Narrow, one-way King Street begins at the southern tip of the Charleston, S.C., peninsula near White Point Gardens, a park better known as The Battery, where confederate troops defended Charleston from the Union Navy during the Civil War.

From there, King Street stretches north through block after block of meticulously restored 18th and 19th century homes in the various architectural styles of the day including Georgian, Greek Revival, Charleston single homes and the Italianate-style Patrick O’Donnell House — the so-called “O’Donnell’s Folly,” which was completed in 1870 after 18 years.

The evolution of the mile-and-a-half stretch of King Street from Lower King to Upper King — and of its dining scene in particular — has likewise been a work in progress.

Berlin’s department store has stood at the corner of King and Broad streets since 1883 and marks the beginning of the retail district.  It is one of Charleston’s best-known, high-end clothing retailers and has weathered 115 years of economic, social and fashion trends.

King Street grew steadily as a center of commerce until retailers followed their customers to the suburbs in the 1970s.  King Street roared back in the late 1980s with the opening of the super-luxe Charleston Place hotel, restaurant and shopping development at King and Market streets.

Charleston Grill (224 King St., 843-577-4522, charlestongrill.com) opened at Charleston Place in 1989 and —  along with Peninsula Grill (549 E. Bay St., 843-723-0700, peninsulagrill.com), Magnolias (185 E. Bay St., 843-577-7771, magnolias-blosson-cypress.com) and Anson (12 Anson St., 843-577-0551, ansonrestaurant.com) — reimagined Lowcountry standards such as fried flounder and shrimp and grits as haute cuisine and made Charleston a prominent foodie destination.

Louis Osteen — the high-profile chef who now runs Louis’s at Pawley’s (Pawley’s Island, SC, 843-237-8757, louisatpawleys.com), where he won a James Beard award in 2004 — earned national attention in his seven years as the first chef at Charleston Grill.  Successor Bob Waggoner raised the bar even higher, making Charleston Grill the first Mobil four-star restaurant in Charleston his first year on the job.

Charleston Grill and its menu both underwent major overhauls last year.  The atmosphere in the dining room is still special-occasion but now lighter and more relaxed than before, and the menu is one of the more innovative in Charleston.

The old standards now make up one of four contrasting “mini menus.”  Appetizers and entrees are divided into Southern (Lowcountry standards), Cosmopolitan (exotic and international), Lush (French haute cuisine) and Pure (clean, fresh and seasonal).

The new choices can lead to some interesting combinations.  Start with the Charleston Grill crab cake ($17) for an appetizer and then move to the Hawaiian kampachi (yellowtail) with Kaffir lime coconut broth ($30) from the Cosmopolitan menu or the Colorado lamb chops and white asparagus ($39) from the Pure menu.

At Market Street, King Street angles northwest through block after block of mall stalwarts such as Starbucks, Talbot’s, Banana Republic and Williams-Sonoma.  In the 1990s, national retailers revitalized that stretch of King Street and brought suburbanites and tourists back to the street in droves.

Sermet’s Corner (276 King St., 843-853-7775) is a great place to duck in during a shopping day and have a quick lunch of soups, sandwiches and pasta specials.  Large windows onto King and Wentworth streets give you a great vantage for people watching.

The retail mix begins to skew younger in the area around the College of Charleston.  There are trendy clothiers such as Urban Outfitters and Bebe, chi-chi salons like Stella-Nova and a slew of local hang-outs. 

King Street Grille (304 King St., 843-723-5464, thekingstreetgrille.com) is a popular sports bar, The Kickin’ Chicken (337 King St., 843-805-5020, thekickinchicken.com) is a great place for late-night wings and beer, and Papa ZuZu’s Good Eats (370 King St., 843-534-1666) serves Greek pizzas, salads and enormous gyros out of its tiny, shotgun-style space.

As you cross Calhoun Street — the next major intersection and the beginning of the Upper King shopping and retail district — the stately Francis Marion Hotel is on the left side of King Street, and Marion Square Park is on the right.  The Francis Marion opened in 1924 and was the gateway to a district packed with furniture stores, department stores and five-and-dimes.

In the 1970s, the Francis Marion Hotel closed, most of the Upper King retails left, and Marion Square Park was largely abandoned.  The Francis Marion reopened in 1996 after a $12 million renovation, and the district began a long comeback.  Today, Upper King is an eclectic, international Greenwich Village-style destination.

One of the first restaurants to venture into the new Upper King, 39 Rue de Jean (39 John St., 843-722-8881, 39ruedejean.com), opened in 2001 in a former warehouse space a block off King Street.  The French brasserie does a brisk lunch business with grilled chicken croissants ($11), burgers ($10), duck-breast salads ($13) and the like.

In the evening, the red chairs and booths, warm lighting and large windows give the dining room an inviting glow. The zinc-topped bar has a lively, noisy night scene, and the dinner menu features reasonably priced French standards such as trout beurre blanc ($20), braised rabbit ($23) and coq au vin ($20).

Steamed mussels and sushi — yes, sushi — are also on Rue’s lunch and dinner menus. 

Upper King’s other French restaurant, La Fourchette (432 King St., 843-722-6261), is more bistro than brasserie — smaller, more personal and built around a focused menu and the outsize personality of owner Perig Goulet.

My wife and I arrived to a full house for an 8:30 p.m. reservation one Saturday last fall, and our table was running late.  Goulet bounded toward us, two glasses of sparkling prosecco in hand.  “They finish, but they do not leave!” he whispered — as only a Frenchman could —  angling his head to a table near the back.

