Charleston magazine Society blog

On Thursday night, realtors from all over the Lowcountry were treated to a lively carnival themed party dubbed “Under the Boardwalk” at the Gaillard Auditorium hosted by the Charleston Trident Association of REALTORS. For the past few years, this event has only been open to realtors, but this year it was open to the public in hopes of raising attendance, as well as awareness and funds for affordable housing organizations in the Lowcountry (including Habitat for Humanity, Operation Home, Crisis Ministries, etc…) in the form of grants from the REALTORS Housing Opportunities Fund (RHOF).  

When I arrived, the party was already off to a good start.  Beach music from the East Coast Party Band was echoing throughout the room. Guests were enjoying a wide variety of activities from caricature drawings by Melton Art to a bean bag toss sponsored by Carolina One. People were literally lined up to play. The silent auction was quite active with items from every category imaginable. There were more than 100 items to bid on.

Hamby Catering did a spectacular job with the food. In keeping with the carnival theme, guests were treated to hot dogs, mini burgers, popcorn, candy apples, and snow cones that were spiked with rum.   The chocolate fondue fountain was a complete homerun.  I saw a few ladies camped out in front of this display the entire evening.

As the evening came to a close, presenter Doug Warner grabbed the mic and reiterated the importance of RHOF and thanked everyone for their continued support.

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Seven months and counting until the fourth annual BB&T Charleston Food + Wine Festival, set to take place March 5 - March 8, 2009. With the event season gearing up, festival organizers hosted a summer launch party for sponsor and supporters last Thursday at Bridgeside Events. The precursor to the festivities included a sampling from Charleston’s top chefs representing the Festival’s signature events along with specialty beverages, wine pairings, and the announcement of the upcoming schedule.

I ran into event planner extraordinaire Mitchell Crosby, who, along with Denise Barto, will be the signature event producer for the festival parties, including Charleston magazine and The Art Institute of Charleston Bubbles & Sweets event, which by the way was sold out last year, so get your tickets early. Mitchell would not reveal a whole lot of details, but he did tell me it will be one of the festival most talked about events.

Food + Wine Festival executive director Angel Postell and chairwoman Laura Hewitt made opening remarks and announced their 2009 signature charity with MUSC Children’s Hospital’s initiatives with diabetes and lifestyle prevention research. The “Fill the Glass” campaign will lend a hand in raising charitable donations for MUSC, area culinary-related charities, student-related programs, and establishing culinary related scholarships.

The big announcement of the evening was the inclusion of headlining celebrity chef the Food Network television personality Bobby Flay. Festival guests will have three different chances to see Chef Flay in action and one lucky person will have the ultimate experience of cooking with him on stage. Is Bobby ready for another Charleston throw down?

Most of the evening was filled with guests table-hopping and sampling food from featured chefs Craig Deihl (Cypress), Lance Howard (Locklear’s), M. Kelly Wilson (Cypress), and Jimmy Hagood (Food for the Southern Soul), but I was most impressed with the heavenly, chocolate dessert assortment prepared by
the culinary students from the Art Institute. The white chocolate tuxedo covered strawberry’s were a crowd favorite.

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