Despite the bio I’m about to share, I think Ray Isle is one of the least pretentious people in the wine world today. He grew up in Houston, and he learned to see wine as an adventure, an adventure that’s taken him all around the world. Ray is the longtime executive wine editor for Food & Wine as well as the wine and spirits editor for Travel + Leisure. He writes Food & Wine’s monthly “What to Drink Next” column as well as regular feature articles for both magazines. His writing has also appeared in Departures, Wine & Spirits, Time, The Washington Post, and many other publications, and he’s been nominated three times for a James Beard Award. His new book is The World in a Wine Glass: The Insider's Guide to Artisanal, Sustainable, Extraordinary Wines to Drink Now.

Augusta Road in West Columbia, SC, isn’t a storybook setting. Strip malls are lined up down the road, flanking a Wal-Mart and a sprawling old school U Haul campus. But just keep going and turn off the road at the Aldi and there’s a summer camp style building tucked in some trees and a modest BBQ sign. That’s when you know you’ve reached the city limits, City Limits BBQ to be exact. Owner and pitmaster Robbie Robinson grew up in nearby Red Bank, SC eating his fill of SC Midlands BBQ. While living in Houston in the early 2000s, he acquired his first Texas-style offset wood smoker and began his journey to unlock the subtle mysteries of smoking meats. He’s been serving the people of West Columbia for eight years, including the last year in this building on the edge of town, a town that he is representing this year as a James Beard Foundation finalist for Best Chef: Southeast. Every time we visit, we end up at the smokers, where we get down to the business of conversation. And I invariably mispronounce chicharrons, which you’ll hear here. I’m working on it, I promise.

According to Saveur magazine, Border Food is defined as Mexican food with a distinct identity —influenced by the cooking of Chihuahua and Texas, but with a number of little twists. Because Texas is so large and diverse, it’s a more nuanced label than the overarching Tex-Mex, and one surprising spot that it is celebrating with abandon is in Greenville, SC. Dayna Lee is the chef and operator of Comal 864, a petite spot with a big heart and a smoking hot flattop. With her clear vision of the food of her childhood and a combination of grit and introspection on her own life path, she’s gained some well-deserved attention, from being named of Eater's "18 Essential Greenville Restaurants" to a nomination as a 2023 James Beard semifinalist. Originally from South Texas and specializing in Mexican American cuisine, she began her work in a series of brewery pop-ups, teaching herself to channel homesickness into cooking and making more room for others at the table along the way. Last summer, I had the chance to eat my fill of tacos at Comal on a hot June night, and I’ve been wanting to sit down with her ever since, so we finally got the chance to record at this year’s Charleston Wine + Food Festival. The only thing missing? More tacos.