SALTUS HOSTS BIFF BENEFIT

This is shaping up to be a fun event complete with a BIFF signature cocktail (more on that later). Meanwhile here's the official word:

Saltus River Grill, located at 802 Bay St. in Beaufort, will host a wine dinner to benefit the Beaufort International Film Festival on Thursday, February 3 at 7 p.m. Complete with wine pairings presented by Celia Strong and a four-course meal by Saltus Chef Brian Waters, the dinner will be available for $50 per person, with $10 per paid customer to benefit the Film Festival. Reservations may be made through February 1 by calling (843) 379-3474. The menu is available at www.saltusrivergrill.com.

 

Beaufort Film Festival Chair Ron Tucker will be present to give highlights of the 2011 festival, to be held February 16-20, as well as information about membership in the Beaufort Film Festival. Favorite shorts from the 2010 festival will also be shown.

 

“This is a way for us to help drum up support for an incredible organization,” said Saltus Owner Lantz Price. “This festival is part of the artistic culture of Beaufort and we want to do our part to help sustain it.”

 

The Beaufort Film Society and the International Film Festival showcase the beautiful film-friendly region of Beaufort and the Carolina Sea Islands. For the past quarter of a century Beaufort has served as the backdrop for more than 20 major motion pictures, to include “Forrest Gump”, “The Big Chill,” “The Prince of Tides”, and many more.  The festival reintroduces Beaufort’s sweeping marsh vistas, antebellum homes, and quiet charm of the old south to a new generation of filmmakers.

 

For more information visit www.beaufortfilmfestival.com

 

And head on over to the Lowcountry Weekly's FILM FIX for exclusive BIFF previews and behind the scenes coverage of the festival. 

