Roadtripping To The Incredible City of Charleston, SC - part 2!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Passport Mommy. I'm your host, Michelle Jerson. This
show is for anyone raising little humans. We feature experts
with tips and advice to enrich the lives of our children.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Mom and dad.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Entrepreneurs tell us their inspiring stories, learn about products that
could make both you and your child's life easier and
more fun, and of course, fellow parents discuss and laugh
about what's happening in their child's world. Motherhood is a journey.
Thanks for joining me on mine. Welcome to Passport Mommy.
I'm Michelle Jerson. And if you listen to the show

(00:33):
last week, you heard about all of our fun adventures
in Charleston. While this city really surprised us because I
was just expecting to stay one or two days, but
we ended up spending six days in Charleston because there
is just so much to do. And I had to
have this first guest on the show because the place
that we stayed, the first place that we stayed at

(00:55):
was just absolutely amazing and really you could just go
go there and spend your entire day here and not
move and have a wonderful vacation. And I would recommend
this for anybody who's traveling with a larger group, with
a family, or if you just want to have a
really relaxing, peaceful stay. And that is the Cottages on

(01:16):
Charleston Harbor. And I'm really happy to have with me
today Lisa Crowley, the general manager for the last ten years.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Lisa, thank you so much for joining me.

Speaker 3 (01:25):
Michelle, thanks so much for inviting me.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
My pleasure, so talk to me about the Cottages on
Charleston Harbor. The views are spectacular.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
What are we seeing?

Speaker 3 (01:36):
So what you're seeing is you get to look over
at downtown Charleston. You can look out the mouth of
the harbor. So Fort Sumter is a national fort that's
right in the middle of the harbor, and then you
can use it sort of a panoramic view. You'll see
the end of Sullivan's Island, you can see Mount Pleasant,

(01:58):
and you can see the entrance to shem So it
really is a breath taking, very relaxing, very quiet, you know,
not not an area where there's a ton of motor
boats and a ton of jet skis and that kind
of thing. You don't see very many of those at all.
But it is a you know, it is a working

(02:18):
port city, so we do have large container ships that
come in and go underneath the Arthur Rabinel.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
Bridge great and with the full length screened in porch.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
I mean, what a treat because you can sit out
there in a rocking chair on the hammock and really
take it all in.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
It is the I always tell people, and they kind
of laugh before they get here, but I always say,
when they ask one of the best features, I say,
our screen porch, and they laugh and say, well, I
have a screen porch at home, and I don't really
see the specialness of it, but let's look see what
happens when we get there. So then they arrive and

(02:54):
they'll say, we didn't go anywhere here the entire time.
And that's one of the things when you go on vacation,
it's nice to have a list of places that you
want to go, and Charleston being such a historic city,
we have lots of history here and lots of wonderful
things to see and do. But sometimes you get so

(03:16):
bogged down going to places that the actual relaxation, you know,
happens a little bit later towards the end of your stay.
We usually recommend that you you know, enjoy the cottages
first and then plan a couple of things to do
at the latter part of your stay.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
One hundred percent.

Speaker 1 (03:35):
If we had the chance to do it over again,
that's exactly what we would do because I felt, I mean,
we enjoyed it, but man, would we have enjoyed it
a lot more had I planned differently Because we enjoyed
it at night. I enjoyed sitting out there on the
hammock with my kids, and we enjoyed it in the
morning before we went out.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
One of the other neat features about being located here
is that we have a water taxi that goes into
downtown Charleston. It runs during daylight hours only. First when
leaves at nine in the morning from hear them at
pleasant Side, and the last one leaves at seven.

Speaker 4 (04:10):
In the evening.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
It is weather dependent, so if we're having a a
spat of rainy weather, the taxi won't be running that day.
But that is a great way also, not just to
see the city, but you can get some beautiful pictures
of the cottages from the water angle.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Oh that's a smart point, absolutely, and I also love
I mean, just to back up and talk about the cottages.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
For a minute.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
They're great for families because you have two bedrooms, you
have three baths. I mean, you have so much space
and comfort you really feel at home. And if you're
traveling with a family and especially young kids, like we were,
having that fully equipped kitchen to where you could just
make your own meals all day, it is so desirable.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
That is definitely one of our best features is the
fact that we have a fully functional kitchen with full
size appliances that opens up into our great room, and
then of course the great room opens up into the
screen porch. So for a thirteen hundred square foot cottage
with the bedrooms on each end and then your main
living area is in the middle, it really is a

(05:14):
great design. Gives families privacy when they want it, and
yet when they want to come together, they don't feel,
you know, claustrophobic.

Speaker 1 (05:22):
They're big rooms, absolutely, and you also have the clubhouse
pool and the lounge space.

Speaker 3 (05:29):
Yes, and bicycles, so we have that as well as
complimentary snacks. So the snacks are there, oh yeah, the
entire time you're here. And usually we've called you in
advance to find out more information about your family and
what you want to do prior to arriving, and we'll
ask what kind of snacks do your kids eat or
what kind of snacks do you not want us to have?

(05:51):
So we try to be accommodating to any special request
that we get.

Speaker 1 (05:56):
Oh, that's wonderful, and yeah, I know after you know,
for us, we did a road trip to Charleston and
so after the long drive, all my kids needed to
see was a snackfull. And I also love that you
have pool floats available.

Speaker 3 (06:08):
Yes, we're probably one of the only pools that does that,
but we have I would say about forty percent of
our business is family with children, and we do have
a large drive market. So for those families that are
driving in not to have to bring things like pool
chairs and pool towels and pool floats and stuff like

(06:30):
that is really nice. And that is also something we
learn and we tell them when we're calling them in
advance of their arrival. So it does make I don't know,
I don't think did your family have a chance to
go to the beach at all?

Speaker 1 (06:44):
We did after we left the cottages. We did spend
a couple of days at the beach.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
Oh okay, yeah, But.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
So sometimes we'll have pool floats that are specific. Last
year we had a little girl. She was really into
the whole Mrmi made unicorn thing, so we were able
to get the Mermaid float was a little funky, but
the unicorn was a great hit. The Mermaid one, we
ended up cutting off the tail just because just looked

(07:14):
a little weird out there. But yeah, the families like that.
And we have a covered area to our pool deck
so you don't have to be out in the sun
as well as the sun deck with the chase lounges.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
And you mentioned you know you are close proximity to
Charleston and the area attractions, and we never felt we
were driving more than ten minutes to get to wherever
we were going. Maybe fifteen macs, but really not. So
it was really easy to go back and forth. And
I know that you mentioned you have bicycles. Tell me
about the area around the cottages where we could bike ride.

