Spanish snack culture and ‘beach’ wine flow from the front porch window at Chico Feo
by Lorne Chambers | Editor
For more than a decade, Chico Feo has given Folly Beach locals and visitors a refreshing break from standard beach fare. From the outdoor eatery’s tiny kitchen, owner Hank Weed has created a globally-inspired menu, each dish infused with flavors and techniques gathered from his travels.
“Hank and I have been chatting for a while about the idea of doing wine, drinks, and snacks with coastal Spain in mind on the front porch at Chico,” says bartender Brandon Underwood, who lived in Spain for several years and has been fascinated with Spanish drink and snack culture ever since. “Chico Feo already celebrates a variety of other coastal places in the backyard: the Caribbean, Cuba, Vietnam, and Japan. The front porch will continue to do this with wine as the primary beverage focus, under the name Vino Feo.”
Underwood sees a lot of similarities between Folly Beach and places along the Spanish coast, like San Sebastián, A Coruña, and Sanlucar de Barrameda.
“The Basque Country, Galicia, Catalonia, and Southwest Andalucia are big inspirations for the idea. This led to the idea of celebrating coastal ‘beach’ wines from coastal wine regions around the world,” says Underwood, who will be serving drinks and snacks from a window on the front porch of Chico Feo on Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays starting around 2 p.m.
According to Underwood, Spanish snack culture celebrates high-quality ingredients with minimal cooking, and he says he will use this approach with Vino Feo. Underwood will still be bartending, but he will also hand out Spanish-inspired snacks from the front porch window and discuss the drinks with customers.
“I will be constantly rotating lots of ‘beach’ wines from all over the place. By the glass, you will see things like Basque red vermouth, manzanilla sherry, txakoli, Canary Island wines, coastal Chilean wines,” he says. “Most of the wines will be light and refreshing and will be naturally made at very small production. We have access to a ton of really awesome wine that doesn’t make its way out to Folly but makes perfect sense for the environment.”
In addition to “beach” wines, Vino Feo will be serving up small bites, such as gildas (skewers of anchovies, olives, and pickled peppers), cured meat snacks, cheese snacks, white anchovies, olives, chips, and quicos (Spanish corn nuts).
Before he started slinging drinks at Chico Feo, Underwood worked in various roles in the local food and beverage scene. He was the former general manager at the popular modern Spanish restaurant Estadio in downtown Charleston. He was also part of the team at Monarch Wine Merchants, a revered neighborhood natural wine shop on King Street. Between his professional background and his personal experiences living in Spain, Underwood has converted the front porch of Chico Feo into a coastal Spanish wine bar … although he prefers not to call it a “wine bar” at all.
“I wouldn’t call it a wine bar, rather a wine window with salty snacks,” says Underwood, who emphasizes that while Vino Feo is a Chico Feo production with a similar vibe, it will have its own name, menu, social media accounts for letting people know about specials.
The Vino Feo wine window will be open Sunday-Tuesday starting at 2 p.m. It will be on the front porch of Chico Feo, located at 122 E Ashley Ave. Follow Vino Feo at www.instagram.com/vinofeo.
