Where to Brunch in Charleston + a Local Spot Cracks the National Top 100

Charleston is known for its brunch scene, so narrowing it down to just three was tough. Here are my picks. Reply and let me know if you agree, or if you've got a spot I'm missing. The best suggestion gets a shoutout in the next edition.

🦐Millers All Day is the closest thing Charleston brunch has to a flagship. Both the James Island and King Street locations lean into a vintage diner feel with elevated Lowcountry plates like shrimp and grits built on Marsh Hen Mill's Jimmy Red corn grits, pimento cheese grits bowls, and house-made pop tarts that have a serious following. Millers stays busy, so plan to go early or settle in with a boozy slushie while you wait. Check out the menu.

🧇High Cotton is the move when brunch calls for something a little more polished. Set inside a restored 19th-century warehouse on East Bay, it pairs weekend brunch with live jazz both Saturday and Sunday, turning a meal into an afternoon. The kitchen spans expertly done seafood and Lowcountry classics, from Fried Oyster Florentine and Crab Cakes Benedict to chicken and waffles, making High Cotton the dressed-up, special-occasion pick worth bookmarking for out-of-town guests. Check out the menu.

🥧The Harbinger Café & Bakery is the antidote to the downtown crowds. This bright Westside café, along with its sister shop Harken, turns out house-made pastries, loaded toasts, quiche, and quality coffee seven days a week. The Harbinger keeps it simple with no reservations and no fuss, just genuinely good baking in a relaxed neighborhood setting that's easy to fold into a regular weekend routine. Check out the menu.

Late last year, a Klimt sold for the highest price ever paid for modern art at auction.

An outlier sure, but it wasn't a fluke. U.S. auction sales grew 23.1% in 2025. The $1-5mm segment even grew 40.8% YoY.

Meanwhile, Apollo’s chief economist Torsten Slok said to expect ‘zero in return in the S&P 500 over the coming decade.’

So, that's where it gets interesting.

Each environment is unique, but after dot-com, post war and contemporary art grew about 24% annually for a decade. After 2008, about 11% for 12 years.

It’s also had near-zero correlation with the S&P 500 since ‘95.*

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Shares can sell quickly, but my subscribers can skip the waitlist:

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^{*Investing involves risk. Past performance is not indicative of future returns. See important Reg A disclosures at masterworks.com/cd.}

Teacher Appreciation Happy Hour (More Info) · 4-9pm · Firefly Distillery, North Charleston · Price of purchase · a happy hour event at Firefly Distillery in North Charleston celebrating teachers.

Kwei Fei x Low Tide Brewing Beer Release Party (More Info) · 5pm-8pm · Low Tide Brewing, Johns Island, SC · $10+ · Launch party for Kwei Fei and Low Tide Brewing's limited edition beer collaboration.

Party at the Point: The Midnight City (More Info) · 6 PM · Charleston Harbor Resort & Marina · $15 (kids 12 and under FREE) · the waterfront concert series with The Midnight City, offering sunset views over the harbor.

Reggae Nights Summer Concert Series (More Info) · 7:30-11 p.m. · James Island County Park · $20+ · a reggae concert at James Island County as part of the summer concert series.

Piccolo Spoleto Sand Sculpting Competition (More Info) · 9am-1pm · Front Beach, Isle of Palms · beach goes full Michelangelo with the sand sculpting competition. Visitors can sculpt, compete, or just watch.

The 2026 Charleston Charity Duck Race (More Info) · 10am-2pm · Daniel Island Waterfront Park · FREE · an annual duck race event at Daniel Island Waterfront Park.

Hana Jam 2026 (More Info) · 12-8pm · Hanahan Amphitheatre · $10 · a jam music festival featuring the Headstrings Collective

Sweat on the Ship — Moving for Mental Health (More Info) · 5-9pm · USS Yorktown Flight Deck, Patriots Point · $55 · Combines all-levels strength, breathwork, and mobility on the flight deck to raise awareness for mental health. All ages and fitness levels welcome.

Charleston Battery vs. Detroit City FC - Military Appreciation Night (More Info) · 6pm · Patriots Point, Charleston · Military appreciation night + local food trucks, craft beer & frose, and t-shirt giveaway for the first 1,000 fans

The Joy market on the Road (More Info) · 11:30am-4pm · Mex 1 Coastal Cantina · $7+ · Pop-up fun with local goodies, good food, and fill-the-bag bathing suit donation drive.

Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra: Appalachian Spring and American Classics (More Info) · 3pm · St. Matthew's Lutheran Church · $55-$100 · Spoleto Festival Orchestra performs Appalachian Spring and other American classics under Timothy Myers.

Summoned by Nature's 10-year Anniversary Masquerade Ball (More Info) · 4pm-8pm · North Charleston, SC · $34+ · Summoned by Nature's 10-year anniversary masquerade ball celebration.

🏘️ North Charleston is launching a program to convert vacant city-owned lots into affordable housing opportunities. The initiative aims to tackle the region's housing shortage by developing underutilized municipal properties into homes that working families can actually afford. This could be a game-changer for residents struggling with the area's skyrocketing housing costs and limited inventory.

🍺 Low Tide Brewing is making a $22.2 million bet on Johns Island. The island's first brewery, founded back in 2016, is building a new 26,800-square-foot facility on Beer Garden Way next to Trophy Lake off Maybank Highway. The space will house a state-of-the-art brewing system plus a dedicated event space, giving the brand room to keep up with surging wholesale demand. The expansion is expected to create 33 new jobs, with hiring kicking off a couple months before the doors open. Founder Mike Fielding says demand has grown steadily as the brewery's reputation has spread, and operations are slated to come online by mid-2026.

🌊 Berkeley County's new $10.5 million Waterfront Park is partially open on Lake Moultrie. As of May 15, six boat ramps and roughly 180 trailer parking spaces opened to the public at 933 Broughton Road in Moncks Corner, easing the overcrowding that's long plagued nearby landings. The 15-acre site will eventually include docks for 36 boats, a 4,200-square-foot open-air pavilion, a half-mile walking trail, and 58,000 square feet of beach. Beach access and the rest of the amenities stay closed until the full grand opening, now set for June 12. It's one of the larger public waterfront investments the county has made in years.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Charleston just landed at No. 8 on WalletHub's 2026 list of the best cities to raise a family. The study compared more than 180 U.S. cities across 45 metrics, including housing affordability, school-system quality, and the unemployment rate. Charleston beat out hundreds of bigger metros to crack the top 10, trailing only places like Fremont, California, Overland Park, Kansas, and Irvine, California. Not bad for a city locals already know is a pretty great place to put down roots. Check out the full list here.

🍖 Lewis Barbecue just landed at No. 48 on Yelp's Top 100 BBQ Restaurants in the US. The ranking, built from the volume and ratings of reviews left by Yelp's Elite Squad members nationwide, makes the Nassau Street smokehouse the only South Carolina restaurant to crack the entire list. Pitmaster John Lewis is known for his massive custom-built smokers and slow-smoked Central Texas classics carved fresh to order. If you've been putting off that brisket run, consider this your sign. Check out the full list here.

That's everything for this Friday. Enjoy the weekend, Charleston. We'll be back in your inbox next week.

- Ryan from All Things Charleston

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Michelle Wells, REALTOR
843.607.3621
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