Speaker 3 (07:47):
So the bicycles are also complimentary, so we do have
you fill out a bike waiver and you can go
to Mount Pleasant Memorial Waterfront Park. They have a large
fishing pier there as well as a snack bar area.
They opened up a water splash pad, an outdoor basketball area,

(08:10):
outdoor waight room, per se. They have two pet areas,
one for larger animals and one for smaller ones where
the animals can be off leash inside this fenced in
pet area, so that is something that guests can usually

(08:30):
stay at least a couple of hours and just enjoy that.
You can ride the bikes over the Arthur Ravenel Bridge.
There is a separate bike pedestrian lane separate from the
car lane, so it is a very safe feeling area.
It's kind of a steep bridge, so usually our guests
are more walking the bike up and then riding the

(08:52):
bike back down. That's not too bad. The Charleston Battery
is also located here, so you can ride the bikes
to a battery game or a battery practice. We also
have the Yorktown and that is a historic ship from
World War One and you can ride the bike over there,

(09:14):
and there's other things that you can do at the
Yorktown area, so you can ride your bike there. Mon
Pleasant does have a lot of bike lanes on their
main arteries. We do suggest that people are cautious on that.
We have bicycle helmets that guests can use. Also, we

(09:34):
have baskets available for the bikes that there if they're
needing that some of our guests have actually taken them
to the beach. How adventure some of you are. They
are the single speed style bike, so there's no you know,
no shifting required and the only thing that we remind
people is in order to stop you off the back pedal,

(09:56):
so a little bit in the parking lot.

Speaker 1 (09:59):
It's it's absolutely fabulous, and I know that the next
time we visit, I think I will spend just all
of my time there relaxing, taking advantage of the bicycles,
the pool, the snacks and just relaxing. And I can't
stress enough what an incredible family get away this is
and an incredible place to stay when you are in Charleston.
Where can we go to book our stay and to

(10:20):
get more information?

Speaker 3 (10:22):
So you can call us directly and our main number
is eight four three eight four nine two three zero zero,
or you can visit us on our website, the Cottages
on Charlestonharbor dot com. All the photos on there were
taken last year, so all those photos are from twenty
twenty four, so they're all current. But we love to

(10:43):
talk to our guests, and I think calling us is
really a great way to see what additional services we provide, because,
for example, in the kitchen, we provide the coffee. It's
custom roasted for us. Our guests love us, love it,
and you know, that's kind of a nice other thing
that you don't have to worry about unpacking. Just call

(11:03):
us directly and we'll be happy to let you know
if we have any specials. We do list all of
our specials and packages on our website as well.

Speaker 2 (11:10):
Perfect.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
Thank you so much, Lisa Crowley the Cottages on Charleston Harbor.
Thank you for joining me today on Passport Mommy.

Speaker 2 (11:21):
You're listening to Passport Mommy. I'm Michelle Jerson.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
So one of the most fabulous things about our trips
to Charleston was the food. And I don't think we
went to one bad restaurant, and this particular restaurant was
so great. It was so family friendly. I didn't feel
like I had to keep the kids like quiet on
your best behavior, and the food was so good.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
So I'm really happy to have on the show with
me today.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Chef mcgreedy Downer, he is the chef and one of
the owners of Rudy Royal.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Thank you so much for being here, all right, thanks
for having me.

Speaker 1 (11:49):
My pleasure, So tell me the story of Rudy Royal
and your particular culinary journey.

Speaker 5 (11:55):
Oh okay, we open Rudy Royal. Actually, my original business
partner approached me about opening this as a fried chicken restaurant.
He was already had a restaurant in the space and
he wanted to change it up, so he approached me.
I had at the time had a food a fried

(12:18):
chicken truck, and we approached me about opening this, and unfortunately,
in the process of us opening, he passed away. So
we continued forward with kind of maybe less of his
vision then probably he would have we would have if
he was alive, unfortunately, but yeah, we kind of we

(12:41):
started with fried chicken, and then we kind of added
you know, local produce and seafood. Since you know, Charleston's
so close to the water and they're such great seeded here,
we tried to approach that as well. So you know,
that's kind of how we ended up where we are. Yeah, yeah,

(13:03):
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
Oh no, I'm just gonna say, so, how do you
go about selecting the items that are on the menu
and how does the creation process go?

Speaker 5 (13:11):
Yeah, I mean, we try to be we try to
fit in with I think somewhat southern what people would
think of of coming to Charleston, you know, obviously with
touching on Southern food, but we do try to approach
it maybe with a little more I guess, a worldly flavor.

(13:31):
So you know, we use you know, European techniques and
stuff like that to kind of, you know, give a
little bit different vibe and maybe like the more classic
Southern restaurants have been around for a while here, so
like something we would have like maybe like tripping grits
is such a popular dish here, but you know, we

(13:52):
you know, we've done a couple of different versions. Like
one version would be you know, coconut grits with like
a curried shrimp and like curried shrimp on top instead
of just you know the classic you know, and dewey
sausage and you know, stuff like that. But yeah, we

(14:12):
just try to have a little bit of fun with
what we do but still be approachable to everyone.

Speaker 6 (14:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
Yeah, and that's how we felt.

Speaker 1 (14:21):
We felt like we were coming in for a really
good traditional Southern cooking and everything was excellent, all the
dishes that we tried, and it's really family friendly.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
So how would you say you catered to families.

Speaker 5 (14:34):
Oh, we just try to be approachable our I mean,
it's like we have a pretty casual environment, we do,
but we try to offer I would I think kind
of like an elevated food experience with that. So we
are casual, but we do try to give you very
good service, you know, hopefully great food as well.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Absolutely, And I know, like if I look back at
my pictures, I know, you know, I'll tell you all
that we ordered, and it's I'm trying to remember right
now because I know we got some classic dishes. What
would you say are your standout dishes and like the
must experience ones.

Speaker 5 (15:12):
Yeah, well, we are known for our fried chicken, so
I would definitely start there. But we have a lot
of stuff that I think you would typically see that
people would think of as typically Southern. So you know,
we do mac and cheese, we have corn bread, we
have biscuits, but we also do you know, we do
stay very seasonal with our produce. So you know, right now,

(15:34):
we have a you know, a tomato salad that you
would probably recognize that anyone to recognize in any Italian restaurant,
you know, it's basically a caprisy salad.

Speaker 4 (15:42):
It's got buffalo.

Speaker 5 (15:43):
Mozzarella and whiles some like vinaigrette, and you know, airloom tomatoes.
You know, we do. You know, we just try to
have some different flavors in there as well. So yeah,
you can have a very typical Southern meal here, I think,
but also if you want to branch out, there's some
fun stuff as well.

Speaker 1 (16:04):
I love it, and I know that you have been
so instrumental in elevating this city's food scene. In addition
to say the food scene, what else should we check
out when we're visiting?

