This past weekend, I took the long way around to a slice of Camille Cogswell’s strawberry-and-ginger icebox cake, one of the finest things I’ve eaten this year.
Cogswell’s pastry shop, Walnut Family Bakery, is located in Marshall, North Carolina, a mountain town roughly 300 miles from my front door. But I had a freelance assignment in Charlotte, followed by the chance to tour cider pioneer Diane Flynt’s apple orchard in southwest Virginia and a week’s worth of reporting to complete in North Carolina before I could cross paths with Cogswell on Saturday at the Florence Wine & Food Festival in South Carolina.
Florence Wine & Food is the only food festival I attend. Organized by Matt and Ted Lee, the annual event is distinguished by exceptional cooking and an almost-total lack of cross-programming, so participants aren’t felled by FOMO. The here-and-now mindset extends to conversation: You never get the sense at Florence Wine & Food that your chitchat partner is scanning the room for someone more interesting or important.
That same friendliness prevails behind the scenes. Cogswell baked for The Last Bite Bash at the Pee Dee State Farmers Market because it was headlined by her old pal Elliott Moss, a former Asheville chef who’s now pitmaster at Elliott’s BBQ Lounge in Florence, his hometown.
And boy, did she bake. Cogswell’s outstanding springtime cake was built on a base of ginger cornmeal shortbread, layered with strawberry mousse, capped with strawberries fermented in the umeboshi method, and garnished with pickled magnolia blossoms. Even better for eaters like me, who prefer their sweets with savory notes and levitating pop, the dessert incorporated vinegar and Blenheim Ginger Ale too.
Which is to say: Record-setting gas prices aside, I’m fine with having driven 1,952 miles to taste it.
Obviously, high prices are far from the only cost of driving. It’s environmentally indefensible, worrisomely isolating, and at odds with the physical activity required for good health. For all those reasons, I didn’t own a car for more than 20 years.
Sometimes, though, driving is the only realistic option.
From the start, we’ve promoted Spirited Brunch as a walking program. Many of the houses of worship on the lower Charleston peninsula are clustered together, so eventgoers are typically only a 10-minute stroll from another stop on the free and self-guided snack tour of the city’s prayerful spaces.
But walking downtown Charleston streets isn’t a gimme for plenty of people interested in the community’s culinary culture, faith practices, and architectural history—especially when a tourgoer could cover several miles during the event’s three-hour span. Perhaps a prospective participant is dealing with a bum ankle or was advised by a cardiologist to avoid raising his heart rate. Maybe she only has an hour to spare and doesn’t want to squander it on a fruitless search for parking.
Whatever the rationale, it’s in keeping with our commitment to accessibility and inclusivity for Spirited Brunch to welcome drivers as wholeheartedly as pedestrians. That’s why we’re this year debuting our first-ever upper peninsula headquarters, where tourgoers can park and pick up a map directing them to other venues with ample parking.
These congregations, including Calvary Episcopal Church and Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, tell an important part of the Charleston story that isn’t apparent from the landmark buildings closer to Broad Street. Namely, displacement was woven into this city’s fabric long before people threw around terms like “gentrification.”
Additionally, if your heart’s set on bougatsa, tabbouli, or shrimp-and-grits, only congregations north of the Crosstown are serving them.
We hope you’ll join us on Sunday, May 3, from 12:30-3:30 p.m. As always, you can start anywhere you like along the route, but if you swing by our uptown headquarters at Pink Cactus, 100A Spring St., the restaurant’s pouring hibiscus agua fresca for Spirited Brunchers; talk about a taste of spring!
See you soon.
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