Though we're not usually allowed to express them, no one harbors an unsolicited opinion like a journalist. This year, Free Times and Post and Courier journalists, and a few of our freelancers, took the time to pick their own Best of Columbia 2024 winners. And, because we can't just follow a simple rule, we made up a lot of our own categories, too.
Keep reading for our picks, and feel free to lambast us in the Facebook comments. We're plenty used to it. Zoe Nicholson, Free Times editor The oxtail pelau from Trini Lime Caribbean Cafe.
The category is open-ended, but if I had to choose between any of Columbia's mouth-watering, rice-based entrées or desserts, it would have to go to the one that nearly brought me to tears at Trini Lime Caribbean Cafe. Their Oxtail pelau, available on most of Trini Lime's Thursday lunch special menus, is a one-pot dish featuring tender, slow-simmered meat and rice. The dish tastes cohesive, but each ingredient holds its own — including the rice, itself, which is miraculously firm and not overcooked.
Its addictive, savory flavor pairs naturally with included sides of side of sweet, creamy coleslaw and a side salad bathed in a green garlic dressing that packs a surprisingly spicy and acidic punch. If you're not getting it with a side of their homemade coconut milk fudge with almond extract, you're doing it wrong. Jane Godiner, Free Times food reporter A chili dog with all the fixings, purchased for $4.
50 at B&S One Stop LLC at 1823 Superior Street in Columbia. For centuries, philosophers have pursued the idea of a universal language — a language spoken or unspoken that every human being on earth can understand. In my travels, I've uncovered two such languages: love, and hot dogs.
The hot dog is an unpretentious thing, a blank canvas that, region by region, bares the soul of a place, communicates its values: The Chicago. The Fenway. The Cachorro Quente in Brazil.
The Carolina. The Swedish Tunnbrödsrulle. Columbia has plenty of places to enjoy one.
But B&S One Stop — an unpretentious little dive deep in the heart of Rosewood — is the best. Make sure to grab a Moon Pie for dessert. Nick Reynolds, Post and Courier statehouse reporter We all exist at the intersection of all that exists around and within us, in the metaphorical sense.
If you live in Columbia, you probably spend a good bit of time at literal intersections, too. My favorite to get stuck at is Main and Gervais streets – a great view of the State House and 1200 Main Street (and only three sides of the intersection to worry about when crossing). Caleb Bozard, Post and Courier Columbia growth & development reporter The view of the S.
C. Statehouse from Gervais Street in Columbia, South Carolina. I love a good dive bar.
As a cub reporter in Ithaca, New York, it was Pete's Cayuga Bar: a place with no hot food (except a can of soup that would possibly be thrown at you if you tried to order it), $5 Early Times and Pabst specials and wood paneling on the walls. My brief time in New York City was filled with trips to Rudy's and the Bleecker Street Bar in NoHo. When I travelled to New Orleans for the first time, I made a pilgrimage not to legendary watering holes like the Sazerac Bar or the Carousel, but Snake and Jake's, a ramshackle little hut heated by cigarette smoke and lit by Christmas lights.
In Wyoming, I'd gravitate to the closest smoke-filled room where bikers and roughnecks co-existed in harmony. Here in Columbia, my lazy days are spent in Foxfield Bar and Grille, a no-frills spot right off Rosewood Boulevard. The drinks are inexpensive, the crowd is familiar, the room is intimate (maybe 30 people fit in there at a time) and their very nice backyard patio has live music every weekend.
It's like drinking at a friend's house. Nick Reynolds, Post and Courier statehouse reporter Scott Burgess in Bierkeller. John A.
Carlos II / Special to The Post and Courier If you've followed Bierkeller's growth in the last decade from a quirky pop-up where you bring your own stein and pay with wooden tokens, to its current status as crown jewel of riverfront development, you know that it stems from the vision of one man. Here's the cool thing: when the young Scott Burgess was studying in Bamberg, Germany, he didn't daydream of corporate success in the food and beverage industry, nor of fame as an early adopter and innovator in the micro/nano-brewing community. Instead, his dream was simply to bring the congenial, outdoor community biergarten concept back home for people in America to enjoy.
The result is an idyllic town square environment where families mit kinder, dogs, college kids, soccer and rugby game-watchers, tatted and pierced millennial hipsters, and senior citizens still out for liter or two of cold, Franconian-style lagerbier can all come together in fellowship. That's the kind of food and festival environment that city leaders have been trying to bring to the riverfront since the last century, a perfect complement to the existing CanalSide condo community and the scenic Riverfront Park walking trail. Think about it: his business dream was to create an environment where *other* people can relax and have fun.
