Hug Marketing?

Earlier this morning I was leafing through the latest Charleston City Paper, and ran across this ad. With an immediacy I found this marketing ploy a little questionable. Who would hug me if I went to this restaurant? The Pig? The Manager? The Cashier? With raised eyebrow, I also wondered about the person who hatched & designed this ad campaign as well...needy?

Questions aside for a second, here's what the ad did achieve: it caused me to look the joint up on the web. But here there were a few problems as well. It seems The City Paper or the expressive person whom planned this ad did not pay particularly close attention to all the little devlish details, such as the website text, which is completely wrong. The correct address is www.thebarbequejoint.com

Sadly, upon finally googling, finding and arriving at the barbeque joint website, I found zero information regarding any free hugs. Hmmmm...what kind of marketing campaign is this anyway? I'm not sure...but I am pretty positive that the pig is behind this in some way.

King Street Closing to Traffic

It seems to have been a long time coming, with little hints here and there that city officials were watching and listening to public cries toward maintaining walkability in the holy city. I'm elated to see this bit of news...

Second Sunday of every month King Street will be open only to pedestrian traffic. Restaurants will be able to bring out street dining and no more will one have to scoot across the asphault, frogger-style, skipping between cars lumbering slowly down the old arterial street. The Digitel posted a great article giving further details.

Soon I'll be strolling down King sans traffic. Can't wait!

Charleston's Costa Rican Connection

The Cosmopolitan Charlestonian holds a special love for Costa Rica, a small country sandwiched between Nicaragua and Panama. It's been our pleasure to learn that many Charlestonians share the same respect for the small Democratic, Central American country. One friend spends her winters in Costa Rica to stock her family surf shop on Nantucket for the summer season, another owns La Carolina Lodge in the Guanacaste region and lives duplicitously in both Charleston and Costa Rica, while many more own personal property in the country. A stay at La Carolina Lodge is highly recommended for anyone requiring a decompression from modern life. Our own stay there was met with an excellent, friendly, and forgiving staff (of our terrible Spanish language skills) as well as fresh, local meals and daily nature tours. The Cosmopolitan Charlestonian met others as well in our travels. If you too happen to get down as far as the Osa Peninsula, its Corcovado National Park featured recently on Discovery's Survivorman, book a visit at the Black Turtle Lodge, a beach hotel near Golfo Dulce across the bay from Golfito. This place is truly magical and you will be well cared for during your stay!
For a taste of Costa Rica right here at home, head out to Folly Beach and try out Surf Bar, recently opened by a family friend of The Cosmopolitan Charlestonian. Located next to the Police Station on Folly, the food is a mix of American/Costa Rican. If you take the chance, going comida tipica, for the Costa Rican fare, you will truly experience authentic Costa Rican flavor (plantains and all), while the design of the restaurant and outdoor patio mirror Tico construction down to the rough hewn column supports. Surf Bar, as well as all restaurants and bars in Charleston to date, however, cannot yet provide, Imperial, the beer of Costa Rica; and damn good we might add. Just FYI incase you are looking for it.
The Cosmopolitan Charlestonian hopes to get back to Costa Rica as quickly as possible in the coming months. For the time being you are welcome to view our travel video highlighting last year's fun, folly and amazing photography here!

The Cosmopolitan Charlestonian will keep everyone posted on future travel plans. In the meantime, feel free to donate to our 'save the rainforest fund.' Despite Costa Rica's environmentalism, development and tourism (both needed for economic growth) continue to destroy pristine rainforest while stamping out wildlife migration routes. Animals segregated to National Park areas only are unable to breed outside of their own gene pools, which leads to die-off and the future extinction of certain species. This is but one of many issues facing the diverse ecosystem. We'd like to help that if we can. Please donate any amount at all from your paypal account to our fund. Your generosity will fuel two goals of The Cosmopolitan Charlestonian; reforestation and renewable energy sources.
As always, please feel free to post your comments here as we would love to hear from you. And, thanks for visiting!