Breakfast,
any hour
Charleston kitchens tend to stop cracking eggs around eleven. This guide tracks the ones that keep going: the cafes, diners and biscuit shops around the Lowcountry where a breakfast burrito, a plate of shrimp and grits or a stack of pancakes is still on the menu at two in the afternoon.
471 King Street, Charleston, SC 29403
Downtown, the pick is Sweet Palm Coffee & Food on King Street. It is a quick-serve cafe that makes breakfast sandwiches, breakfast burritos, egg bites and hash browns from open to close, alongside lattes, matcha, iced coffee and dirty sodas. Order at the counter, eat in or carry it down King. The menu also runs to chicken wraps, bowls, turkey and swiss melts, cinnamon rolls and ice cream sundaes, so the table that can't agree on a meal still eats.
Open daily from 8:30am. Monday to Thursday until 4pm, Friday to Sunday until 5pm.
Cross a bridge and the options open up. West Ashley has the densest run of them, led by Early Bird Diner on Savannah Highway, where chicken and waffles come out at dinner time, plus Metro Diner and Flying Biscuit Café. In Mount Pleasant, Vicious Biscuit and Vintage Coffee Cafe keep morning plates going until they lock the doors. On James Island there is Millers All Day, out at Folly Beach Lost Dog Cafe, and in Park Circle The Junction Kitchen & Provisions has been feeding North Charleston eggs past noon since 2015.
The full area-by-area rundown, with addresses and what each kitchen does best, is on the guide page.
See every area