Why Walterboro Rocks, Part II

Written by Mark Shaffer

Wednesday, 15 September 2010 11:05

Casual observations from Main Street USA “I’ve been on this street 58 years,” says Cindy Corley. She’s helping to mind her mom’s store while her mother (Helen) runs an errand. Infinger’s Jewelry is one of the few businesses relatively unchanged this last half century in downtown Walterboro. A few blocks away on Washington Street you can still sip a Coke float at the soda fountain in Hiott’s Pharmacy while your prescription is filled. Otherwise much is different. “My mom actually moved into this store when I was two weeks old. I grew up on this street,” says Corley. As a girl she remembers emptying ashtrays (“yes, you could smoke in stores back then”) and cleaning up around the store for the dollar price of a Saturday matinee at the local movie house around the corner. The theater’s long gone. So is the dime store. “Things have changed,” she says a bit wistfully. “When somebody leaves you think, what a loss. But then you meet a new person and they become a new neighbor and a new friend and things continue on, as they should. It’s not always bad, just different.” Fifty-eight years has seen huge changes on the Washington Streets of America. Somewhere along the line, Main Street USA became a Disney attraction. Shopping malls, big box stores, fast food franchises and the great American car culture slowly began to choke the life out of Downtown USA. The real thing became harder and harder to find outside of a theme park, and with each passing year became more and more diminished. But where some see vacant storefronts others see opportunity. Cindy Corley and her husband John saw that opportunity right across the street from her mother’s shop under the big clock of the old Farmers & Merchants Bank. Six years later, the Corleys and Old Bank Christmas & Gifts are preparing for the annual open house extravaganza to mark their official start of the holiday shopping season. “Starting the first Sunday in October we’re open seven days a week right up to Christmas,” says John. The shop is packed with every sort of ornament and decoration imaginable. Many are collector’s items. “The thing about Walterboro is that it’s still a hometown,” says Cindy. “We give you that down home feeling. That’s what I want you to feel like when you’re in my shop: you’re relaxed, you’re shopping, you’re having a good time, there’s no pressure. And Walterboro’s like that. The whole town is kind of relaxed.” Megadeth meets Main Street I’m sitting in Downtown Books & Espresso, just across from Infinger’s, sipping a cup of damn good Joe wondering how often Dave Mustaine’s name has been uttered within the city limits of Walterboro. For all you non-metal heads, Mustaine is the lead guitarist and founder of the semi-legendary heavy metal band Megadeth. A well-dressed, conservative looking guy about my age is ordering a copy of the musician’s autobiography, Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir. For some reason I find this odd and interesting. I’m doing what I normally do in a place like this – gathering my thoughts and committing pen to paper.  In fact, this combo coffee house and bookstore has a vibe not unlike a few I used to frequent in my old Seattle neighborhood: laid back, relaxed, contemplative. The rows of bookshelves mingle with tables, chairs and sofas. A guitar leans against the old brick wall next to a table with a chess set ready for a match. The mother and daughter team of Catherine Freeman and Michelle Morris opened the doors nine years ago and have watched the changes up and down (appropriately enough) Washington Street. “I guess the main thing is that we have a lot more antique shops filling up the empty storefronts,” says Catherine. I ask if she has the feeling that things are really beginning to happen again downtown. “Yeah, I think so,” she says. Catherine tells me they’ve recently been featured in USA Today as one of the top three independent coffee houses along the entire length of I-95. The recommendation comes by way of the authors of the guidebook Drive I-95, which details an exit-by-exit breakdown of food, lodging, attractions, shopping and speed traps. As I mentioned, the DB&E serves up a damn fine cup of java. “We only use Island Coffee,” she says.  I’m familiar with them and a big fan of their beans since relocating from a place where coffee’s considered art – and in some cases, religion. “They’re in Ravenel [SC], and only import coffee from small fair trade farms all over the world, says Catherine. “They really know what they’re doing. They know their coffee.” I will vouch for that. But coffee, tea, espresso and all the other goodies still play second fiddle to the written word. “The main thing is the book store,” she says. “We feature a lot of local history, books about the Lowcountry, and we have a great used book room (also mentioned in USA Today).  