Yeah, two weeks ago. Here, Friday, I'm going to switch it up a little bit and I should... It's stupid to keep giving out this... I hope this spot doesn't blow up, but fuck it. They deserve it. But...

Friday, I would do a Shem Creek day, a day on Shem Creek. I mean, Craig, you're not really like. I'm not blowing it. I know. I don't like Shem Creek's new. You're not busting the bubble here, pal. I know, I know, I know. That's where you want to drink, on the water. I would start at Tavern and Table. It's the most chill, calm spot there. Then work your way over to Red's, which I like to say to people that come to the store, it's like trashy local. And I love that. Like you can get crab legs, orange crushes. The only other place that does orange crushes. Really? They do? Yeah. Do they juice it?

Yeah, but they'll kill me for telling everyone this. And then walk over to saltwater. Cowboys is owned by Naomi. And that's kind of the party spot. If you're looking for a party, you go there. But Reds is the party to my favorite.

It's just different. Edith Tavern. They have great DJs. TJ Boogie, who plays here quite a bit, plays Saltwater on Saturdays. That's a great spot. Go out and look at the shrimp boats. Outer Banks is filmed there. Go look at the dolphins. It's pretty awesome. There's that one boat that goes back and forth with all the golden retrievers. Yeah, exactly. Wait, what boat is that? You've seen it before. It's a little tiny motorboat. Yeah. It's awesome.

So that would be my Friday day activity. And then I don't know what I would do after that. I guess go home and shower. So I would go home, shower. I would make sure that you have a reservation somewhere. And if you don't, I'm going to throw a sleeper out there. You guys are going to laugh. No. We love sleepers. The sleeper would be Santi's.

Oh, Santi's is great. We love Santi's. And I love Santi's. And you don't need a reservation. You love Santi's. You love Javi's. We do need places to go. Yeah, Javi's awesome. We do need places to go if you don't have a reservation. I get asked that all the time, and I just never know what to say. Santi's. Santi's. So it's an amazing old school Mexican joint.

Yeah. It's authentic as heck. And like all the guys there are pretty much from Mexico. And the chips and salsa are so good. It is. It's the best salsa in town. So if you don't have a Rez, go to Santi's, drink some Mark's. Where else can you go to? I know this is exactly what I think that you and I should answer to. Where to go if you don't have a Rez? I would say Mex One on Sullivan's. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, yeah, Sullivan's is a whole other day with, like, home team, X1 and stuff. Downtown, where can you just pop in for a bite to eat? Moe's Crosstown. Jeez. Guys, I'm going off the reservation. Yeah, you're going off the rails here. I mean, I like that. I mean, dude, never. Never.

Don't tell that spot. I know. Don't tell that spot. That is unfair. If you're stuck on King Street, though, this is why this is a tough question. Guys, I mean, if you're stuck on King Street on Memorial Day weekend without a reservation, then honestly, come to Uptown Social and get a pizza. Yeah, get pizza at Uptown. Come to Sharehouse. Get sliders at Sharehouse. Because if your group is like nine or ten people, that's the thing that kills me. I'm like, where can you go? Yeah.

To get food without a resi on a Friday night? We can accommodate. We're big enough to do that, but we don't take reservations. Rue de Jean? Rue de Jean could be a good one. I love Rue de Jean. I do too. You don't, Keith. I mean, I'm not going to sit here and throw shade. Right, right. I think their muscles are really good. Abs and flows. Their muscles are really good. Another hangout that would have food for people...

