A Tale of Meth-heads & Dogfights:Marina Variety Store Restaurant/Salty Mike's

Lets set the scene, it’s a beautiful sunny fall Sunday in Charleston, fighting the Sunday scarries,  Brian had his Buddy Don visiting from Texas and our friends, Dustin and Britt, asked us to join them at the Marine Variety Restaurant/Salty Mikes. Yes, we have friends and don’t just stare at each other over random bars and table tops.  I’ve passed “Salty Mike’s” a thousand times but never thought to go in because it isn’t walking distance from the rest of downtown and the parking looked like it was going to give me anxiety. I mustered up my courage, made Brian drive and judged his parking.  The place is not exactly “hip”. I’m guessing they haven’t bothered to change the carpet since the late 80s and the style can best be described as an array of framed photos of boats and anchors.

Its overlooking the harbor so what they lack in fancy decorations they make up for in water front views.  We had some mimosas and Bloody Marys at the bar while we waited and  they were great! ( This blog is making me realize I have a mimosa problem). We were seated pretty quickly and our waitress bantered with us which I appreciate.  I really dug into the southern comfort food theme and  got the shrimp and grits with fried green tomatoes.  I was not disappointed. I thought the fried tomatoes were a little heavy but the shrimp and grits were awesome.  Then the morning really took a turn  because guys, there’s a freaking bar below the restaurant!  It has outdoor seating overlooking the bay,  pool tables,  crazy locals and darts. Also this dog ( see pictures below) which later got into a “fight” with another dog resulting in a loud argument between owners, one being a guy on drugs (I’m not guessing here, someone yelled “you’re on drugs” at him and he responded “ yeah I am!” and then ripped his shirt off) and a somehow less likable drunk . No dogs were hurt in the making of this blog post.  Maybe I’ve been living under a rock but I never knew this bar existed, maybe its not popular because of outburst like the one I just described, but we always enjoy the odd daytime bar fight and basically had the whole place to ourselves and really if you’re combining day drinking  water and sun you can’t lose.  We’ll be back as long as they allow it!