Next best thing to being there

A selection of photos from The Food Section's subscribers' reception

Note: This week’s feature story was about three times longer than a typical Monday newsletter, so I wanted to be mindful this week of infringing on your time and inbox space.

If you haven’t yet checked out my coverage of Aunt Fanny’s Cabin and the fight to keep Smyrna, Georgia from demolishing the sharecropper’s home which once housed it, that story awaits you after a quick scroll through the pictures below. The Food Section’s regular mix of columns will return next Wednesday.

“I’m so sorry I didn’t pick up on this,” subscriber and faithful reader Ty Kotz wrote on Instagram after seeing pictures of The Food Section’s first-ever subscribers’ reception this past Saturday. “Would have loved to be there.”

To use a journalistic cliché, Ty wasn’t alone. Lots of subscribers couldn’t attend because of scheduling conflicts or the sheer distance between their homes and my house in North Charleston, where the party was held. Plus, the event coincided with Charleston Wine + Food, during which dedicated eaters are pulled in a dozen different directions at once.

But if you weren’t able to make it, here’s a peek at what you missed. Hope you’ll join the party next year!

Daddy’s Girl Bakery supplied the lemon cupcakes with The Food Section’s logo on top.

The reception’s signature cocktail was a Ruby Slipper made with Hat Trick gin from Charleston’s High Wire Distilling Co.

(If you want to replicate the drink in an individual portion, the recipe is in The Southern Foodways Alliance Guide to Cocktails, authored by Jerry Slater of The Expat in Athens, Georgia.)

Subscribers Cheetie Kumar, Ann Marshall, and Angie Mosier demonstrated proper use of the selfie station.

Food writer Matt Lee caught up with Spirited Brunch co-organizer and fellow subscriber Elijah Siegler amid the azaleas.

“What is this party for?” Brittney Simmons asked as she started to lay out the centerpiece shellfish display. Everyone who entered after she completed her arrangement of garlic crawfish, shrimp, and crab didn’t have to ask.

Subscriber Melvin Brown at the seafood table.

I’m biased because I’m partial to shrimp, but it’s one of countless Lowcountry delicacies that could have a starring role at The Food Section’s subscribers’ reception. Which would you prefer for 2023?

What's your party food of choice?

1. Another shellfish landscape

2. Something new and different

Go to poll page

See you next year!

---