Our taste-and-tell guide to some of the latest food and beverage openings in Charleston
Ice Bing Café
Here’s an icy treat that stands up to any carnival snow cone. One of the newest additions to Charleston’s growing Asian food scene, Ice Bing Café on Spring Street offers creative combinations of bing, traditional Taiwanese shaved ice sweetened with fresh fruit. Choose from “Simple Bing,” a cup of smooth ice spun with homemade syrup and frozen condensed milk, or opt for a refreshing matcha version infused with green tea and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and “Q-balls” (chewy pearls made of tapioca flour). If those don’t satisfy, you can customize your dessert at the topping bar inside the cheerful white-and-teal shop, where you’ll also find house-rolled sushi, bento boxes, and croissant sandwiches. Iced drinks are superb, too: order a “Nai-Gai,” a choice of tea or cold-brewed coffee topped with heavenly sea salt cream foam. https://www.facebook.com/icebingcafe
Edison
After spending nearly a decade working in Washington, D.C., chef Joel Lucas had a lightbulb moment: “Let’s start our own thing.” So he and his wife, Chelsea, moved to Mount Pleasant, and following a brief stint as head chef of Eli’s Table, Joel found a place to serve his own inventions: the former location of Big Belly Kitchen & Tap House, an off-the-beaten-path spot on James Island. The airy dining room is painted slate grey with copper accents, and Edison bulbs hang above the bar, where Chelsea manages drinks. Joel’s lunch and dinner menus are eclectic, offering starters of beer-battered sausage and pickled shrimp, creative salads and sandwiches, and entrees such as pork tenderloin with rum butter and ravioli with duck confit. Don’t miss the daily special: on our visit, it was a juicy salmon burger with grated ginger and wasabi aioli, served with a bright panzanella salad with local heirloom tomatoes. https://www.edisonjamesisland.com/
