Lula Drake Wine Parlour
The Best Restaurant in Columbia is Actually an Elevated Wine Bar: An Inside Look at Lula Drake
The best restaurant in Columbia, SC isn't a steakhouse; it's a cozy, eccentric wine bar tucked into the heart of downtown at 1635 Main Street.
It's called Lula Drake Wine Parlour, and stepping inside feels like stepping into another era. Owner and Certified Sommelier Tim Gardner, alongside Co-Executive Chefs Rachael Harrison and Ashley Bundrick, have paired a globally sourced, endlessly surprising wine program with a food menu ambitious enough to match it. The room is stylish and forward-thinking, but it feels more like someone's home than a restaurant trying to impress you — which is exactly why it does.
In 2024, Lula Drake made city history and became Columbia's first-ever James Beard Award winner, taking home the award for Outstanding Wine and Other Beverages Program. But to fully understand what makes Lula Drake so special, you need to know its history.
A Trunk in the Basement
The name and inspiration for the wine parlour came from a fascinating piece of local history. While renovating the building, Gardner and his team pulled an old trunk out of the basement. Belongings inside dated back to the early 1920s, along with a gold-embossed calling card belonging to a woman named Lula Drake.
As it turned out, Drake was a true trailblazer: a woman who ran her own hat shop in a business world entirely dominated by men. She went by "Drake" instead of Lula, preferred dark colors, and was, by every account left behind in that trunk, a beautifully complex iconoclast.
Today, the parlour honors her spirit in more than just name. Above the bar, a sepia portrait of Lula Drake herself watches over the room from an ornate gold frame, flanked by wine bottles stacked to the ceiling and a whimsical grapevine chandelier strung with amber glass clusters. Oxblood-colored walls near the bar fade into a dusty mauve deeper in the room, the floors run wide-plank dark wood, and leather-tufted chairs with small lamps give every seat in the dining room its own pool of warm glowing light. It is wonderfully quaint and unmistakably intimate, the kind of room built for slowly sipping a glass of wine and losing track of time.
A Passport Disguised as a Wine List
The beverage list at Lula Drake is famously eccentric. Gardner curates a rotating selection of wines from all over the world, often highlighting unexpected regions like the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon or Valais in Switzerland, corners of the wine map most Columbia lists never think to visit. Every single bottle or glass comes with a description saturated with personality from Gardner himself, and every wine I've tried there has been fantastic.
Here's the honest part: if you don't know much about wine, that list can feel incredibly intimidating at first glance. But the team is genuinely wonderful about it: they'll walk you through the whole thing, tailoring their approach from total novice to certified wine nerd, without a hint of condescension either way.
Lula Drake is a wine bar at heart, but I'd be doing the cocktail program a disservice if I didn't mention it: the wine list is wonderful, but I gravitate toward cocktails every time. The Dirty Martini is a classic vodka martini served very dirty, with a savory bite that feels botanical rather than harsh. The Paper Plane is a bright, perfectly balanced pour of bourbon, Aperol, amaro, and fresh lemon juice. The Espresso Martini is the best in town: dark and rich rather than overly milky, with a bitter-yet-balanced profile and a beautiful, creamy foam top. An for beer drinkers, there's also a stash of more than 40 bottled options on hand.
The Kitchen's Best-Kept Secret
Chefs Rachael Harrison and Ashley Bundrick have built a shifting menu of small plates designed to move with the wine list rather than sit still beside it. It changes constantly to chase what's in season, but a few dishes have earned icon status and aren't going anywhere.
The Cacio e Pepe isn't your standard pasta. It's built from house-made gnudi, pillowy and decadent and almost absurdly cheesy — rich enough that you likely won't finish it alone, which makes it the ultimate dish to share. The Yangnyeom "KFC," standing for Korean Fried Chicken, is gluten-free and arrives tableside smothered in a sweet, spicy, tangy sauce, while remaining remarkably crispy.
While chatting with the chefs, I got their ultimate hack: order the Cacio e Pepe and the Yangnyeom "KFC" together. It’s not a rule, but came strongly suggested. Then you take a bite of the crispy, tangy chicken and the pillowy, rich pasta at the same time. The sweet heat of one cuts straight through the richness of the other. It would be my death row meal in Columbia.
Beyond the Headliners
The Vegan Paccheri Pasta deserves its own reputation: large paccheri tubes tossed in a savory carrot miso sauce with fresh spinach and peas, topped with lemon Aleppo breadcrumbs for a bright crunch and a hint of background heat. And the Sherry Shrimp, from the Lowcountry Shellfish Co., gets seared in a rich garlic butter sauce spiked with sherry and shallots, served with toasted baguette points built for soaking up everything left in the pan. It’s perfect with a glass of orange wine.
For something lighter, the charcuterie boards let you mix and match meats, cheeses, or both, like a sharp cheddar paired with nuts, crackers, fruit, and house-marinated olives as the standout combination. Add the Capa Negra Jamón Ibérico, thinly sliced ham from wild, acorn-fed Spanish pigs, and you've got the perfect plate built for sharing.
For the sweet tooth, there's the Chocolate Tart made with a rich chocolate cookie crust that’s filled with a dense, fudgy ganache, balanced by a generous sprinkle of flaky sea salt. But if you’d rather finish savory, the Dessert Cheese and Charcuterie board plays with sweet-and-savory illusions, pairing a rich mole salami laced with chocolate against Norwegian Brunost cheese, which tastes like deeply caramelized milk.
Final Verdict
Lula Drake Wine Parlour earned its James Beard Award by refusing to pick a lane, and instead building well rounded excellence. It’s a wine bar with excellent cocktails and a kitchen good enough to be the entrée, not a footnote. Whether you're a lifelong connoisseur or someone who "isn't a wine person," the hospitality here meets you exactly where you are and makes you feel like a regular by your second glass. Go for the James Beard-winning wine list. Order the Cacio e Pepe and KFC combo. Then decide for yourself whether to call it a wine bar or the best restaurant in Columbia.