Upper King

Spanning northward from Calhoun Street on Charleston's main peninsula, Upper King and the surrounding areas are home to the city's newest and hippest restaurants and bars (and its highest-end hotels). On weekends, college students and young professionals line up outside the thumping clubs and tony cocktail bars.

Formerly the heart of the city's Black business district, the area between the Lower Peninsula and The Neck was dramatically changed by the opening of the Crosstown Expressway in 1968. Then in the 1990s, white restaurateurs started looking northward to open dining rooms in the vicinity of Upper King Street, due to its cheaper rents. This raised prices in the area and forced former residents to move farther afield in the city, and as is often the case with gentrification, it then paved the way for a tourism boom with food and drink at its center. While the neighborhood is still residential in spots, it's now dominated by short-term rentals, high-end restaurants, bars, coffee shops, breweries, and boutiques.