Chasing Sage is closing

One of the perks of holding events all over the East Coast is getting to check out different food scenes, and learning more about the people who populate them. But what remains the same regardless of party site is guests always want to know where to eat when they visit Charleston.

My answer is Chasing Sage, the Rutledge Street restaurant that won over fans by applying Northwestern studiousness to Southeastern ingredients, both wild and cultivated. But now I need to find something else to say.

Chasing Sage, which just celebrated its third anniversary of on-site dining, is closing.

“Sometimes choices are forced to be made and unfortunately that is what happened here,” owner Cindy Edward said, citing personal circumstances. “We deeply love our restaurant and all the memories we have had here.”

This is where I ought to admit that my memories of Chasing Sage are unique. As a reporter at The Post and Courier, I started profiling Chasing Sage in October 2020 as part of a project documenting four downtown Charleston restaurants’ different approaches to the pandemic. Chasing Sage, which was supposed to debut in late March 2020, was the lone restaurant to stick to takeout until vaccines were widely available. It opened its dining room for the first time on June 23, 2021.

But leading up to that day, I was in the dining room every Thursday afternoon, checking in with Cindy and her husband, Walter, along with their chef-partner and general manager. We were always masked and seated at social distance, but the room around us changed as the foursome experimented with various takeout schemes, and the detritus of assorted mood-lifting projects started to pile up. When I think back on covid’s trajectory, I think of that room growing darker and sadder.

Until, finally, it wasn’t either of those things. Chasing Sage at its peak was among Charleston’s most vivid restaurants, boosted by the brightness of its produce and exuberance of its employees, who were all-important to the restaurant’s owners.

“All we do is unlock a door in the morning,” Edward said, repeating a line she’s shared with countless loyal customers. “Our staff made the magic happen.”

While the Edwards still haven’t determined a final day of service, it’s certain they’ll be mobbed in coming weeks by diners who picked up on the innate neighborliness of the place, where locals still saw friends among the sea of tourists and canine passers-by found a water bowl by the front door.

About those tourists: I loved bringing out-of-towners to Chasing Sage. Not because, as Edward said, “there wasn’t a day we didn’t enjoy watching eyes getting wide as someone enjoyed an ingredient they previously did not.” But because my companions typically like most ingredients, and because there were dishes at Chasing Sage that deepened their appreciation for fruits, vegetables, and herbs they’d written off as familiar.

Edward didn’t disclose what’s planned for the space, a one-time corner store restored so beautifully that the project was honored with three Carolopolis Awards. But the next tenant is sure to benefit from the legacy of hospitality and excellence that Chasing Sage will leave behind.