Happy Friday morning, Charleston! This week’s breaking news? Downtown’s cell phone tower very eloquently known as the “Toilet Paper Tower” is up for design review. Historic preservation groups—and regular citizens who don’t need to be reminded of the need for a bathroom break as they’re driving along Route 26—have been irked since it debuted in 2023. Mainly because the finished product doesn’t resemble the original design drawings.

You be the judge. 👇🏼👇🏼

Congrats to Rebecca A. of Summerville , who was the 1st to guess correctly in our “Where Are We” segment last week! Our photo was the Tattooed Moose mural in Park Circle.

In today’s newsletter:

• Charleston’s had a great culinary rep for years, so you might think there’s no “holes” left when it comes to cuisine. Ah, but there is and it’s ramen. But not much longer. 🍜

• If you're a runner, walker or cyclist—and you’d like to cross the Ashley River—it feels like you’re taking your life into your hands. After 15 years of planning, the Ashley River pedestrian bridge is no longer chatter. 🚴‍♀️

• ICYMI. Charleston’s best sports bars in time for NFL playoffs, El Molino announces their 3rd store, and Daniel Islanders need to travel for milk and bread.

Friday 41° / 38° ☁️ 💧24%

Saturday 51° / 32° ⛅ 💧11%

Sunday 51° / 35° ⛅ 💧4%

Friday, January 10

• New Year, New Garden with author and tastemaker, Nicole Johnsey Burke | 4 - 5 PM | The Riverbarns at The Dunlin, Auberge Resorts Collection, 1030 Sound Drive, Johns Island | Kickstarting Your Kitchen Garden Revival in 2025 with Gardenary. Start the year with a fresh perspective and a new way of thinking about your garden and wellbeing. In this 1-hour event, Nicole will share her personal journey and how the garden transformed her life—both personally and professionally. Learn how gardening can fit seamlessly into any lifestyle and become a source of joy, health, and connection with nature.

• Nighttime at the Museum 21+ | 7 - 10 PM | The Charleston Museum, 360 Meeting St, Charleston | Celebrate the Charleston Museum’s 252nd birthday at 21+ Nighttime at the Museum…. an evening of fun and adventure exclusively for the adults! Explore the galleries after hours and discover the spicier side of the Museum’s collections. Curators and special guests will be stationed throughout the galleries showcasing some of the less delicate, but highly-entertaining, themes not ordinarily experienced on a Museum visit. Guests are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite character from history or animal creature from the Lowcountry’s natural environment and beyond.

• PBR: Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour I 8 PM | North Charleston Coliseum & Performing Arts Center, 5001 Coliseum Dr, North Charleston | The Professional Bull Riders Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour is the top expansion series of the PBR. Featuring some of the best athletes of the sport going head to head with the fiercest bulls in the country. The PBR Pendleton Whisky Velocity Tour will bring all the high-energy sound, lighting, special effects and edge of your seat action that fans have come to expect from the World leader in the sport of bull riding.

Saturday, January 11

• Charleston Trees' Native Tree Giveaway | 8 AM - 12 PM | Magnolia Park and Community Garden, 720 Magnolia Road, Charleston | The Charleston Parks Conservancy, in partnership with Charleston Trees, is thrilled to offer free native trees to City of Charleston residents. You’ll have a variety of native trees to choose from, including Southern Magnolia, Tulip Poplar, Eastern Redbud, and more. Just select your tree when registering!

  Staff from SavATree and Charleston Trees will be on hand to answer any questions you have about the maintenance or planting of your trees.

• Oysters on the Point with Thomas Champagne and Friends | 2 - 6 PM | Charleston Harbor Resort and Marina, 32 Patriots Point Road, Mount Pleasant | A sister of Party at the Point, this winter series features locally steamed oysters, live music, Holiday Market, Bloody Mary Bar, and plenty of beer choices. Jan. 11th: Thomas Champagne with Friends. Please no pets or coolers allowed.

