Charleston’s Bar 167 Now Open on Fulton Street

Mediterranean cocktail bar Bar 167 (5 Fulton Street, Charleston) is set to open on Tuesday, August 16, at 5 p.m., but plenty of onlookers were already trying to get in over the past weekend. Groups of fashionable bachelorettes and tourists wandering off King Street approached the gate at the side entrance asking if they could grab a drink. They were most likely drawn to the large sign reading “Bar 167,” with the numbers 167 pulling in fans familiar with the nearby seafood restaurant 167 Raw and 167 Sushi Bar (the number comes from the address of the original 167 Raw in Nantucket).

Co-owners Jesse Sandole and Darren Harrison-Panes imagined the Fulton Street building (formerly cozy Italian restaurant Fulton Five) as a place to send customers while they stand by for a table at 167 Raw. The oyster spot doesn’t take reservations, so if the dining room is on a wait, patrons will usually go elsewhere for a wine and a snack or explore the peninsula.

“We designed the menu so that you can get as full as you want or just hold yourself over, until your table is available” Sandole says, “It’s a small, very focused, ingredient-driven menu with plenty of cocktails and an emphasis on housemade tonics.” Food includes fresh-baked focaccia, crudos, and a bistro steak. The wine list is all European with Croatian, Southern Italian, Greece, and French bottles. And there’s two beers on tap, a light and a dark.

The team worked with interior designer Kathleen Hay from Nantucket to update the space. They removed the decades of ivy climbing up the exteriors and brightened up the building with whites and blues — it now looks like it would fit right in on the Amalfi Coast. The interiors also feel laid-back and beach-y with plenty of ocean-colored tiles, wave photography from Nantucket artist Dan LeMaitre, rattan chairs, Slim Aarons prints, and plenty of nautical touches.

Bar 167 opens Monday through Saturday, from 5 p.m. to midnight, and will add lunch service soon. Take a tour here before the doors open.