And how about the Mustaine book, is that an odd request? “No, not really,” she says. “I’ll probably get a couple more.” Dave, if you’re out there, next time the band’s on the road, please – please – wheel the tour bus in for a round of espressos and drop off a few signed copies of the book, dude. The diversification equation I step back out into the thick September air, suddenly aware of all of the red rocking chairs set out in front of the shops and restaurants lining both sides of Washington Street. The town symbol is everywhere, inviting visitors to kick back, take a break and slow down, Lowcountry style. There is also a sense of community and diversity here. The South Carolina Artisans Center is barely two blocks away, offering the single largest collection of juried South Carolina art in the state (see the sidebar). I’m a short walk away from two historic districts, an excellent museum, the Robert Mills designed courthouse and access to the Great Swamp Sanctuary – the largest preserve of its kind on the East Coast. There are day spas, boutiques, clothing stores, shops and galleries. The soda fountain at Hiott’s Pharmacy is a working time capsule. You almost expect to catch James Dean loitering over a malted at the counter. The primary restaurants are Irish and Italian: Gary Davis’ Blarney Stone and Carmine’s Trattoria. Carmine is actually from Italy. Both come highly recommended. And of course there are antiques. “I’ve been in the Antique business for 32 years,” says David Kinard of Lowcountry Antiques. He spent most of that time at a high end Charleston importer before going out on his own just as the economy decided to head south, so to speak. He heard about Walterboro’s growing antiques market from David Evans at Bachelor Hill Antiques, checked things out and moved in next door. Like most of his colleagues on the street, he’s carved out a particular niche. “I sell mostly 18th and 19th century decorative furniture and art,” he says and that means a lot of time on the road going from auction to auction. Sometimes that means closing the shop for the day. “You’ve got to get out there and buy the quality items. The buying is where you make the money,” he points out. From the Green lady to the Great Swamp The Green Lady Gallery’s namesake portrait hangs at the rear of the shop. The mystery woman in the sleeveless green dress lounges in a curiously disaffected pose, eyes cast down, her bare feet dangling. Owners Martha McKevlin and husband Eddie Dominguez blew the Charleston scene a decade ago and eventually opened this gallery in 2008. “We like to say that we have a little bit of everything and not a lot of anything,” says Martha. Both are actively involved in various downtown development initiatives, including a plan to expand downtown beautification efforts with landscaping and a more pedestrian-friendly parking pattern (still free). McKevlin also holds a PhD and teaches biology and environmental science at the University of South Carolina at Salkehatchie, where she preaches the religion of recycling to her students. “One of the things I always try and tie in with my environmental science class is the idea of re-using and recycling. Buying antiques can fall into that category if you avoid the ultra high end museum pieces.” Dr. McKevlin says that kind of approach to the antique business should translate to a younger clientele looking for a higher quality of furniture than one might find at a trendy urban chain store. “We’re getting a lot more young people coming into the shop looking at things because they’re made of real wood – not particle board, veneer and formaldehyde.” They’re also excited about a new energy that seems to be crackling downtown in spite of current economic woes. “We also keep inviting more businesses to come to Walterboro,” says Dominguez. He points out that his neighbor across the street has recently relocated from Summerville. “We don’t try to compete. There is no sense of competition because everyone has a niche. We all try to be different so that the people who come to see us find something unique in every shop.” “We all try and promote each other,” echoes McKevlin, “because if everyone does well and people have a good experience in Walterboro, then they’ll come back.” Part of that good experience goes beyond making a sale and just boils down to good old-fashioned Southern hospitality, says McKevlin. “I always tell people – particularly those traveling on the interstate – ‘thank you for stopping in Walterboro.’ What remains unsaid is that there are so many places they could have stopped.” My final stop is The Great Swamp Sanctuary at a trailhead right off of Washington, a literal stone’s throw from the Antique District. This is the largest preserve of its kind on the East Coast, more than 800 acres of black water bottomland with braided streams of hardwood flats. Cypress-stained streams and creeks wind alongside a network of paved trails, boardwalks and bridges. Visitors can walk a stretch of the old Savannah Road, a colonial era stagecoach route where it’s not uncommon to catch sight of deer, fox, wild turkey or any number of reptilian critters. It’s a little hot for a long walk and the national bird of the Lowcountry, the giant horned mosquito, is out and in vicious abundance. A rumble of thunder decides my course. I will be back when it is cooler and there is more time to sit on a bench and simply be. If you’re going: From Hilton Head/Bluffton take I-95N to exit 53 and stop in at the Welcome Center. The city’s excellent “Front Porch of the Lowcountry” brochure is packed with information and features a detailed, color-coded map to get you where you want to go. From Beaufort, avoid the interstate and take 21N to 17N, then left on 303 (Green Pond Highway) continuing until it ends at Jefferies Boulevard. Bear right and then right again just past the courthouse on Washington St. into the heart of the Antique District. Brochures are available in many of the shops. The Backyard Tourist recommends: The South Carolina Artisans Center (www.scartisanscenter.com) The Great Swamp (www.thegreatswamp.org) The City of Walterboro (www.walterborosc.org) The Colleton Museum (www.colletoncounty.org) Email Mark Shaffer at backyardtourist@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Read Part One of "Why Walterboro Rocks" Read more Backyard Tourist

