Dinner Party Dining

This Charleston restaurant takes a new approach to the chef's tasting menu

-  EMILY HAVENER

My favorite thing in the world to do is host a dinner party,” says Kelleanne Jones, half of Free Reign Restaurants’ ownership team and designer par excellence. And that’s exactly what it feels like she’s doing at Honeysuckle Rose. She and Ryan Jones, her husband and Free Reign’s co-owner, began as restaurateurs in Connecticut, where their tasting menu option was hugely popular; Honeysuckle Rose is their third concept in the Charleston area and the one that draws most heavily from that experience.

Although they seek to create a unique vibe with all their concepts,the Joneses didn’t plan on opening a tasting menu-only restaurant until they saw the space, a 30-seat corner spot tucked away from walking traffic, several blocks north of the popular Cannonborough-Elliotborough district. “We knew it had to be a destination restaurant,” Kelleanne says.