Speaker 5 (16:16):
Well, I mean I love walking around in this part
of town by the water. I think, like the parks
by the battery and stuff are just always fun to
just and relaxing to walk around in. And then if
you venture off into the buildings like the such risky sorry,
such rich history here, it's just walking around, I always

(16:39):
see something new. So that's probably one of my favorite
things to do. Yeah, there's lots of fun stuff for
other like people love doing the horse and carriage tours.
There's tons of history, you know. I think you can
have a lot of different experiences here. There's people that
come here, you know, just to eat in restaurants.

Speaker 1 (16:54):
So right, exactly exactly, So where can they find Rudy Royale.

Speaker 5 (17:00):
We're in uh, we're on East Bay Street too and
ninety Bay Street.

Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah, awesome, Well, thank you so much. We had such
a great time. Chef McGready Downer, thank you for joining
me today on Passport Mommy, and thank you so much
for having us into your restaurant.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
Oh it's my pleasure.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Thank you very much, my pleasure. I'm Michelle Jerson.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Coming up next, we're going to talk with Ben jam
and Toy. That's right, Ben jam and Toy. He has
an incredible company. He has two incredible companies in charles Ston,
kayaking and team building. And we just had the most
amazing nature tour. My kids were treated to dolphins out
on our kayaks, little crabs, We saw so many fun things.

(17:43):
And he is an incredible man and has quite the
background and has built quite a business for himself. I'm
Michelle Jerson. You're listening to Passport Mommy. More coming up
and a few.

Speaker 2 (17:56):
You're listening to Passport Mommy.

Speaker 1 (17:57):
I'm Michelle Jerson, and we have just been having so
much fun here in Charleston.

Speaker 2 (18:02):
And you know when we first arrived.

Speaker 1 (18:03):
One of the things that I said I definitely wanted
to do was a nature tour because I feel like
there's so much to see and from the different birds,
the wildlife, dolphins, possibly right here in Charleston, South Carolina.
So I was so happy to connect with Ben, Jim
and Toy from Nature Adventures. He is one of the
co owners and he just took us on an amazing

(18:24):
kayaking tour and I'm so thankful we went with the kids.
They had a blast, We saw all kinds of little creatures,
and so I'm really happy to have Ben with me
right now.

Speaker 6 (18:33):
Hi, Ben, Hello, Hello, excited to be here.

Speaker 7 (18:37):
I always say you've done Charleston wrong if you're not
on the water in some capacity, whether it's with us
or not. We have so much waterway to go explore
and have fun with.

Speaker 1 (18:46):
So tell me about Nature Adventures. When did it start?
What do you do?

Speaker 6 (18:51):
Awesome?

Speaker 7 (18:51):
So it is an outfitter that's twenty ish plus years old,
and I don't know exactly, but my wife and I
ended up buying in twenty seventeen. I actually worked part
time there for several years before actually meeting my wife
on the ramp there and then we bought the business
when the owner Winter retires, So it's been around and

(19:12):
we've been operating out of it has been operating out
of the location that we're at on Shem Creek in
Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, but that shares the harbor, the
Charleston Harbor with the Charleston Peninsula, so we can actually
explore and see downtown Charleston from it. We've been there,
I think it's about been about fifteen years has been
operating from that location.

Speaker 2 (19:31):
And so what are some of the types of tours
that you offer.

Speaker 7 (19:34):
We offer rentals and tours of stand up paddle boarding
and kayaks. We have single kayaks, tandem kayaks. We also
do lessons paddleboard one oh one classes, so we also
do longer tours as well, some picnic paddles in the fall.
Between October sixteenth and March fourteenth, there's an uninhabited island

(19:56):
that's a bird sanctuary in the summer that we can
go to and look for fostlei shark teeth. A lot
of folks like getting picnics and taking food out there
and exploring.

Speaker 6 (20:03):
And then we also do blackwater tours.

Speaker 7 (20:06):
So we are are headquarters on shem Creek, but we
do tours in the Blackwater Forests swamp area, but you
see a different ecosystem out there, which is really great too.
But when we travel for those.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
Ones, and you mentioned the shark teeth, I hear those
are pretty popular around here.

Speaker 7 (20:23):
They are extremely popular. There are a lot of tours
that are in Charleston to do them, some by boat
that you can do year round. The only ones that
we get to do is in the Fall to Spring
area where we go to this island. But it's incredible
because every new tide brings in a whole new bounty
of seashells and fossilized shark teeth. So it's a really

(20:43):
fun experience. You have to tune your eye on what
you're looking for, but for the most part, it's a
great experience, a great adventure. And you're also in the
historic waterways of the Charleston Harbor Shem Creek.

Speaker 6 (20:55):
You can spend an entire day.

Speaker 7 (20:57):
There is incredible brunch spots, breakfast spots within a a
few minutes a walk from here, and then we have
our stuff. There's boat rentals you can do here, there's charters,
you can do sunset tours and then we've got eight
ish restaurants right along Sham Creek. We've got a boardwalk
that spans both sides. You can walk and cross the bridge,

(21:17):
cross over the water, and just explore this boardwalk. There's
actually a pavilions and cabanas basically that you and there's
signage where you can learn and listen or learn about
Sham Creek even if you're not on a tour.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
What else should we know when coming to Charleston and
the types of nature that can be seen here, Like
what are some of the types of things we could
see out on your tours.

Speaker 7 (21:38):
We are located in a tidal salt marsh or a
title salt creek, which means the water that's in it
it's only comes from, in this case, the Charleston Harbor.
There's no fresh water filling into it. It also means
that the current changes direction four times a day. So
that's a big part of what we see because it
allows shore bird the lower tide. We see birds on

(22:02):
the edges of the mud, which is called pluff mud,
getting it going after food. We see a lot of
dolphin activity. Also because we have fishermen, we have shrimp
boats here, lots of birds that actually are just flying overhead,
brown pelicans, laughing gulls, royal turns. In the summer, at
lower tides, we get to see American oyster catchers, so
you only see them when the water exposes the oysters.

(22:24):
They walk along the oyster bed they pluck them out.
One of my favorite birds is the black skimmer. Has
a bottom beak that's longer than the top and you
see it scouting and doing reconmissions looking for minnows. It
then skims the water and the fish go up its mouth.
It's really amazing. Manatee. So in the summer, when the
water temps are over seventy ish degrees, manatees come up

(22:47):
from Florida and they hang out here.

Speaker 6 (22:50):
Again with the bottle nose dolphin.

Speaker 7 (22:51):
We also have a decent amount of stingrays we can see,
and then loggerheaded sea turtles are our state reptile. Typically
we're not going to see him in this part of
the water area, but occasionally you see some other types
of turtles and also some yellow belly sliders, some other terrapins.
So a lot of wide variety of ecosystem you see here.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
Yeah, and you made a comment when we were out
today about what nature can do for young kids. And
you know, when we first went out, my daughter, you know,
and even though she loves being on a kayak, you know,
kids get in their moods. And then as soon as
we spotted some little crabs which were I mean, they
just got to play with them and it was adorable.

