In 1909 Charlie Alvanos opened a seafood shop in a narrow downtown Aiken passageway known as The Alley. Alvanos’ descendants moved the business in 1985 and the Alley has since become a social and culinary hot spot. In its current location on a thoroughfare heading out of town, Charlie’s Fish Market remains what it was 116 years ago: a place to buy fresh—never frozen—mullet, bream, catfish, flounder, and whiting.
Charlie’s also is a restaurant—a rudimentary one, for sure. There is no table service. There are no printed menus. Fried fish is the only thing to eat. Unless you plan to have it off a disposable plate at one of six bare tables opposite the open kitchen, your order is enclosed with a few slices of white bread in butcher paper, then wrapped in pages of the local newspaper and presented at the counter. A refrigerator holds bottles of water and cans of soda to which diners help themselves.
