Spoletoblog

Marion Square, first Saturday

Spoleto may be the engine that drives the festival season, but Piccolo is its heartbeat. You can feel it at Marion Square, particularly on the first weekend. That's when the moms and dads and kids are out in full force, when there's music and dance and all that energy...

In our family, we've been taking the kids out to Piccolo at Marion Square for years. They complain about the heat, the traffic, the crowds. We buy them drinks. At some point, one of us says "Fine, if all you want to do is complain, you just sit there and we'll go enjoy this without you." And then they say "Oh, we're just kidding."

So what's a "mojito?"

Spoletoblog party insider Mindy Spar wrote about a drink called a "mojito" in her dispatch from the Gibbes Caliente Courtyard Fiesta. We didn't know what it was, so we looked it up. And apparently it's something like a Cuban mint julep. With rum.

Anyway, here's the recipe we found at Webtender.com:

Ingredients:

• 2-3 oz Light rum
• Juice of 1 Lime (1 oz)
• 2 tsp Sugar
• 2-4 Mint sprigs
• Soda water

Mixing instructions:

Lightly muddle the mint and sugar with a splash of soda water in a mixing glass until the sugar dissolve and you smell the mint. Squeeze the lime into the glass, add rum and shake with ice. Strain over cracked ice in a highball glass. Top with soda water, garnish with mint sprig and serve.

But if you're a "visual learner" like the rest of us, you'll appreciate this animated guide to making a mojito, brought to you by a rum company with a thing for bats.

In case you're "From Off" and you're not quite sure why this is a big deal, here's a quick lesson in Lowcountry culture: In the North, people ask, "What do you do?" In the South, people ask "Who are your parents?" And in Charleston, people ask "What will you have to drink?"

Tasty Delights

Oh, it's going to be so hard to watch those carbs and fat grams the next couple of weeks. Thank goodness the Grace Episcopal Church Tea Room opens after the Spoleto Opening Weekend Gala or we may have had to hide our sins with a bodyshaper.
The Tea Room is opening May 30 and runs until June 10. Homemade food, prepared and served by church members will be on offer Monday through Saturday 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m.
For 14 years, The Grace Church Tearoom has been feeding hungry Festival-goers yummy local goodies such as ham biscuits, shrimp remoulade, crab soup and Huguenot torte just to name a few. The menu changes everyday depending on who is in the kitchen. Seriously, it's like Charleston Receipts come to life or like going to eat supper (that's what the midday meal is called in some circles) at a local Charlestonian's house.
The money raised goes to charity so you can feel good while you pig out on all that tasty, yet caloric, fare. They also do take out. MMMM. MMMM. Good.

Preview does parties

Our buddy Bryce Donovan (left, with lady-slaying 'stache) weighed in on Spoleto this morning with a Preview cover story about festival parties.

Bryce's coverage gets to the bottom line: Who is going to be there, and how much is it going to cost?

Not that the publicly announced festival parties are always the biggest, best or coolest, but, on the other hand, they're the ones we know about. A review of private parties ... ah, now there's some unplowed ground. But I digress...

 

Have tickets, will party

Christine Randall spent years running the newspaper's festival coverage, and last month she assigned this package: Ask three local arts insiders to imagine their perfect Spoleto weekend.

The 17-day Spoleto/Piccolo Spoleto festival season provides Charlestonians so many options that festival veterans say there's an art to making the most of it. We asked three arts insiders to study their festival calendars and imagine their perfect Spoleto weekends, defining that idea however they wished. How will the members of our eclectic trio maximize their 2005 festival experience? Read on, and gather ye insights as ye may ...

The May 8 package collected the thoughts of Mona Kalinsky (first weekend), Gibbes executive director Betsy Fleming (second weekend) and arts provacateur Kevin Harrison (third weekend).