• Mex 1 Snowboard Rail Jam | 4:00 PM I Firefly Distillery, 4201 Spruill Avenue, Charleston | The highly anticipated Mex 1 Snowboard Rail Jam is back from a year-long hiatus and ready to bring the heat (and snow!) on Saturday, January 11th. The event kicks off at 4pm, with snowboarding starting at dusk. This year's event promises to be bigger, bolder, and snowier than ever before! With a larger ramp, more snow, and elite riders from across the country, expect thrilling flips, tricks, and high-flying stunts as competitors take on this massive ramp custom-built rail setup.

Sunday, January 12

• A-Roi Thai @ Snafu Brewing | 1 - 5 PM | Snafu Brewing Company, 3280 Industry Drive, North Charleston | One of our favorite Asian pop-ups will be set up at the taproom. Cozy up at the taproom with a beer & a nice warm bowl of noodles from A-Roi Thai. We'll have NFL games on TV! but if that's not your thing, we've got plenty to do like pool, ping pong, pinball, N64 games, board games + more.

• Family-Friendly Oyster Roast | 2 - 5 PM | Gold Bug Island, 1560 Ben Sawyer Blvd, Mount Pleasant, Charleston | In 1996, Lowcountry Land Trust permanently protected Gold Bug Island by placing a conservation easement on the 29-acre parcel of both highlands and wetlands. Named after the short story by Edgar Allen Poe, Gold Bug Island sits between Mount Pleasant and Sullivans along Ben Sawyer Blvd and is owned by the East Cooper Outboard Motor Club. The whole family is invited to enjoy a Sunday afternoon on Gold Bug Island, shucking fresh South Carolina oysters paired with homemade chili, salad, cornbread, and dessert.

• 2nd Sunday On King | 12:00 PM - 5:00 PM I King Street shops, Downtown I If you're wondering who, what, where, why of 2nd Sunday, here's the scoop. Every month on the second Sunday the City of Charleston helps us to shut down King Street (our Main Street) from Queen to Calhoun, roughly 1/2 mile, to through traffic and without parked cars, for 5 blissful hours. That gives us the whole street for people to walk around with a big smile, greet friends and neighbors, and enjoy Charleston as it would be on any old day without the traffic.

For a COMPLETE list of events in the Charleston area, bookmark the site below!

RESTAURANTS

From Broth to Buzz: Jinya Ramen Bar is About to Spice Up Charleston

Let’s admit something, Charleston: we’re really spoiled with dining options.

We’ve had culinary buzz for years. Maybe it’s all the attention from being named the best small city in the entire #@!# country for 12 years running.

Whatever the reason(s), we have an astounding breadth of choices, even given the well-publicized restaurant closures lately.

African food? We’ve got it well-covered with Bintü Atelier. If you’d like to try Filipino, Kultura is your spot.

Where we don’t have many choices is Japanese, and in particular, ramen. That’s about to change.

Jinya Ramen Bar will open in the Morrison Yard project downtown on January 22 at 11:00 AM.

But you’ll want to get there early. The first 100 customers on ribbon-cutting day will be rewarded with a free bowl of Jinya’s delicious ramen.

Jinya Ramen Bar’s Charleston location is owned by William Chen, a restaurant veteran who previously spent 19 years in IT.

William owns 6 Jinya Ramen Bar locations in the Atlanta area, and like most, heard of Charleston’s culinary reputation.

Along with his real estate consultant—retail property expert Reeves Major of JLL—William thought the Morrison Yard project offered the perfect location for his first Charleston restaurant.

Virtually all of the office space is leased to top-notch tenants like Indigo Road Hospitality, Pinnacle Bank, and Bond Street Advisors.

Add a central location and a beautiful space with outdoor seating AND dedicated parking for the retail spaces, and William was in.

Jinya Ramen Bar takes time with preparing its ramen. Slowly simmered for more than twenty hours, each of the six signature broths balances flavors from whole pork bones, chicken and vegetables with just the right amount of bonito, dashi, miso, kombu, and other classic Japanese ingredients.

CHS’s location includes a full bar with something William believes can’t be found in Charleston: 3 different Japanese beers on tap.

It took time for William to get to 6 restaurants in Atlanta. He opened his first in 2015.

He’s not inclined to rush things in Charleston—he wants to get Morrison Yard off to a resounding success—but he told me he has his eye on the Nexton community for another Jinya Ramen Bar. He’s super-impressed by the growth in the area.