Speaker 2 (23:31):
What kinds of crabs are those?

Speaker 7 (23:33):
So we went to a great spot that has a
live oak tree that covers the water and provides this
great little environment where there's a little bit of a
sea wall retaining wall. And these were square back crabs,
so very small claws unless they get pretty big, but
you can just grab them, move around. Nothing to really
be scared about. A couple fiddler crabs, which do have

(23:54):
a little bit big of a pincher, but even in
that case, we taught them how to grab them properly
on the backside, look at them, and you know, remove
put them safely back there. We also have blue crabs
swimming along the way. Those ones become a little bit
more of a challenge. They can pinch you if you
don't do it properly. But that was fun because once
it became a tactile learning experience and then something to

(24:15):
look for. For younger children, we provide a little sheet
that has pictures and names of all the different animals
and birds and things you can see here, which give
them something to look for which is really fun and
they can check it off. Hey I saw this, I
didn't see that, or I'm on the lookout for that. Now.
We don't go after touching many other things, but the

(24:35):
little crabs are for pretty fun.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
I think it's such a wonderful way to teach the kids.
And when they're traveling, you know, there's always lessons to
be learned, so to be able to bring science right
in front of them is wonderful. So you have Nature Adventures,
and you also have another pretty incredible company that you
were telling me about.

Speaker 7 (24:54):
That is On Purpose Adventures, which started out fifteen years
ago as an adventure event planning company, has morphed into
a team building and bonding focus on employee retention experiential learning.
Our goal is to get you out of the boardroom
and learn by doing as well. So I love the
mindset and the quote of Ben Franklin, tell me and

(25:15):
I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me
and I learn. So our programming, and our programming is
all based on doing things to learn from an activity,
a game, and talk about it afterwards. We travel the
country doing that. But I love adding adventures. I hate
being stuck in a conference room in ballroom. Now, if

(25:35):
we need to, we'll do it. But I love to
be in a courtyard. If we're at a hotel, let's
see if we can get outside just a little bit
and have a little field trip. When we do things
in Charleston, we do things at Waterfront Park, or our
office complex is on a seventeen acre place with ponds
next tour. So we love to be outside. Maybe a
little uncomfortable temperature wise, so we go in and out.
But we also know that the changing of environments actually

(25:58):
increases learning, and so we do that. And that is
part of our Cohesion Culture program, which is a series
of books that we have as well, teaching belonging value
and mutual commitment.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
And I bet you work with a lot of executives,
and I feel like this is applicable to all businesses
and no matter where you are in the business.

Speaker 7 (26:18):
Absolutely So Originally my business model was for on purpose.
Was started as what a twelve year old could do
if they had money, and honestly, the events that we
create in the games have people saying, this is fun.
I haven't done that since I was a kid, and
there is a very small distance between.

Speaker 6 (26:37):
Haha and aha.

Speaker 7 (26:39):
So we can get someone laughing about an experience or
doing something, and then we hit them with here's the
lesson behind it, just like if you heard a keynote
speaker when they joke, joke, story, and then the point
you're like, oh, that hits differently because I heard it
in that way. That's how all of our programming is done.
So when we do executive groups, we have them laughed,

(27:00):
we have them leaving work at work sometimes but doing
important things. We make a distinction between what we call
the four types of gatherings that a business can do. Informing,
sometimes you have to just give information to people. But
then there's also building, which is skill set enhancements, meaning
I need to learn about my job. I need to
learn specifically what I'm supposed to do, but I also

(27:20):
need the soft skills, the leadership skills, the people skills,
the human skills, whatever you want to call that. Those
things need to be done. Then there's also team bonding,
which is intentional relationship building, and then there's entertainment forgetting
about work or learning something. Let's go have fun together.
You need all those and the combination of which has
a different recipe associated with it. So one of our

(27:42):
skill sets is making sure we understand what your goals
are for this session and acting accordingly. And so we
have clients that we work with now for four years.
We help with them every quarter, every six months, every year,
some of them even every month, depending on what their
needs are.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
And you said you travel the country, so how can
people find you if they want to bring you to
their corporation.

Speaker 7 (28:01):
So many folks do a retreat first in Charleston, which
you don't have to do, and then they take us elsewhere.
But on Purposeadventures dot com is the main website for
the team building side of things. We everything we do
with Suitcase Ready, we customize stuff. We have virtual and
hybrid options, and I've learned that we apparently do that
very differently because of my engineering background. We're not talking

(28:24):
virtual happy hours or showing your baby pictures. Sorry, if
that's what you did, you just didn't learn much about
your team that way. But we created really fun, engaging
programs and if it happens to be a remote scenario.
I have a slogan it says play how you work.
A lot of times folks say we have some challenges
that we need to work on, but we're going to
wait till our off site in six months. That's a

(28:46):
long time for culture issues and conflict to exist. So
you need to learn how to have your remote or
hybrid team have fun or be trained in that hybrid experience.
And we've created some really fun things like that, some
training ones, and then also game ones, game activities that
you can do and have fun and cut up because

(29:07):
typically you're having stress in that working relationship, but.

Speaker 6 (29:11):
You need to be able to laugh together as well.

Speaker 7 (29:13):
So it's on Purpose Adventures dot com or you can
find me on LinkedIn. It's Ben Jammin' toy. That's Ben
dash Ja m I n toy HSG. I'm actually a
high school graduate, but I've read six hundred books, published
three books, so that's where a lot of our training
comes from.

Speaker 2 (29:31):
That's incredible.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
And talk about on the job training, I mean that
you have made such a career for yourself between nature adventures,
between on Purpose Adventure, between on Purpose Adventures, I mean,
what a great thing you have going and I wonder
would you ever think about bringing this into schools? And
I know adults are very different from students, but I
feel like students also need some sort of you know,

(29:54):
like get out of the classroom and think about a
new way of learning and interacting with your friends in
your peers.

Speaker 6 (30:01):
So great question. And we have served schools for a while.

Speaker 7 (30:06):
We now have a certain policy on how we work
with schools. A. We work with teachers all the time.
Two weeks ago we had it was an entire every
back to school for us means we're working with teachers often.
We do our Hunt for Cohesion or we do our
Cohesion Culture Core program, So we do that with the teachers.
To work with students, they have to be a team

(30:30):
or a group or something that they have self selected
for growth. We won't just work with the entire student body,
the entire classroom, because we've learned that they don't want
to be there sometimes right, So for us to work
effectively with a group, they have to be a team
that wants to get better and individually they've selected that
they are. Even the chess club could be something because

(30:52):
they want to do more than just the classroom right.
Just late earlier this week, we did the student or
the student council of a school, right. So that's a
group that is doing extra things, right, And that's how
we work with schools. Now, if we're going to do
bonding activities or entertainment, which are things we do, we'll

(31:12):
work with any type of school group as well. But
to actually do team building, they've had to self select
to be better than what they what the normal offerings are.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Well, thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
So where can we reach you to book nature adventures
when we're in Charleston?

