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The Surprising Charleston Origins of the “Garden & Gun” Name

Posted on Jan 23, 2012 1:22 pm

From the headnote to our “Garden and Gun Cocktail” (bourbon-based, with lemon-inflected watermelon rind preserves) in The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook (WW Norton, 2006), page 52:

“Charleston once had its own version of Studio 54, called the King Street Garden and Gun Club, founded by Richard Robison. A producer at the Spoleto Festival USA, the performing arts festival that takes over the town each year in late May and early June, Robison opened the Garden and Gun (which was all anyone ever called it) primarily as a place for the baritones and ballerinas from out of town to unwind after their shows, but the nightspot attracted a large local following, too. Although the Garden and Gun lasted only from 1976 (the founding of the Spoleto Festival) until 1981, the bar was deeply influential, and even today many Charlestonians claim it was the first bar in the city where people of all races and sexual orientations felt comfortable dancing together. We still hear people of a certain age waxing nostalgic about the dance scene at the Garden and Gun. There was never anything like it before, they tell us, and there hasn’t been anything quite like it since.
We were far from drinking age during the Garden and Gun’s heyday, but the phrase always captivated us for the way it effortlessly welds together two concepts that seem so at odds, the twee domesticity of “garden” and the frightening brawn of “gun.” It was only as we grew older that we realized it captures one aspect of Charleston’s soul: a little bit courtly and a little bit country. It’s a quality perhaps best articulated by one of Ted’s contemporaries at a debutante party. “Don’t you just love deb season?” said the young rake, taking a long slug of a gin and tonic. “Just change out of your camo [camouflage], and into your tuxedo.”

In this cocktail, the bourbon is the gun; the watermelon rind preserves, which is basically a simple syrup infused with lemon, ginger, and the cucumber-y freshness of watermelon rind, is the garden.

A vintage G&G Club matchbook:
Garden and Gun Club matchbook

Get it while you can! Jack Rudy tonic syrup at OpenSky

Posted on Jan 18, 2012 1:59 pm

We’re drinking gin & tonics year round since we discovered Jack Rudy tonic syrup, made in Charleston, which takes our G&Ts to another level in terms of flavor, nuance and quality: this is old-school tonic like it was made in the prohibition era, from bitter/sweet ingredients like quinine and cane sugar, aromatic/tart ones like lemongrass and citrus. This OpenSky offering begins today at the link below; the last time around Jack Rudy tonic sold out in just a couple hours (it’s pretty rare, even here in Charleston). Cheers, and we hope y’all enjoy! Click here to be taken to our OpenSky page

She won an autographed Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook apron!

Posted on Jan 18, 2012 11:57 am

Congratulations to Pamela Lusby Bailey, randomly chosen to be the winner of our apron giveaway this week!! Pamela, please call the boiledpeanuts.com headquarters at 843 720 8890 so we can arrange to get your autographed apron to you.

Everyone stay tuned for future Tee-Shirt (and apron!) Tuesdays, and thanks for playing! (And in the meantime, if you absolutely NEED a Lee Bros. autographed apron, we can find them hidden away on the “kitchen essentials” page at boiledpeanuts.com!)

Five fantastic dishes, with SC ingredients!

Posted on Jan 14, 2012 2:24 pm

The proof was in the cooking—we spent the day yesterday in the SC State Farmer’s Market exhibition kitchen in Columbia, preparing the five winning recipes from the Lee Brother Your Holiday recipe contest, where each recipe had to include at least one SC-grown ingredient (in fact, most recipes we celebrated yesterday could have been composed almost entirely from SC ingredients if we could evaporate some SC seawater to make our salt!) We were blown away by the delicious and nuanced flavors our winners conjured up. They are:
Appetizer: Dawn Dausman’s Rosebank Farms Heirloom Pumpkin Bisque
Veg: Elizabeth Benfield’s Vegetarian Collard Greens
Entree: Beaumont Riley’s Apple and Prune Roasted Pork
Baked Goods: Rose Stancil’s Sweet Potato Pound Cake
Dessert: Ines Gillier’s Pecan Honey Tart

find all the recipes on the Certified SC site: https://www.certifiedscgrown.com/

Congratulations and thanks to all the winners, it was a privilege to meet you and to cook for you all!
Our deep gratitude as well to the sponsors: Piggly Wiggly, US Foods and Judy’s Restaurant at the SC Farmer’s Market.
Also essential to the success of the day were Chef Shaun and Chef Franklin of the exhibition kitchen, and our assistant for the day, Charles Dickson.

Great eats and good times in Columbia, SC!!

BOILED PEANUTS EXPRESS!

Posted on Dec 19, 2011 7:35 pm

Boiled peanuts are flying out this week to 34 states, from Washington to Louisiana to Massachusetts! (California was the boiled-peanut-hungriest state this year.) Today, Wednesday, is the last shipping day for delivery by Dec 25th (actually, we’ll ship Thursday if you’re willing to pay for overnight shipping…)
For the procrastinators, there’s still a day available, log your order at boiledpeanuts.com or by phoning us at 843 720 8890. If you get the voicemail, leave a message and we WILL get back to you very shortly. Thanks for your patience during this busy time!
Happy New Year!