The upper peninsula above Line Street: warehouses, rail spurs, auto shops and small wooden houses, with some of the best cooking in South Carolina scattered through it. This is where Charleston stopped being decorative. Nothing up here is pretty and almost everything up here is good — a barbecue pit with custom smokers, a fourteen-seat omakase counter, a West African dining room, a soul food kitchen that has been feeding the East Side since 1985.
Who it's for: Second-time visitors, anyone who has done the historic district and wants the city locals actually use, and anyone whose priority is eating. Also the right area for beer — the breweries are up here.