Speaker 2 (31:27):
And where can we find on purpose adventures? Tell me again?

Speaker 7 (31:31):
So nature adventures. If you look up nature Adventures on
Shem Creek, you'll find it in search. Easiest domain to
get to though is paddleshem dot com and that's paddle
sh e M dot com. But we're on all the socials.
Google Nature Adventures on Shem Creek. That's how you find
anything that we want to do there. And we actually

(31:52):
do team building on the water which is called cohesive kayaking,
and we do some land activities. Then we have you
do an all kinds of crazy challenges on the water.
Also we make it just entertainment and new paddle Wars.
So when it's hot in the summer or in their
fall and Charleston because it's warm, we get people on
the water. So it's nice and fun to find on

(32:12):
Purpose Adventures Search on Purpose Adventures and then we're on
all the socials as well LinkedIn as well.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
Perfect.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
Thank you so much, Ben, Jam and Toy. Thank you
for joining me today. I'm Passport Mommy and for having
us out today.

Speaker 6 (32:25):
It was a pleasure. Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (32:27):
Coming up next on Passport Mommy, we're going to speak
with Anthony Marini. He is the founder of the restaurant
The Pass in Charleston. And this is a really unique
place because you might think, oh, it's just a sandwich shop,
but no, it is so much more than meets the eye.

Speaker 2 (32:46):
You're listening to Passport Mommy.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
I'm Michelle Jerson and you we had so much fun
in Charleston, and one of the more adventurous and fun
stops for the kids and also for us watching the
kids was the Charleston Adventure. And we absolutely loved this
place because not only did the kids have a blast
zip blinding through.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
The trees and doing all kinds of obstacles.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
But it's family run and you can tell when you
go there just the love that's put into this place,
and they really take care of the kids. So I'm
really happy to have on the show with me today
Carrie Hankinson, she is the co owner of Charleston Adventure Forest.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Thank you so much for having us out, Carrie, Well,
thank you so much. We had a blast with you guys.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
So how long have you had the Charleston Adventure Forest
and why did you decide to buy it?

Speaker 2 (33:36):
But yeah, funny story.

Speaker 8 (33:38):
So the Zipline has been in Charleston since twenty sixteen,
but we bought it about two and a half years ago.
But three years prior to us buying it, my daughter,
my oldest daughter, and my husband drove by. They went
in and strangely asked is this place for sale? I

(33:58):
don't know who just drives buy a zipline and asks
the current owner if it's for sale. But my husband did,
and he and Brook, our daughter, went ziplining. They had
a blast, and they came home and said, if that
place ever comes up for sale, I want to buy it.
And I'm like, oh my word. I had been homeschooling

(34:20):
all four of my kids for over twenty years.

Speaker 4 (34:23):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (34:24):
Yeah, and Brook at the time has I guess she
was twenty seven. So she had gone to college become
an engineer. She was engineering, but she had just had
her first baby and she was wanting to be able
to stay home with her baby. And so then at
the same time, my second daughter had gone to college

(34:45):
become an engineer. She was pregnant with her baby wanted
to be able to stay home with her baby. Our
son was at the American College of Building Arts in
Charleston and he was getting his bachelor's and architectural iron
working and he needed some land to be able to blacksmith.

(35:06):
So while Brook, our oldest, was wanting to stay home
with her baby and needed a place to put all
of her personal pets. She has many horses, goats, pigs, alpacas,
so she was looking for land for these animals. Our
son was looking for land to be able to do blacksmithing.

(35:27):
And three years after they had originally seen the zip line,
it came up for sale. So that is kind of
how that came to be. I used to be a
gymnastic coach and so it wasn't that far off a
stretch to go from gymnastics to just encouraging people to
take that leap and go ahead and do something that

(35:49):
maybe you've never done, that maybe you're scared to death
to do. So it was just a natural fit. So
Brooke quit her engineering job. One of the two of
us wear her babies all the time out there and
she runs and manages the zipline. Will is our blacksmith

(36:09):
out there. He has his own business. It's called Hankinson
Iron Works and he does gates and railings and chandeliers
and sculptures and all the things. But he also when
guests want to do a little blacksmithing class out there,
then you can hand forge a Charleston memento and so

(36:29):
he does that with guests. So lots of fun. And
I guess that's a long.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
Answer to why amazing. Yes, that is incredible and I
love it. And there are so many pieces to that story.

Speaker 1 (36:41):
I mean, the fact that it goes to show that
you can be a mom and you can figure out
how to take care of your babies and also run
a very successful business at the same time.

Speaker 8 (36:52):
Yeah, absolutely, I'd love Yeah, thanks.

Speaker 1 (36:57):
Sure, And so what activities I know you just mention
the blacksmithing, the ziplining. What other activities do you have
at Charleston Adventure Forest.

Speaker 2 (37:05):
They know we enjoyed seeing Brooks personal animals there. The
kids loved feeding the goats in the alpacas.

Speaker 8 (37:13):
So out at Charleston Adventure Forest, we have the adult
Canopy course, which you guys didn't get to do. Y'all
were on the Kid's Koala course. And I'll just tell
you the difference. The adult canopee. We've got seven ziplines,
three sky bridges. It's a traditional zipline course. It takes
about an hour and a half to two hours and
is designed for anybody ten years old and older, so

(37:38):
super adventure you've got to be super adventurous ten year
old to do that adult canopy and again about an
hour and a half to two hours for that. And
then we've got the Kid's Koala course, which is what
you guys got to experience, and that is designed for
five through twelve year olds and it is two different courses,

(37:58):
and on each course we've got four zip lines and
the kiddos get to go out and do the zipline
and once they get really good at ziplining, then we
start interacting with them and giving them a basketball and
they can shoot baskets balls while they're zipping, or we
give them a little ring and they can throw that
down and do like a bucket patch or what have

(38:22):
you on top of the bucket, and they win prizes
and all kind of fun things. So we've got the
ziplines for adults and kids. We've got a rock wall
and it's actually the tallest rock wall in Charleston. It's
sixty five feet tall, so that's super fun. Yes, got
animal encounters, which you just talked about a little bit,
So we've got many horses, goats, pigs, alpacket and reptile

(38:46):
So you get to go in with the animals and
love on them and feed them and groom them, and
I just learned a little bit more about them. And
then we also, as I mentioned earlier, have blacksmithing, so
you can take a two hour blacksmithing class and hand
ford your own Charleston memento. It might be an oyster
checker that's a really popular one, or a knife or

(39:09):
a steak, a flipper, fire poker, a hook, a keychain,
all kind of fun things.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
And your team is so good with the kids and
you know you mentioned the basketball and the different adventures
that you could do while ziplining. That was the first
time I had seen that, and so I thought that
one's really neat.