Why Walterboro Rocks, Part I

Written by Mark Shaffer

Wednesday, 01 September 2010 12:41

“You can tell it’s a friendly town because they’ve got all these rocking chairs out on the street and nobody’s stolen them.” - Unidentified woman commenting on the abundance of bright red rocking chairs (the town symbol) lining the downtown shops It’s after five o’clock on a weekday afternoon and The Blarney Stone in downtown Walterboro is beginning to fill up with hot, thirsty people in search of cool respite from the hammer stroke of another blistering August day. Gary Davis takes time out from our conversation to greet his regulars and welcome the newcomers, mostly day-tripping antique hunters and “halfbacks” taking a break from interstate traffic. “We’re halfway between Miami and New York on I-95,” says Davis, “so we get a lot of people coming through who are halfway back to one place or the other – halfbacks, I call them.” According to Davis a lot of the halfbacks tend to stop on both ends of their journey, drawn to the town’s increasingly famous Antique District and the South Carolina Artisans Center. Halfbacks, day-trippers, “antiquers,” locals and backyard tourists – whatever your designation, inclination or destination – this unlikely Irish pub in the heart of this Lowcountry town, serves as a perfect metaphor for the cultural alchemy at work in this place. In other words, something unusual is happening here – something unexpected and rare. “There is a sense of community – community and cooperation that sets us apart,” says David Smalls, President of the Walterboro-Colleton Chamber of Commerce. “We’re all in this together, everyone’s aware of this and I think that’s evident.” Art, History, Nature Part of the beauty of this job is the act of discovery. In fact, that’s pretty much the whole point of The Backyard Tourist – to discover or rediscover the people, places and things that make the Lowcountry and its immediate surroundings unique. When I mentioned to my friend Bonnie that I’d never actually visited Walterboro she was insistent that it was high time I did. “You’ll fall in love,” she said. “I’ll make some calls.” Walterboro is a crossroads town sitting at the center of a network of state roads and highways with two access points from nearby I-95. The area was settled by rice planters who built summer homes as a retreat from the heat and humidity of their coastal plantations. The Walter brothers were the first to stake claims in the wake of the American Revolution.  Others soon followed and by 1822 the community boasted a magnificent Robert Mills-designed courthouse and one of the first libraries in the region – both are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In the decades between the war for independence and the bloody conflict of secession, Walterboro emerged and flourished on the fortunes of wealthy planters. Many of the old plantations still exist, purchased as private estates and exclusive hunt clubs by northern billionaires and private corporations, off limits to the less privileged. The rest of us can still pierce the veil of history elsewhere and the Colleton Museum in the old 1855 jail is a good place to start. It’s also hard to miss, looking a bit medieval with its triple parapets and faux ramparts facing Jefferies Boulevard. “We are the historical, natural and cultural heritage museum of Colleton County,” explains museum Director Gary Brightwell.  She’s good enough to give me a personal tour and explain a bit about the town’s unique environment in the heart of the ACE Basin – 350,000 acres of diverse habitats bounded by the Ashepoo, Combahee and Edisto rivers. Walterboro also claims the East Coast’s largest estuarine preserve. The 842-acre Great Swamp Sanctuary has been conserved from the town’s inception and features a Colonial-era bridge along an old stagecoach path, hiking trails and an abundance of wildlife – including bald eagles and alligators – all within walking distance of shops and restaurants (more on the Great Swamp in Part Two). The museum’s educational outreach programs stress environmental preservation. “We work very closely with the Historical Society in the preservation of buildings and landmarks,” says Brightwell. The Pickens native has seen a lot of change since settling in Walterboro in 1976, including the revitalization of the old downtown. But everything comes at a price. “I think people are more cognizant following the loss of the Nullification House which was a real important historic property,” she says.  