Some favorites have been around for forever and I just hadn't heard of them before, and some really have just recently been popping up due to the new cultural celebration of all things local. I had the pleasure of experiencing one from each of these categories last week for my first time: Thursday Jazz Night at Hunter Gatherer on Main Street and the All-Local Farmers Market at 701 Whaley Street.
I have heard various friends mention that Hunter Gatherer, which was already on my list of favorite restaurants in town just because it isn't a chain and has a fun, different atmosphere and good dinner menu, has great jazz on Thursday nights. My friend Lauren, who is a couple years older than me, always talks about how she and another friend used to always go together when at USC. Well, this past week was Lauren's last in Columbia before she moves away to get married, so I thought gettting a group of girls together to experience something with her that she loves and that I've been wanting to try would be perfect for our last Columbia girl time. And it was thoroughly delightful! WIN. And I heard one man remark near me that they have been doing this for eleven years! Shoot, I have been missing out that's for sure. The men who played were so talented--the lead player was an older man who Lauren said is there every week and from what I gathered is fairly well-known in the local scene but I didn't catch his name--and there was a really great community environment....the four of us girls ended up crowding together on three chairs at the end of a table at the invitation of a group who got there before us and were finishing up their dinner. It was a very informal setting--everyone laughing and chatting loudly over the music and wine and Hunter Gatherer's fine selection of specialty beers (which I have HEARD of and have yet to try...I get a little intimidated by different alcoholic beverages). I only partook in a humble cup of decaf, but I was eyeing their dessert menu which looked like it had some fabulous options that I will have to go back for...regardless, the jazz enough, for a mere $3 cover charge, was plenty sufficient to guarantee my return.
I also visited the All-Local Farmers Market at 701 Whaley for the first time a few days ago on Saturday morning. It's only been open for a couple years, if that, and so I don't feel SO sheepish that I hadn't been yet...but I had been dying to go ever since I heard about it.
They not only have it on Saturday mornings from 8 to 12, but have also started having it on Wednesday evenings from 4 to 8. The reason I finally got out there was because my brother is in a new little band with some of his friends and they got a gig to play at the farmers market yesterday. I always love hearing them play (they just do covers of songs now, but they've improved a lot since they started a couple months ago and are really very talented!), and so what better way to spend a beautiful sunny, but brisk winter morning than head out to explore the farmers market accompanied by live music performed by my brother and his amigos! I loved the set-up of the market...my favorite part was the long outdoor porch decked out with strings of little round bulb lights (I know that's a terrible description, but they're not just the little string lights like for Christmas trees, but the kind that you really just see in outdoor settings such as patios or porches if you know what I mean)and long, communal wood tables with modest, small flower arrangements at each one where people were gathered to visit over coffee and newspapers and breakfast--Rosso Trattoria from Trenholm Plaza on Forest Drive, as well as the Pawley's Front Porch food truck were there serving breakfast. I got the feeling that many people at the tables came to the farmers market not so much to shop but simply for the experience of enjoying breakfast and gabbing with friends and other locals. And THAT is what I love about the whole farmers market culture. It not only gives you a chance to buy fresh produce and homemade goods and support the local economy, but it takes you back to that old-fashioned normal of what community used to be...going to the local market and STOPPING (emphasis on that word in the midst of our go go go society) to chat with your neighbors and catch up with friends. Who knows, maybe next it will become normal again for us to venture out of our computer or TV-dominated enclosures, to step outside in the evenings to drop in on our neighbors and "set a spell" with them on their porches, maybe even with rocking chairs or acoustic guitars involved. :)
The live entertainment, with my brother Charles on the drums
Really delicious coffee, and he even had a roaster to roast beans right there!
Pawley's Front Porch food truck
Yummo Indah coffee and lemon currant scone for breakfast
The wares