While we ate, we saw Goulet everywhere — stalking in and out of the kitchen, directing servers in both French and English, chatting with guests, sipping a glass of wine at the bar.  La Fourchette has a dozen or so tables tightly packed into a shotgun space, and Goulet and his server staff run it with dizzying efficiency.

Based on the traffic coming out of the kitchen, the two must-eat dishes are the cassoulet ($21), a traditional stew of white beans, sausage and duck confit, and the pommes frites ($5.50), which are double-fried in duck fat, narcotically addictive, and the best fries I’ve ever tasted in my life.

Pane e Vino (17 Warren St., 843-853-5955) sits a block or so off King Street in a tiny, nondescript building and has no noticeable identification beyond its name on a small chalkboard out front.  If you walk up after dusk, you will see the white candles and tiny white lights strung on the side patio, and, if you’re lucky, that is where you will spend the next few hours.

Owners Massimiliano and Natasha Sarrocchi call the place a wine bar and the name translates as “bread and wine,” but those are modest monikers for what may be Charleston’s best Italian restaurant.  Massi Sarrochi’s Roman/Tuscan menu is classic Italiano rustico —  Italian comfort food — and Natasha’s front-of-the-house staff is pleasant and attentive.

Many tables order round after round of appetizers like a charcuterie of various prosciuttos, salames and dried sausages ($9), a seasonal cheese plate ($9) and baked eggplant stuffed with buffalo mozzarella ($7).  The pastas, such as the ravioli with Italian sausage ($10.50) and spaghetti Bolognese ($12.50), are fresh and simple.

Brothers Henry and Chai Eang opened Basil Thai Restaurant (460 King St., 843-724-3490, basilthairestaurant.com) in 2002, and it was an overnight sensation.  Charleston City Paper named it the city’s best new restaurant in 2003 and the city’s best Thai restaurant every year since it opened.  Basil has a no-reservations policy, and there is often already a line at 5 p.m. when the doors open for dinner.

In 2005, the Eang brothers opened Chai’s Lounge & Tapas (462 King St., 843-722-7313) and scored another big hit.  The jazz lounge has a sophisticated, contemporary atmosphere, a few dozen pan-Asian appetizers — most from $7 to $10 —  and a varied and inexpensive wine list.

Raval (453 King St., 843-853-8466, ravalwinebar.com) is an ultra-cool Spanish bar named for a neighborhood in Barcelona.  The long banquettes lined with Moorish print pillows and the red, draping curtains give the space a Moroccan boudoir aesthetic.  There are more than 50 Spanish wines available, with many available by the glass.

Newcomer Monza (651 King St., 843-853-8466, monzapizza.com), which Raval’s owners opened next door a year ago, is just the kind of pizza joint you would expect on Upper King’s international dining circuit — cool and authentically Italian.  The Neapolitan-style pizzas are made with imported ingredients, and the dough is kneaded with a mixer brought over from Naples.

King Street’s next chapter is already underway.  The City of Charleston recently completed a $15 million Upper King improvement project — moving power lines underground, resurfacing King Street, replacing the sidewalks and adding landscaping.

The proposed Midtown development — a $150 million hotel, condominium and retail project at the north end of Upper King — and a proposed luxury hotel on King Street north of Marion Square Park are both winding through zoning and site-plan approval with hopes of beginning construction later this year.

 
 
SPOLETO FESTIVAL USA
 

With a flair for both the international and the avant-garde, this year’s Spoleto Festival USA — May 23 through June 8 in Charleston, S.C. — features a Chinese martial-arts rock musical, a Rossini opera about Cinderella and a theater performance that blurs the lines between stage and screen.

• “Monkey: Journey to the West,” making its American debut, is an ambitious, epic musical by Blur and Gorillaz front man Damon Albarn that features Chinese opera singers, high-flying acrobatics and dizzying digital and sound design.

• A lush staging of Rossini’s 1817 “La Cenerentola” opera tells the familiar story of Cinderella, her ugly step-sisters and her fateful date with a prince.

• The innovative “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” is a darkly comic and intricately staged production that combines animated, filmed and live action.

The year’s festival includes 30 opera, dance, theater, symphony, jazz, choral and chamber music programs, and most are performed on multiple dates.

Tickets

Although tickets for all performances have been on sale since early January, limited seating is likely still available for most weekend performances.  For good seats (and dinner reservations), the weeknight performances are a better bet.

The best way to buy tickets is through the Spoleto Festival Web site (spoletousa.org), which allows you to view a constantly updated map of available seating for each performance.

Mark your calendar to check the festival’s Web site around Jan. 1 to find out when tickets for the 2009 performances will go on sale.  Most of the prime, orchestra-level seating for the major weekend performances will be sold out soon after tickets go on sale.

History

In 1958, Italian composer Gian Carlo Menotti started the Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy, as an annual showcase for theater, ballet, opera and classical music.  In 1977, Menotti and American conductor Christopher Keene launched Spoleto Festival USA in Charleston, which shares Spoleto, Italy’s small-town charm and large-scale performance venues.

The two festivals had a close relationship until 1993, when they parted ways following a dispute over money and the Spoleto board’s refusal to name Gian Carlo Menotti’s adopted son, Francis Menotti, as the festival’s artistic director.  (The younger Menotti has since taken over the Italian festival, which suffered numerous financial setbacks last year and has not announced a program for 2008.)

In its 32nd season, Spoleto Festival USA has become a major international event with total event attendance of 70,000 to 80,000 people a year.