Tim and I stumbled across Bee City about 6 months ago when he had to shoot a feature on honey for The Local Palate. You can find their products (including some REALLY EFFECTIVE bee pollen!)in Earth Fare on James Island and Whole Foods in Mt. Pleasant. It's a tiny cement block building in Cottageville, SC and you can NOT get to it without getting lost at least twice. The actual city of bees (population 1,000,000) is just four hives back in the forest and you can't actually go visit them (unless you're the art director of a Charleston-based food magazine like this guy). But you can feast on grilled cheese and fried chicken at the front of the building, and buy yourself ANY size container of honey imaginable at the gift shop in the back. THE BEST PART OF BEE CITY, however, has not one thing to do with feasting OR honey; it's a petting zoo that has been set up behind the restaurant/gift shop. You don't even know it's there when you go to visit Bee City! It's just a crazy llama-and-lemur bonus. We packed up Josh & Helen for our SC Saturday Adventure (Part 2) and spent three hours getting sticky with honey sticks and cotton candy while petting the bunnies, monkeys, and coatimundis (do NOT pet the coatimundis). Josh took some REALLY HANDSOME pictures and Helen laughed for a full five minutes after bolting, terrified, from the "Bee Crazy Fun House".