Reeves has one more retail space available at Morrison Yard, in case you’d like to be next to Jinya Ramen Bar. And Bodyrok and the soon-to-open Barry’s gym.

Reach out to Reeves if you’re Charleston’s next great entrepreneur.

SPONSORED BY FLEET FEET CHARLESTON

Make This The Year You Slay The Cooper River Bridge Run

Charleston runners know Fleet Feet well. With 4 locations in Mount Pleasant, Summerville, Carnes Crossroads and West Ashley, virtually every area resident has one of these fantastic stores within 10 minutes of work or home.

Each store has an astounding selection of running shoes from Asics, Brooks, Hoka, New Balance, and Diadora, to list a few. With the fit id® Outfitting Process, their experienced staff will help you select the perfect shoe for you, whether you’re a marathoner, fun-runner or Cooper River Bridge Run debutant.

And while Fleet Feet seems to have every running shoe under the sun—along with socks, apparel, mobility equipment, sports watches, sunglasses, and other cool stuff—it’s their training programs that really raise the bar for me.

I’ve participated in at least 8 Fleet Feet training programs over the past 4 years. I particularly like the one dedicated to training for the Cooper River Bridge Run, the country’s 3rd-largest 10K!

And it’s starting soon! If you really want to be ready for this beautiful race, you should check out Fleet Feet Charleston’s training program.

This is a comprehensive program, led by excellent coaches. We do speed work on Tuesday nights and long runs Saturday mornings. Don’t let that “long run” scare you, though. Runners are separated into pace groups and we run at a nice, easy pace.

We also receive specialized training from a sports nutrition expert and physical therapist.

The best part, though? The support, camaraderie and accountability you’ll get from your fellow runners. You’ll meet a ton of cool people who will be training right alongside you.

The Mount Pleasant and Summerville stores host training.

If you’re curious, make sure to attend info sessions next week at the Mount Pleasant and Summerville stores. Here’s the dates and times:

Mount Pleasant: Tuesday the 14th at 6:30 PM

Summerville: Wednesday the 15th at 6:30

If I’ve sold you already, register for the program here.

You’ll be ready when we reach the starting line on April 5. Even if a cheeky blogger had this to say about the bridge incline.

I’ll see you at training. 😁

WHERE ARE WE?

Each week, watch this space for a random snap from somewhere in Charleston. Where are we? Only true locals will know. DM your guess on Instagram, or email me here. The first person to guess correctly will get a shout-out at the top of our issue next week!

COMMUNITY

Ashley River Pedestrian Bridge No Longer A Dream

It’s been 15 years city planners and community residents have been talking about a safe pedestrian crossing across the Ashley River. It’s not simply talk anymore.

CHS County and city leaders recently turned dirt on the West Ashley side of the river to mark the start of construction for the long-awaited bridge.

The bridge will tie into the existing West Ashley Greenway, then cross the river just south of the U.S. Highway 17 vehicular bridges. 

If you’ve ever tried crossing the Ashley on foot or bike, you know it’s…well, tricky.

For West Ashley residents coming into town, the new bridge will connect nicely to the marina district, Brittlebank Park and the economic powerhouse of MUSC.

The bridge is expected to be complete in 2028.

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It’ll help me grow CHS Happenings and keep bringing you cool new perks like our events calendar. 🙏🏼

ICYMI

🏈 Wanna properly prep for all the playoff football? Here are the best sports bars in CHS to watch it.

🥞 Where do you go to eat when friends come into town? Here’s the plan laid out by Parker Milner, the Post & Courier food editor.

🇲🇽 My vote for the best birria tacos in town? It has to be El Molino, and they recently announced plans for their 3rd store in CHS.

🎭 Community performing arts venues are scarce in CHS. There’s a new one coming to Mount Pleasant soon.

🛒 Daniel Island residents have to go off-island now for groceries. Patience will be rewarded, though, as Publix is doubling in size.

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FEEDBACK

Got 15 seconds? Let us know what you thought about today’s newsletter by replying to this email or voting in the poll below (you’ll be done MUCH faster than cars on Johnnie Dodds at 4:00 PM on a Friday). 👇