Speaker 8 (39:26):
Yeah things, I mean, we love it just depends on
the adventure level of the kiddos, and we want everybody
to be having a great time. So some children, you
know that they just need to be zipping, and then
other kids, I mean you know that they're maybe if
they're a little bit older, you can toss on that
ball and then you can see that competitive nature come out.

(39:50):
Then they're trying to make that hoop. And sometimes we
time the kids and see if they can beat their
own time. I don't know, I just think it's a
lot of fun to add a little and something once
they get good at zippin.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Yeah, I agree. I agree.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
And so for the rock climbing wall, for those who
might be a little afraid at the beginning, what kind
of tips do you give them?

Speaker 8 (40:12):
Yeah, that's a great question. I always tell everybody when
you're when you're climbing, try to map out where you
where you want to go, and then keep your tummy
close to the wall, keep your bellies close to the
wall because it's an awful lot of weight and force
on your hands and your and your forearms, and most

(40:33):
folks aren't used to using those muscles, so try to
keep all the weight straight up and down over the
top of your feet. And also I tell everybody, you
know your your legs are stronger than your arms, so
push through those legs before you pull up with your arms.
And again, we when we have bell ringers, people get
treat surprises. We've got a competition going to see who's

(40:54):
the oldest climber, who's the youngest climber, well the bell
ringer actually, and who's the fastest bowl ringer. We have
an eighteen year old who can go sixty five feet
in Oh goodness, I think those forty three seconds.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (41:11):
I mean that is it is flying at the wall.

Speaker 2 (41:15):
That is like, yeah, that's amazing. That is incredible, and
that is incredible. I know you were there, you saw
that wall.

Speaker 8 (41:21):
You know how incredible that is.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
I mean that's like six stories that's something. It really
is and I think it's so great.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
Like you mentioned before with the ziplining the rock wall,
it really helps kids develop their confidence. And I know
for me, I mean I won't let this onto my kids.
But I used to love rock climbing and now I
don't know why I'm afraid of it. But like as
I've gotten older, my fear, I guess has set it
a little more for the zip lines and the rock climbing.
But my kids love them, and I think it's so

(41:49):
good for them to develop confidence, to get rid of
some fears that they might have.

Speaker 2 (41:54):
And I just think that.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
Yeah, and you must have you mentioned that you homeschool
your own kids, but do you have a lot of
home schooling programs that come to your camp to the
place and whether we have.

Speaker 8 (42:05):
Yoah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm glad you're asking me about that,
because we do. We have a lot of homeschoolers that come,
and we do have set business hours, but we also
encourage on our website everybody to call if you don't
see a day or a time that works for you. So,
like the homeschoolers, instead of coming during set hours, they

(42:25):
can come at different hours and we're happy to run
tours for them. It doesn't cost anymore. We're just we're
happy to do it. But we do we have a
lot of school groups that come, youth groups that come.
We do a ton of team building, team bonding we have.
We had a chipractor group come, a dental group that came.
We've got a huge group coming down from New York

(42:48):
and October. We're super excited about that one. We've got
a whole sixth grade, not just class like all the
grades wowing in just two legues actually, and they are
going to come and we're going to run some educational
programs for them. So because we've all, like all of

(43:08):
my kids all work out at the Zipline and they're
all very used to us doing really creative educational programs.
So our son who's the blacksmith, is going to do
some science experiments with the metal with these sixth grade kiddos,
and then they're going to do interactive blacksmithing with them.

(43:30):
And then we'll take them back to the animals and
learn about all of the hoofed animals. And then we're
going to be going into the reptiles and telling them
how many snakes do you have in a clutch, what
is pipping, what is candling, Just some of the genetics
behind the breeding and what we're hoping to find and

(43:51):
the recessive and dominant traits and all the fun things,
but then that's all mixed in with ziplining and rock climbing,
and absolutely I love that you talk about, you know,
helping people get out of their comfort zone. And maybe
they're only getting five feet off the ground, but for
some people that is huge and that's what we try

(44:13):
to encourage. Everybody's a little different, Like we can get
you just one hand higher than that's a success.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
So exactly, yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
Definitely, Well thank you. I mean, I think the work
that you're doing is amazing. I love that it is
a family business. I know that when we are back
in Charleston, we are definitely going to come by and
say hello with I so loved meeting your family and
watching the kids have so much fun.

Speaker 2 (44:38):
Carrie Hankinson.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Where can we go for more information on Charleston Adventure
Forest and to book our tickets?

Speaker 8 (44:45):
Yeah, so you can book online. You can also call
us and you can just walk in. We do encourage
and highly recommend just an appointment just to go ahead
and book in advance, but you can walk in. So
to book, you can give us a shout at eight
four three nine two eight three zip which is eight

(45:06):
four three nine two eight three nine four seven, or
you can book online at charlestonadventureforest dot com.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Perfect.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
Thank you so much, Carrie Hankinson, thank you for joining
me today on Passport Mommy.

Speaker 8 (45:20):
Thank you so much for having us. We really appreciate it,
and thanks for coming to visit my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
I'm Michelle Jerson the Passport Mommy More coming up in
a few.

Speaker 2 (45:33):
You're listening to Passport Mommy. I'm Michelle Jerson.

Speaker 1 (45:36):
So I feel like there are just so many incredible
food venues to cover in Charleston because we just had
I mean, every experience we had was a good one,
from breakfast to dinner.

Speaker 2 (45:46):
No matter what the meal, it was great food.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
And one such place was Lilian's and this is the
perfect spot to pop in for breakfast or lunch or dinner.
We went for breakfast and it is such a great
kid friendly place. The atmosphere terrific. There's an outdoor area,
there's an indoor area. I feel like you can go
there for coffee and just have a work meeting and
hang out there for a while. And so I'm really

(46:08):
happy to have on the show with me today. The
owner Heather Green, Hi Heather.

Speaker 8 (46:13):
Today, thanks for having me. I feel like I don't
have to say anything. Now, you just gave me a
great interro.

Speaker 4 (46:18):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
My great Yeah. I mean that's how we felt. My
kids felt totally at home.

Speaker 1 (46:24):
I mean, not that I want to advertise they were
running around, but they were running around outside.

Speaker 2 (46:27):
They were excited to go outside.

Speaker 1 (46:28):
And it's nice because when the weather's nice, it's a
great spot. And I love the little market you have
when you first walk in your coffee bar, the upstairs seating,
the seating in the back. So tell me a little
bit about the story of Lilian's. How did it come
to be and why did you choose the name Lilian?