It's tough. You just kind of have to pop in. Oh, what's the wine place at Cork across from Sewing Down South? Is a good little lunch spot. Oh, you know what? Have you guys been to Uncorked? Uncorked. What's the new place? I've never been there. Rarebit. Rarebit's fucking great. Rarebit's great. You been to Bedford Falls yet? No, I haven't. Bedford Falls has exceptional food and there are a couple New Yorkers. Sounds like a hotel. It is across the street from the Elon. It's a town. It's a town and it's a wonderful life. It's on Median Street.

right off spring and those guys are two dudes from New York City Upper East Side they have a bar there and their food's great and it's relatively slow just throwing out Rex's fellow New Yorkers okay favorite barbecue in Charleston Lewis okay but best atmosphere and barbecue

Home team. Oh, home team downtown. Another place that has a lot of size to it. Oh, true, true. Home team. You can go eat there without reservations. If you're not trying to get all fancy, it's like you get wings, you get some brisket, you get a game changer. And if you're over in that neck of the woods, Edmonds Oast can't be... Yeah, Edmonds Oast is good. And by the way, those guys are bringing in so many incredible out-of-state beers. And they brew all their beer...

Right. But you and I are big fans of Maine Brewing and Maine Beer Company. And they had lunch and dinner on tap recently. Really? Yeah. Okay, so are there any breweries? I haven't been there in ages, man. I used to go there all the time. Edmond's O's. All the time. You and I used to go to happy hours there. Yeah. Would that count as like... Because it was arguably one of the best...

Happy Hours. In town, they have like a $4 menu. Yeah. It was like a mini burger. That was pre-pandemic. I don't even know if they do that anymore. I don't think so. Edmond's also delivered wine during the pandemic. They did it really well. So does that count as a brewery? Yeah, sure. Well, there is...

EOBC, Edmond's Oats Brewing Company, which is at the old workshop. Can you go to Palmetto? You can go to Palmetto. Can you taste your beer at Palmetto Brewery? All three beers on top of Palmetto. Revelry always has a great Saturday party. Oh, Revelry's a great sleeper spot. That's a local spot. With a rooftop. And then, right next door now, this is kind of like a low-key creep spot. This is another kind of... Kicking chicken? Obviously not kicking chicken, but... Well, actually not, obviously. Good wings? Good wings.

They have this thing going on near the garage door set up. And it also goes down the whole row. And at the end, there's a pizza and oyster bar. Coast, right? Crust. Crust. I don't remember. But it's right next to Revelry. I think it's Crust. No, no. It is Crust. It is Crust because it's the same one. That whole area, it's what's it called? The neck? I can't remember. I don't know. The neck's building out. Okay. And then Saturday, I'm going to add this to my day around like...

Six or seven. I would go to a Riverdogs game. Yeah. Just to switch it up. It's very fun. Switch it up. You know what? A minor league baseball game in any town in America is just a hoot. It really is. That's what my dad would say. It's a hoot. I really want to go to the Savannah Bananas game. I really want to go to the Savannah Bananas game. Let's do a road trip for that. Yes. That would be awesome. Them on Instagram look like they're having the most fun in the country. But then, I mean, you just can't beat...

an Uptown night because look, the deck is going to be crazy. Off the charts. Yeah, it's going to be like the DJ club scene, but then downstairs you have a little bit more room, but it's just as fun. And it's like a hundred foot bar, so you can always get a drink. Yeah, so kind of at Uptown we have a DJ that starts at 3pm and then plays till 11 on the roof. A few different DJs. And then because of the noise ordinance, we shut the music down outside, and then the music moves inside to one of our

event spaces upstairs and then we have a headliner DJ downstairs that plays in front of the video wall. That starts at 11 o'clock but with live music kicking the night off at 8 downstairs. What about outside? Outside at

Uptown? In the alley, yeah. We don't have that anymore. Oh, okay. Yeah, we lost that after the pandemic, but it was a great addition for a little bit. Look, I'll throw it out there. If you can't get into Uptown, First Place is a great bar right across the street. It's kind of a smaller sports bar. They've got a good kitchen, and you can get a good cheesesteak. I mean, the overflow right over to First Place is pretty good. The overflow to First Place.

