The Pinch Charleston

"4* | 25 rooms | From $479 When the iconic Bob Ellis Shoes shuttered its doors after 66 years at the corner of King and George streets, Randall Cook and David Grasso took note. On multiple visits, the co-founder and CEO of the Philadelphia-based hospitality group Method Co. had fallen in love with the Holy City’s rich history, culinary prowess, and creative industry. So the team purchased five adjoining lots and set about preserving, restoring, and transforming the enclave of buildings into a stylish, warmly contemporary boutique hotel, with active storefronts below and two floors above containing 25 chic rooms, suites, and residences, each with a designer kitchen. The transition has been so smooth, many locals didn’t notice the change until realizing the upper windows were no longer boarded up, then spying the Pinch’s understated marquee. Though the launch has been quiet, buzz has been growing about the hotel’s ground-floor restaurant, The Quinte, a sexy, glowing, darkly paneled oyster bar fronting George Street. Heads will also turn when restaurant Lowland opens in an adjacent historic dwelling, with a tavern, a second-floor dining room with a hand-painted mural and wood-burning fireplace, and a much-anticipated private extended-stay residence on the top floor."