Speaker 8 (46:48):
Sure, well this, you know, I've lived downtown for many
years and we were downsizing and we actually moved to
the neighborhood where this location is. We put an offer
on the house and when it was up to that
same day, Harold's Cabin, which is where Lillian's is now,
announced they were closing. Oh so I kind of looked
at my husband and he was like, oh, geez, here

(47:09):
we go. And you know, I do run restaurants and
I invest in restaurants, but this is my first baby,
you know, to open my own restaurant. And it just
seemed perfect. We live across the street, which is kind
of crazy, but the location was Harold's Cabin, and back
in then early nineteen hundreds, it was Harold's cabin and

(47:31):
the owners were with Harold was Harold Jacob's. His wife's
name was Lillian Okay, and they were an amazing little couple.
I don't know them, Perst. I didn't know them personally,
but I know a lot of people now that knew
them so fast. They had this business here in this location,
they grew out of it and they moved it to
a different location in Charleston. The building kind of went empty,

(47:54):
and then it was a corner store for a little while,
and then it came back and was revitalized as Harold's
Cabin after the original one. So when I took over
the lease, it was Harold's Cabin the second time. So
I was trying to figure out what I wanted to
name it, and I did a lot of research, and
I Harold and Lillian were a Jewish couple in Charleston,
and there's a great Jewish history here in Charleston, a

(48:16):
rich history. So luckily somebody had interviewed them as part
of this Jewish history project and I listened to it,
and they were in their nineties, I would guess, and
maybe late eighties. And every once in a while Harold
would forget, you know, a keynote, and Lillian would just
pop in so graciously and nice, and she would answer
it for him, and there just seemed to be such
love and their conversation.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
I just felt it.

Speaker 8 (48:39):
And maybe I'm Pollyanna. I don't know, but I went
to bed that night and I woke up the next
morning and I thought, Lillian, I feel like she probably
didn't get her due, and I know she was a
hard worker for the business. But his name is on
the building, so.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Now hers is, how are you amazing? And they did
they know that her name was on the building.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
Now they have.

Speaker 8 (49:00):
They had passed away before I opened us. But what's
really cool is a lot of their family members and
people that knew them well have come into Lilian's. And
every time somebody comes in, they make sure that they
find me and they tell me how much she would
have loved it, how she was an integral part, how
their relationship was, you know, in their mind what I

(49:21):
thought it was from hearing this oral interview. So it's
been kind of nice.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Yeah, that's amazing. I love that story.

Speaker 1 (49:29):
And I would love to talk more about the Jewish
influence in Charleston because I feel like that doesn't go
discussed as much either, as much as it probably should.
And I think that history is really what connects you
to your community. And then you know, obviously the food
then sells it and keep selling it. So we'll get
back to that part. But let's talk about the food.

(49:51):
The locally sourced seasonally shifted menu.

Speaker 8 (49:55):
Yeah, so we have eight chapters a year. We call
our menus chapters. So there's four seasons in the year,
and we do a chapter a menu change on each
side of each season, so we kind of get the
best of the season and sometimes it takes you a
minute till the end of the season for something to
come up that's really really fresh. So we have eight chapters,

(50:16):
just like a book. And then our beverage menu changes
four times a year, so we really do that just
right on the season change. So each time the season changes,
we change our bedbridge menu. I really have tried to
empower my staff here. We have a pastry chef, a
head chef, two sue chefs, and a bar manager. That's

(50:38):
my core team and then also my barista. They work
as a team together, and every time we do a
menu change, we sit down with the grow Food, which
is a local co op here or that helps farmers.
They put out a calendar, a crop calendar, so we
sit down with a crop calendar just to kind of
remind ourselves what's coming up. And then we run a
product mix, which is when you look at your menus,

(51:00):
see what sells the most, what sells the least, So
we try to keep the number one in each category
on each menu. We try to keep that into the
next season as long as it's seasonal enough we could
do that, and then the rest of the menu normally
changes out. So like this current menu we just changed
on Tuesday, and we have a harvest salad and a

(51:21):
harvest bowl and we're using roasted squash and just we're
really to apples, and we're all trying to work all
these ingredients across the whole restaurant, which is kind of
hard because we are doing a lot here. We're open
all day long. We do breakfast, lunch and dinner, brunch,
and the coffee shop. But a great example of what

(51:42):
we do is our barista made an apple pie syrup
for the coffee shop, and she had apples left over,
and so the patry stuff noticed that she had a
bipro product of these apples that had been made into
a syrup and that were amazing. But they don't keep
the apples in the surf, so she made a dessert

(52:03):
out of those apples. So we really do try to
collaborate closely with each other. So we're wasting, you know,
we really cut our waist down and we make sure
that we're all you know, the menus tot of cohesive
from every part of it.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
That's amazing. I love what goes into that. And I
love that you work with the local farmers to source
their crops. I think that really is what makes the
menu so special in.

Speaker 2 (52:27):
The restaurant so special.

Speaker 1 (52:29):
And I know, like I said, we popped in for
breakfast and even your avocado toast it was so delicious.

Speaker 8 (52:34):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
So good.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Yeah, so you have a Monday market and a wine
club too, we do.

Speaker 8 (52:41):
I love that you brought that up. You know, wine
is my passion. That's nothing that I really really really love.
So it's been fun for me to get the chance
to introduce the neighborhood. Like we are smack dub in
the middle of a neighborhood inside Darleston, which is kind
of a cool thing to be. And we're like two
blocks from the park and we're next to the cityl

(53:02):
College and MUSC is right there, so we've got this
diverse community of people that come in. So it's been
fun to really to share my love of wine and
biodynamic wines and natural wines because it fits right in
with our ethos of taking care of the environment. So
we start a wine club, so once a month, people
can choose if they want all whites or sparklings or

(53:24):
surprise me. They can also add a pastry box if
they want or like a little surprise box from the market.
And then Mondays when we have our Monday Markets, which
is once a month as well. The Monday Markets, we
allow local vendors to come in and show their wares
for no cost. They just need to come in no fee.
They use our room downstairs, and we get to introduce

(53:47):
our neighbors to these great artists and people that provide
things locally in Charleston. So the wine pickup for the
Wine Club is also once a month. Same time we
coordinate them together, so it turns into just a little
community of it. She come in, you take some wine,
you get to see what the local artists are doing,
and it's just I think it's fun. I think it's
fun to connect with your neighbors. I think after COVID,

(54:08):
people got sort of stuck, you know, and they weren't
out face to face as much anymore. And I think
we're all craving that a little bit. So we're trying
to We're trying to make that, you know, a part
of what we do here.

Speaker 1 (54:19):
Oh my gosh, I wish there was something like this
in my neighborhood. So we mentioned at the beginning of
the segment that this is a very family friendly place,
and so tell me about some of the options that
kids would love on the menu.