you know, works. It does. It works. It does. It's a good location. Yeah. Or you can even pop in real quick before you're ready to like party. But, um, anything you do, fortunately, Charleston doesn't have too many tourist spots or tourist traps, right? Everywhere you go, you're going to get a good drink. You're going to get good food for the most part. And the town is built on service for the most part, for the most part. So, so really everybody's job here, especially on these holiday weekends is to give good service. Now I will ask everybody that's listening, um,

to please respect the fact that it's going to be a really busy weekend. And generally speaking, it's really busy in Charleston all the time. So these guys are all working their butts off no matter where you go and just have a little bit more patience than me. Well, and being an asshole here doesn't fly. Not that it flies a lot of places, but people come down from the North and they're just like, it takes them a second to be like, get used to our pace and get used to like how nice everyone is. And it's like, okay to be nice. And, um, it's okay to be nice. Do you have any folly recommendations? Um,

Remember when you and I went to watch basketball out there? Austin and I went to watch March Madness on Folly. We went to Snapper Jacks. Oh, my gosh. And we were on the rooftop, and it was 52 degrees out. So then we had to go and buy the hoodie, right? We had to buy Folly Beach hoodies. Tie-dye hoodies. Yeah, it was great. I got thrown out of Snapper Jacks. No, Folly's a blast. You just bar hop there.

All the bars are fun. Blue's fun on the beach. I haven't been to Folly in so long. If you were to ask me, I would say, personally, if you want the on-the-beach experience, there's nothing like the Windjammer. Windjammer's probably my favorite beach bar. That's the opposite direction. IOP, Windjammer, and I know that there are concerts there this weekend. And then Sullivan's...

It's not the same beach, but it's 10 minutes away. I mean, you can't really give any wrecks their cry because it's one road and there's just like five bars on it. If you want to see Shep, go to Sullivan's. Yeah. Go to the next one. If you want to see me, usually I'm on Shem Creek and then Austin's downtown. But Austin and I are usually together. But yeah.

And then you guys are doing a little different. You're going to go out to Seabrook, also known as the Kiowa area for people to have a cookout. Well, yeah. Well, my parents just moved there and, you know, my sister's coming in town tomorrow night with her boyfriend. And so it's just like a family affair out there. And then and then Keith is going to come out there with his family on on what? On Saturday, Saturday. Yeah. Potentially say the night.

And it'll just be a good old time. It's a little slice of heaven. Seabrook's a little slice of heaven. I'm super excited to see their house too and see what they've done to it. It'll be a blast. So I'm probably going to go out there Friday and play golf with my dad and my other buddy,

out there and then you're going to come on Saturday and basically just kind of have like a family weekend. Austin, I just had a flashback to the last time we did something with your parents. We played a morning round of golf and it was, we were playing well. We were playing Cougar, I think, and Kiowa. Yeah. And at the turn, it started torrentially downpouring. And your parents, without even skipping a beat, were like, we are out. Yeah. We are so done with this. And Keith was like,

Yeah, take it or leave it. I don't know. Maybe we'll play. I wanted to keep going. I was like, keep, dude. It's not like we're from the Midwest. We can play here whenever we want. Whenever we want. That's a good point. Let's shut it down. It's a hard course to walk away from. Yeah. What about hotels? Everyone has a different kind of opinion on this. I personally, Dewberry's my favorite hotel here. But it can be very expensive. That's true. The hotels have shot out. Randomly, on some nights, you're like, all right, well, let's...

you know, eight, like 800 bucks. If your company's paying for it, that's expensive as shit for Charleston. I mean, I can't say I've stayed in too many hotels here in Charleston, but, but, but we did stay, we did a staycation in February. Um, and we stayed at the Bennett and had just the most incredible experience. Well, that's also another very expensive hotel. It is. They do it. I like the restoration. I like the restoration because a rooftop that we didn't mention was the watch. Yeah. And the watch for me is great. It's got a great view of the city. It's got a great view of the city.

Restoration is a different route and it's great. It's a little different area of King Street. Yeah, it's like, you know, lower King Street where you shop and... It's actually where Whitney's house or apartment was season one for those long-time fans out there. That area. That building. Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah.

