Everything above Calhoun Street, and the reason Charleston is a serious eating city rather than a pretty one. Upper King is the commercial spine — a mile of restaurants, bars, hotels and design shops with a genuine late-night strip at the top. Cannonborough-Elliottborough is the residential grid immediately west of it, where chefs went for cheap rent fifteen years ago and where most of the city's best cooking now actually is, in converted corner shops and old filling stations.
Who it's for: Anyone who came to Charleston to eat, and anyone who wants an evening that runs past ten. Also the best base for a trip: you can walk to almost every restaurant on this list, and the free DASH shuttle runs down to the historic sights.