Mount Pleasant Magazine Sept/Oct 2013

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EatingWell
Four Seasons of Food
in the South
Southern Season
Every cook knows that a
great recipe has several key ingredients
that don’t appear in a cookbook or on
an index card in a metal box – things
such as a fully stocked kitchen, a
good chunk of time, some talent and
an endearing love for food. But for
this foodie, it’s time to add another ingredient to the list:
Southern Season.
Coming to Coleman Boulevard this September,
Southern Season is “absolutely a
destination for people who love
food,” according to company President Brian Fauver.
The store features more than 70,000 products,
including specialty ingredients, craft beers and wine,
unique candies, freshly prepared foods and the latest
in cookware. There’s also a restaurant and a cooking
school on-site.
I’m already drooling.
If you’re thinking Southern
Season doesn’t sound like a
normal grocery store, you’re
absolutely right, and that’s the
way Fauver likes it.
“We don’t have any
produce, there is no butcher
– very few customers walk
in the store with a list,” he
said. “We are the place where
you can pick up your favorite
fair trade coffee and have it ground for you fresh, try a new
cheese that our cheese-monger discovered on his last trip
to Wisconsin, or find that specialty kitchen tool or unique
ingredient that will put your recipe over the top.”
Fauver described the store as exciting and engaging, with
food and entertaining at its core. To him, Southern Season
should “help focus on (the customer’s) passion for food,
whether that’s through a new technique, a new product or
learning from cookbook authors and well-known chefs who
come in and teach classes at our cooking school.”
Meeting a cookbook author? Double drool. I will
definitely be writing about this on my food blog.
Fauver thought the food blog was a delectable idea.
“One thing that makes us unique is that we want to be a
part of that blog story. … I envision you going into our store,
talking with a vendor about why they do their pimento cheese
the way they do it, then going home and trying the cheese
their way – or your own way – but the point is that you have
that story with it. You engaged with our store. It becomes a
special part of your recipe and food experience.”
As a foodie and a writer, that’s exactly what I want in a
food spot. My culinary dreams are starting to come true,
and it occurs to me that I must be the luckiest girl out
there to live in a town where this store is opening. After
all, the company was founded in 1975 and yet Southern
Season has not expanded outside of its flagship store in
Chapel Hill, N.C. – until now.
“We wanted to identify areas like Mount Pleasant
that have a really strong food culture,” Fauver said. “The
headlines that your area
makes in terms of being a
destination, being the home
to some really accomplished
chefs, having a culture
around food … that’s exactly
what we’re all about, so
Mount Pleasant is a perfect
destination for us. We will
feed right into that scene.”
Nice food pun, Fauver.
He’s right though: The
food culture of the Charleston
area, combined with the popularity of Coleman Boulevard
and the ease-of-access Mount Pleasant can offer, will surely
be a recipe for success for the store.
Southern Season isn’t the only place with a few recipes
for success up its hypothetical sleeves, though. All this food
talk has inspired a new recipe of my own: to make a happy
food writer, mix together in a tiny apartment kitchen one
food blog and several trips to Southern Season. Add wine
to taste. Bon appetit!
Drop by the new Southern Season store this fall at 730
Coleman Blvd., or visit .
By TayLor GrIffITh
Photos provided.
Southern Season offers more than 70,000 products, as well as
a restaurant and a cooking school.