Once Upon a Dinner

Twenty-three years ago, I was a little-known storyteller seeking to make a name for myself in the world of performing arts. At the same time, there was a new restaurant on Wentworth Street seeking to—excuse the pun—create a stir in the Charleston culinary world. Together, we formed a partnership in which Circa 1886 hired me to be a sort of “sommelier of stories,” presenting tales to compliment menus for a series of themed dinners.

We presented some excellent pairings such as “Seafood with Pirate Tales” and “Hoppin’ John with Gullah Folklore.” However, it soon became clear that no matter what food was served the audience wasn’t satisfied until I told a ghost story. Of course, in a city as old as Charleston, there are countless tales of “ghoulies and ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night” but good Lord, deliver us from anything too macabre or horrific while patrons of a fine dining establishment are trying to eat!

As it happened, the owners of Circa 1886, Rick Widman and his wife Linn Lesesne, had seen the great-great-great grandson of Charles Dickens, Mr. Gerald Dickens, perform a one-man version of “A Christmas Carol” when he was on tour in the United States. They asked me if I thought the story would work in a restaurant setting. I observed that it was by far the most popular ghost story in the English language plus my personal favorite, not to mention that the story references food and drink more than 200 times. It would, in fact, be the perfect ghost story for our series.

I got to work, learning the same script that Charles Dickens himself had used for his public reading tour of the United States in 1867. It took about forty hours of practice, but the effort was well worth it. Paired with the chef’s upscale version of Mrs. Cratchit’s roast goose, mashed potatoes, applesauce and holiday pudding, we had an instant hit! In fact, it quickly became so popular that the annual Dickens dinner eclipsed all our other storytelling events to become a beloved Charleston tradition that has run for nearly a quarter of a century.

Somewhere along the way, restauranteurs from Cheraw, South Carolina got wind of our annual event and came see what all the fuss was about. Very quickly, they extended an invitation. With the blessing of Circa 1886, which by now had garnered national notoriety and several culinary awards, I expanded my territory. A restauranteur from Georgia came to the Dickens Dinner in Cheraw. The next year I was playing dining rooms in two states. The restaurant owner in Georgia had a friend near Atlanta, who knew a restauranteur in Arkansas, who knew a dinner theater venue in Salt Lake City, Utah, which led to a gig in Alaska, not to mention countless auditoriums and theaters across the country and eventually the coveted stage of the National Storytelling Festival with an audience of thousands! Several years ago, I surpassed Dickens himself in the number of public readings with a performance benefitting an international orphan relief program with audience donations totaling $10,000.

Of course, whenever I tell any ghost story—this most being the popular —the question always arises, “Do you believe in ghosts?”

Yes, I certainly do! In fact, I met the Ghost of Christmas Present in the train station beneath the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and tell that story in my award-winning book “Haunted by Dickens.”

By haunting his kitchen for many years, I’ve also learned a thing or two from Executive Chef Marc Collins. During the COVID pandemic, when dining room performances were suspended, I produced an online cooking show version of “A Christmas Carol,” demonstrating how to make a proper Mrs. Cratchit Christmas Pudding à la flambé!

This holiday season I am on track to offer my 201st performance of the Charles Dickens classic with shows in Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama. But most importantly, I will tell the age-old story in the dining room where it all began and fully expect to see restaurant patrons that have attended every year, without fail, since the very beginning.

The menu varies from year to year, but the story is always the same classic tale. After all, Charleston is nothing if not a city of tradition, and it wouldn’t be a traditional holiday without the Circa 1886 Dickens Dinners.

Twenty-three years of them. God bless them, everyone!

To learn more about Tim, go to: storytellerTimLowry.com.