No, nevermind. No, I don't think so. What is that building? It doesn't matter. Um, that's the restoration hotel. What I would say is follow along, you know, if you're not visiting this weekend and you're coming down the line, follow along, explore Charleston. They have a great Instagram account and, and they're the ones who really support all of these new hotels popping up and

And we're lucky. I mean, as a business owner here in Charleston who wants more and more people to come down here and visit, we're fortunate that there continues, that the mayor and council and Explore Charleston continue to be proponents of the expansion of Charleston. Also, like the Hampton Inn is where my parents always stayed. Or the Hyatt across from Uptown. Yeah, the Hampton Inn's great, the Hyatt. I mean, we've got plenty of...

not plenty, but there's a lot of just affordable, regular hotels that you would be like comfortable with. And no, like Hyatt's Hampton ends. Um, I did, I do staycations at the Harbor club on Chum Creek. Is that what it's called? Yeah. Yeah. That is pretty cool. There's like a great, um, our Charleston Harbor resort. Yeah. Yeah. With the pools and hot tubs. You can take boats right up to that. You and I did that once. Uh,

You met me there and you jumped on that boat. Oh, right. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And then Airbnb wise, if you were coming for a bachelorette or bachelor party or just a group event, any of the spring street places, um, you know, shout out to the ends too, but you're going to be right in the heart of all of the places we're talking about. Um,

There's a cool Airbnb above, Sowing Down South, which people love. But anywhere on King Street, you're going to be great. I know we've kind of neglected the market in this podcast. It's just because things have migrated more to the King Street. I spent a lot of time on the market in college and stuff. And history-wise, that's where you're going to want to walk around. There's the oldest liquor store in the country. The oldest brothel is Rainbow Row. Talk about a wreck. I mean, Austin, one of our favorite haunts is Mac's Place.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Which is just a great old school Irish pub. The guy, Mac or Garrett. Garrett's from Chicago. It's a great Chicago bar. It's awesome. Yeah. It's a great bar. It is in every sense of the word a drinking bar. Yeah. I used to bartend there when I first moved here on Monday nights for two years or so before I went to Palmetto. And it's just like a drinking bar through and through. Yep.

My dad and I actually just popped in there while my mom was shopping at the market. And then there's a new beer garden where Bubba Gump used to be, which was kind of cool. Yeah.

That's right. They have live music there in the market now, too. Yep. And go see The Battery. Some of the houses down there still have cannonballs in the roof or the attics from the Civil War, which is pretty wild. And I'll say, guys, don't sleep on Charleston as a whole Sunday Funday. It's just on a holiday weekend especially.

Yeah. This town just doesn't sleep. And it goes and it goes and it goes. And there's music everywhere. There's food everywhere. The drinks are flowing. And it's just a really special place to be if you're trying to keep going. King Street will be alive on Sunday. Yeah. No doubt about it. Yeah. From start to finish. Yeah. I mean, dude, this has been great. It's a pleasure. I'm going to keep my distance. I want to do a live podcast. We should do a live podcast from here in the next couple of weeks. But thanks for coming on, Keith.

Austin, you want to take us out, hit all the spots, hit the follow? I mean, gosh. I think that the three of us just did a damn good job. And a salute to Charleston, right? Because we get to talk about it. And I'm sure there's places we missed. But, guys, there's a million things to do. Yeah, it makes me realize why I love this spot. And, you know, if you're fortunate enough to jump on a boat, which I know that not everyone is. So you have to, you know, every spot that we kind of just said you can drive to and enjoy.

hopefully park at. But anyways, so fun. Memorial Day weekend coming up. Keith, buddy, thanks for joining us. And follow. What is your social medias? It's Uptown Social CHS, Sharehouse CHS, and Bodega CHS. There you go. Awesome. Guys, I guarantee you get good at time. Thanks so much for listening, everybody. Until next time, this is Pillows and Beer. Me and Craig. And I said it.

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