For many of us, the Southern biscuit is a novelty. Unless you grew up with them, the rich, flaky biscuit fascinates folks with its simultaneous light and fluffy texture. Crafting the perfect batch is a practiced formula comprised of a killer recipe, technique, and timing. However, guests staying at Zero George hotel in Charleston get treated to some of the South's most renowned biscuits: Callie's Hot Little Biscuits.
Many of the hotel’s visitors come from Northern locales where they’ve only heard about the infamous Southern staple. “Our guests want to explore lots of Charleston, but it’s hard to hit all the bakeries and all the biscuit spots, so we try to bring the best of Charleston to them,” says Simon Stilwell, general manager at Zero George. Through a European-style continental breakfast, hotel guests sample locally sourced pastries, jams, honeys, bacon, eggs, and—yes—biscuits.
Hotel owners Dean Andrews and Lynn Easton opened Zero George with hopes of infusing it with Charlestonian spirit. Their friend Carrie Morey proposed a fitting—and delicious—way: partnering with her business Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits. Known for its bite-sized fluffy biscuits and city-beloved biscuit sandwiches, Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits’ brick-and-mortar on upper King Street regularly had a line out its door.
“Biscuits have an allure in that they’re difficult to make,” Stilwell says. “Callie’s are a great product. They’re more emblematic of what I think of as a biscuit. They fit that niche where they’re fluffy and light whereas others can be dense or have too much baking powder.”
Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits trained the hotel kitchen team in their recipes, ensure that guests enjoyed Charleston’s signature biscuits fresh and warm. Pre-Covid, the hotel's breakfast spread greeted guests each morning and featured Callie’s Hot Little buttermilk, ham, and cinnamon-sugar biscuits. The hotel has since modified breakfasts to a Biscuit Butler room service with buttermilk biscuits. However, Stilwell looks forward to the breakfast spread returning along with the addition of Callie’s cheese crisps and cocktail pecans.
Bringing Callie's fresh, famed biscuits into Zero George introduces hotel guests to one of Charleston’s hottest commodities and saves them a trip to the shop…or inspires one!
“Some of our guests may not have sought out the biscuits on their own, but after trying them, they will go [to Callie’s Hot Little Biscuits] or buy the mix online or at the store,” Stilwell says. “People love it.”