Meanwhile he's busting his Hinterteil, hands-on in every aspect of the business. That's the kind of owner we need more of! August Krickel, Free Times freelancer I'm an urbanism dweeb. I love planning commission hearings.
I love design review boards. I like thinking of ways to make cities more livable. And while Columbia is notoriously car-centric and hostile to pedestrians, I've found a couple really pleasant pockets on my jogs around town.
While Shandon is probably the most runnable neighborhood I've encountered, the trails around Owens Field and the wide bike lanes on Airport Boulevard are some of my favorite features to work into runs. But there are some really smart examples of walkable urbanism on the USC campus as well: the tree-lined pedestrian islands on Blossom Street, the curvature of the Devine Street and Sumter Street intersection on USC's campus, the pedestrian bridges leading to the Strom Thurmond Fitness Center ..
. just little things that make it simpler and safer to get around on foot. Nick Reynolds, Post and Courier statehouse reporter I'm not going to give away my real favorite quiet place (well, maybe, if you ask me nicely) but nothing beats a jog down the Three Rivers Greenway and sitting by the dam.
Next to Congaree National Park, this is probably the best place in the area for birdwatching. If you get there early morning or mid-afternoon, you can watch the birds feed as water rushes around you. It's a real zen place.
Nick Reynolds, Post and Courier statehouse reporter A diversion dam cuts across the Broad River at the top of the Columbia Canal. File/Daniel Hare Before I moved to Columbia three months ago, I had my fair share of Thai tea-tinis, each with their own ratios of vodka to Thai iced tea, which is characterized by its earthiness and sometimes sweetened with condensed milk. I can confidently say that nobody nails it like Kao.
While the astringent vodka and creamy tea can sometimes feel like they're working against each other, the Thai tea martini at Kao Thai strikes a harmonious balance of flavors. Their secret? Vanilla vodka and the addition of sweet cream. Jane Godiner, Free Times food reporter We gripe about proliferation of fast-food chains cluttering the old state highways leading out of Columbia, and to be honest, just about any city in America.
Highway 378 is no different; you can go as far as Conway to the east, and Athens, GA to the west, and almost never be out of sight of a McBurger or Insta-Lube. Yet pockets of small town authenticity remain. In the Sunset Boulevard section of 378 in West Columbia, in an unassuming strip mall halfway between the river and the hospital, lies Nick's House of Pizza.
Do not confuse this with similarly named, free-standing places that prominently feature seafood. Founded in 1978 by an actual Greek transplant from Piraeus, this neighborhood gem overflows with authenticity. Sure, there are wings, burgers and steaks (with the option to give them a Greek flair with addition of feta and tomato) as well as delicious takes on Mediterranean standards (pizza, strombolis, subs, gyros).
Pasta dishes are standouts, including a chicken parm with the chicken cut up, smothering pasta in a rich and slightly spicy red sauce, and Grecian pasta with chicken, luxuriating in feta, oil and Greek spices. In this age of tech overload, your check is still handwritten. An adorable and efficient server once commented that the staff were anticipating “Mr.
Nick's” return from vacation, indicating to me not fear for some nitpicking inspection, but rather pride in their ability to deliver the same high quality in the owner's absence. Every dish here seems filled with love. August Krickel, Free Times freelancer Call me Carrie Bradshaw because I.
love. Cosmos. The orange and cranberry martini is tart and bright, and it looks so chic in-hand.
Goat’s in Five Points is always going to slay a martini menu, but their cosmos are something I go back to again and again. Order with their Hot Tots — creamy, cheesy tater tots piled high with bacon — for a savory counterpoint to the cocktail’s tangy sweetness. Zoe Nicholson, Free Times editor Last month, I closed on my first-ever house, a charming ranch-style in West Columbia.
Tiffany Givens, United Real Estate Columbia, was there with me every step of the way. She kept me sane and reminded me not to get blinded by pretty fixtures and good lighting, instead keeping me focused on the parts of a home that appreciate in value — or could cost an arm and a leg in repairs. The three months of searching, and the rapid 30 days of closing, were made easier by Tiffany’s frequent communication and helpful attitude.
And, she set me up with a lender who was able to find a down payment assistance loan program for which I qualified. Thank you, Tiffany! Zoe Nicholson, Free Times editor.