Speaker 8 (54:31):
Yeah, we you know, it's funny our headshef He has
two kids almost the same age as mine, and they're
you know, getting grown and older and moving out. But
when he mentions when he was his kids were young,
he was in charge of their lunch program at their
little school that they went to. So it's a passion
of his as well to make sure that kids are
fed well. We try to change that kids menu out

(54:54):
on the back of the kids menu is a little
coloring sheet too, like vegetables and stuff, which is kind
of fun, but we have we always will have a
fruit and a vegetable that they can choose from, and
then there's the traditional like mac and cheese and grilled cheese,
and we also offer anything on the menu. It can
be downsized just for kids. So although we do print

(55:15):
a formal kids menu, but we are really flexible in
what we do for kids. If a kid shows interest
in anything, I'm happy to cut that plate and have
not charge them as much and let them try something
cool and fun.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
You know, I loved that because I really hate kids menus.

Speaker 8 (55:31):
I know it's hard. It's really hard because you feel
like that you've got to put those traditional things on it.
But I want kids to be adventurous, so that's what
we kind of encourage here.

Speaker 1 (55:40):
Yes, I try to encourage that with my kids too,
and as soon as the traditional kids menu is put
in front of them, it doesn't matter what else is
on the menu that they normally would have eaten or loved.
And my daughter fought me on that avocado toast so
she had her own too. I love it, yes, yes, Well,
thank you so much for joining me today on Passport Mommy,

(56:01):
Heather Green.

Speaker 2 (56:02):
It was so fun speaking with you.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
I just loved the story behind Lilian's and everything that
you're doing there. Where can we find you in downtown Charleston.

Speaker 8 (56:12):
We are on the west side. It is called right
next to Hampton Park in the Citadel. We are right
across the September Clark Parkway, so we're right in the
midst of it and a little neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (56:22):
Perfect. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.

Speaker 8 (56:26):
Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure talking
to you.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
Same here. Thank you. I'm Michelle Jerson. We're coming up
in a few.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
You're listening to Passport Mommy. I'm Michelle Jerson. And we
had talked about the food when we were in Charleston,
and you can't go wrong. I didn't come across any
bad places. And there is one such spot which is
perfect for breakfast and lunch. It is on the corner
and you know, it's called the pass And at first
I read it was a sandwich place. I was like, Okay,

(56:55):
that'll be good, and no, no, good is not even
the word.

Speaker 2 (56:58):
It was phenomenal.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
These are gourmet preparations, and when I learned who the
chef is and who the owner is.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
I could absolutely see why.

Speaker 1 (57:06):
So Anthony Marini, thank you so much for joining me
today on Passport Mommy.

Speaker 4 (57:11):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (57:12):
I appreciate it, my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (57:13):
So tell me a little bit about your background and
why you decided to open the pass in Charleston, because
I know you have a Philadelphia connection.

Speaker 9 (57:21):
I'm born and raised in Philadelphia, lived over in South
Jersey for many years, and traveled the country over many
years in fine dining. I've been in fine dining for
almost thirty years. When the decision was made to come
to Charleston wasn't necessarily the decision I was going to make.

(57:44):
I was in the process of buying a restaurant in
South Jersey when COVID happened and everything stopped in certainly
in the northeast part of the United States as it
did everywhere else, and I had to make some adjustments.
I originally went to Atlanta for a few months and
to kind of help some people out as the South

(58:06):
was still open, right, and then I kept coming to
Charleston on breaks and I really liked it. You know,
the Beach was fifteen minutes away. There was a lot
of restaurants to keep me interested in town, so I
decided to kind of put a stake down in Charleston,
South Carolina.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Amazing and how long has the past been there now.

Speaker 4 (58:28):
This past August first has been our fourth year.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
Incredible. So tell me a little bit about the menu.

Speaker 9 (58:33):
Well, the menu, well, the way the restaurant started, it
didn't start so Italian. The sandwiches more globally based.

Speaker 3 (58:43):
And the.

Speaker 9 (58:45):
Joke was that a fine dining chef was opening up
a sandwich shop. So I have a lot of like
cookbooks and a lot of things art on the wall
that represents a lot of fine dining, So that was
kind of the joke. We just put I hate to
simplify like this, but we just put really good stuff
on bread. Yeah, and we're absolutely nice to everybody who

(59:07):
comes in, and we hope that translates to a good experience.
Over the past couple of years, people have really enjoyed
the Italian things that I've done pretty much from my hometown,
and we've decided to go with that. So we've become
a full, full stop Italian menu.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
Yes, and I have to say you know mentioned the sandwiches,
but your salads too. I had gotten the eye tuna salad.
Tell me the name of that one again, it starts
with an M.

Speaker 9 (59:36):
It's called the Medagon salad. Yes, it's a little bit
of a slang derogatory meeting. But you know, essentially I'm Italian,
so if I was married to somebody who was not
an Italian person, they would be considered the Medagon kind
of the non Italian person within that relationship. And you know,

(01:00:00):
people seem to like it and certainly identify with it,
and you know, I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:00:04):
Very happy about that.

Speaker 2 (01:00:05):
Yeah, absolutely. So where are you located.

Speaker 9 (01:00:09):
I'm on the corner of Spring and Saint Phillip Streets
in downtown Charleston, two o seven St.

Speaker 4 (01:00:16):
Phillip Street in Charleston.

Speaker 2 (01:00:17):
Great.

Speaker 1 (01:00:18):
And I know you had mentioned when I was in
there that you also do tastings in the evenings.

Speaker 9 (01:00:22):
So I have a concept that I do at night,
four nights out of the week. We call it the
Italian Boy after Dark and it's named after one of
our signature sandwiches, the Such a nice Italian Boy. And
so we do a six course tasting where we do
you know, cheese and crudo, and we have a pasta

(01:00:44):
usually with protein in it. We have a pretty inventive
sandwich and an antipasta of course, and dessert of course,
and then I roll around a kind of a rolling
cart of amorrow and give everybody shots at the end
of the night.

Speaker 4 (01:01:00):
But it seems to be very happy with you.

Speaker 1 (01:01:03):
That's incredible, what a great experience, and I think for
both locals and those visiting, I think the past has
to be a stop on the agenda. And it's great
because you can grab and.

Speaker 2 (01:01:13):
Go like we did.

Speaker 1 (01:01:14):
We had a sleeping kid in the car, so we
just did that and it was perfect. Or you can
sit down and your space is really comfortable and really nice,
and like you mentioned, everybody's really friendly and really great
and that's a huge part of I think why people
want to come in.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
Also in addition to the food.

Speaker 9 (01:01:29):
Well, we have a very very small space, so you know,
we're all of my staff, including myself, are really very
much with the customer and the guest the entire time,
so it's not a separation. I intend to open up
a space shortly in Mount Pleasant, which is right across
the big Ravenol Bridge, and it's going to be a

(01:01:51):
little bit bigger of a space, but still small enough
to where we could be really intimate with the guest.

Speaker 1 (01:01:56):
Terrific. Well, thank you so much. I'm so glad that
I got to meet you when I was there. I
hope to meet you again. Anthony Morini, thank you so
much for joining me today. I'm Passport mommy.