The Nullification Crisis erupted after federal tariffs passed in 1828 and1832 sparked outrage among wealthy South Carolina planters. The legislature voted to “nullify” the taxes within the state’s borders and withdraw from the union if any attempt was made to collect them. At the height of the crisis, the secessionist movement gained serious momentum and President Andrew Jackson dispatched warships to Charleston before cooler heads cooked up a compromise. “Robert Barnwell Rhett gave a famous secession speech on the steps of that house,” says Brightwell. “But it was falling down, something had to be done and nobody stepped up to the plate.” The home was razed and an irreplaceable piece of our national history simply vanished, a hard but perhaps necessary lesson in historic preservation – one not soon forgotten. A Magic Combination Hank Amundson is a small town convert. In fact, he’s practically evangelical about it. “Everywhere I’ve ever lived you have to go out and seek groups and clubs. People here will invite you to do things,” he says. “There’s a personal touch to everything.” Walterboro’s dynamic young Economic Development Director was a big city boy until he married a Walterboro girl (they met working summers at Disney World) and found that small town life suited him like sweet tea on a porch swing. “Disney spends a billion dollars a year trying to recreate Main Street USA – the same street we have right here,” he notes. “My job now is to help people realize the value in that and get them involved, whether it’s a group organizing a festival or someone starting a business.” I’ve been invited to lunch at Gary Davis’ Blarney Stone for a casual discussion on all things Walterboro. Our table near the window in the main dining room is framed against Amundson’s pastoral slice of Americana – the one Disney can’t seem to buy at any price. Even at high noon on a brutally hot day, Washington Street – the heart of downtown Walterboro – is busy with people ducking in and out of the air-conditioned shops in search of unknown treasure. This is also the heart of the Antique District, with more than a dozen shops spread over a couple of blocks, lined with plenty of free parking. Unlike in downtown Beaufort, where parking enforcement’s recently become the growth industry, thanks to city outsourcing, and a bitter division among business owners, you’ll never pay a dime to park in Walterboro. Beaufort, on the other hand, will cost you a buck an hour – if you can find and figure out the “state of the art” kiosks. The only sight more common than horse-drawn carriages in downtown Beaufort these days are what I like to call Parking Pods: groups of confused and disgruntled visitors huddled around something that looks like Darth Vader’s personal droid, scratching their heads and muttering obscenities. But I digress. There is no such silliness in Walterboro – and for good reason, according to Amundson, Smalls and others: it’s just bad for business and it pisses people off. Small towns dependent upon the business of strangers ultimately can’t afford to be rude to their guests. That’s particularly true in the current economy. “How we’ve grown is just astounding,” observes David Evans of Bachelor Hill Antiques. Evans and partner Jorge Ruiz, have been instrumental in this growth, actively recruiting other dealers and businesses since becoming disillusioned with Charleston some years back. “We’ve gone from three to fourteen stores with another getting ready to open up. And in a down economy when shops are closing all over the place, shops are opening here in Walterboro.” So, begs the question, why now and why Walterboro? “We have that magic combination of a really good marketing plan and a really good support network of shop owners who don’t look at new shops as competition,” he says. “They look at new shops as being an added attraction. When you’re trying to attract somebody’s attention to make a day trip or get off the interstate, if they know they’ll be able to stop and visit a dozen shops you’ll be able to get them.” But it doesn’t stop there, according to Evans. “From this the ancillary business prospers. The restaurants do well because people stop and have lunch and people wander into the dress shop, and the Christmas shop makes money. It’s all about keeping the momentum going.” There’s no doubt that a good chunk of Walterboro’s business comes right off of I-95; a lot of the momentum Evans and his colleagues need to grow, let alone survive, seems to be coming from within the region. “We see more and more people from around the Lowcountry,” says Vicki Smith of Gallery 225. “We get a ton from Beaufort, Bluffton and Hilton Head – the day-trippers, we call them.” Smith is among Evans’ recruits and another refugee from the Holy City. Having spent the better part of two decades abroad, she specializes in fine European linens, crystal, art and jewelry. “All at a discount and all very affordable,” she insists. And like every shop I’ve visited, completely apart from the rest. “Everybody’s got their own unique take and their own unique flavor,” says Smith. “This is mine. When you step in here, you step back in time.” In essence that’s what downtown Walterboro’s all about – a return to a simpler, less complicated era. “It’s a nice town with nice people,” says Evans “It’s clean, it’s safe, it’s pretty. It’s a feel-good story.” To be continued…