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A few months before the start of the baseball season, Charleston RiverDogs general manager Dave Echols gathers his staff together for a brainstorming session on that summer’s promotions.

Normally, Echol’s marketing staff will come to the table with more than 200 ideas, eventually whittled down for the 66 home games that make the final cut.

“You want to create an atmosphere, a vibe with the music, the video board, plus have touch points around the ballpark that will engage the fans,” Echols said. “You add the promotions to kind of add to the chaos and fun for the fan experience.”

The Charleston RiverDogs have built a national brand on some of their, shall we say, creative and "wacky" promotional ideas.

Who can forget:

• Bobblections, in which fans pick a Bobblehead of a U.S. presidential candidate to serve as a poll for the election.

• Nobody Night (no fans allowed in the ballpark until the fifth inning to set a new non-attendance record).

• Silent Night (no cheering allowed).

• Go Back to Ohio Night (free one-way ticket to Cleveland for a lucky fan).

• Pope on a Rope Soap Night (it’s exactly what it sounds like).

Then there was the ill-fated Vasectomy Night in 1997; team officials cancelled that one after pushback from local clergy, politicians and others.

One of Echols’ all-time favorite promotions came in 2012, when the RiverDogs hosted the league All-Star game at Riley Park.

A standard home run derby just wouldn’t cut it, so Echols and his staff held the contest on the USS Yorktown in Charleston harbor. It’s still considered one of the best promos in MiLB history, and it was honored with the Best Overall Promotion of the Year by MiLB.

“I think that the home run derby contest we had on the Yorktown is really the standard bearer from our promotional department,” Echols said. “From brainstorming to execution it’s still one of my favorite idea. We got a ton of national coverage.”

Major League Baseball stepped in before the 2021 season and took over control of the minor league's on-field and off-field policies.

MLB now has oversight of promotions, which had been long left to the creative minds of minor-league staffs, and a famed RiverDogs strength.

“It’s a gradually refined type of thing,” Echols said. “There’s a little more red tape this year than in years past.”

Since the MLB takeover, the RiverDogs’ promotional staff has had to temper their enthusiasm for certain ideas as they must consider things like copyright infringement.

“Major League Baseball is trying to make sure we’re not infringing on copyrights,” Echols said. “Minor League Baseball all across the country has always pushed the envelope on copyrights with promotions, and they’re just trying to have guidelines to prevent that.”

That doesn’t mean that the RiverDogs, with the motto "Fun is good," have held back this summer. Staff brainstorming sessions produced another juicy promotional calendar for 2024:

• Championship Bobblehead Series: Three of the most prominent players from the RiverDogs three-consecutive championship seasons will be forever immortalized in bobblehead form. The three individual bobbles will come together to form a unique scene on top of a CV-10 naval ship.

The players are Curtis Mead (2021) on April 17; Carson Williams (2022) on June 19; and Xavier Isaac (2023) on Aug. 21.

• Boy Band Night (April 20): Get in sync with the RiverDogs as the team wears boy band inspired jerseys. The jerseys worn on the field will be auctioned after the game. “This one has a lot of potential if the fans embrace it,” Echols said.

• Swampy Joe (July 24): The Joe and its marsh next door will resemble the home of everyone’s favorite ogre (think Shrek). The ballpark will take on a swampy appearance and between-inning games will feature pin the tail on the donkey and a Scottish accent competition.

The RiverDogs’ six-game homestand against Columbia continues through Sunday. For ticket information see riverdogs.com or call 843 577-DOGS.

A bed of burrata rests at the bottom of a large white bowl at Doar Bros., the Meeting Street cocktail bar that occasionally hosts an Italian night.

At the most recent of such meals featuring fresh pasta and comforting Mediterranean mains, Jonathan Doar was in the kitchen placing charred broccolini and toasted bread inside the bowl alongside the creamy cheese.

Topping that was mortadella, sliced ultra thin and bursting with pistachios.

Doar is so enamored with the Italian deli meat that it shows up twice on the daily food menu at the Charleston cocktail bar he owns with his brother Adam.

The one-time Peninsula Grill line cook, who once spent a year cooking and farming in Italy, isn’t the only chef who’s bullish on mortadella.

This time last year, the Los Angeles Times called mortadella “the ‘trendy’ Italian meat with 1,000 years of staying power,” and boy was the newspaper right. Over the past 12 months, TikTok has been flooded with videos of home cooks making the mortadella sandwich from Anthony Bourdain’s cookbook and celebrity chefs raving about the pink marbled meat and calling it “O.G. bologna.”

Like bologna, mortadella got a bad reputation in part because of preservative-filled products made by U.S. food conglomerates, chefs say. It also didn’t help that mortadella sourced from Italy was among the cured meats banned from import by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from 1967-2000.

Twenty-four years later, mortadella is increasingly showing up at Italian restaurants, sandwich shops and even oyster bars in Charleston.

It’s stuffed inside a hoagie roll at George Street oyster bar The Quinte and paired with whipped ricotta and pickled cherry peppers at da Toscano Porchetta Shop on President Street.

At The Pass on Spring Street, the rosy pink meat is joined by soppressata, burrata, sharp provolone and pickled Calabrian chili relish inside ciabatta. Named Such a Nice Italian Boy, the sandwich calls for mortadella spotted with pistachios, a nutty addition that some Italians argue strays from tradition.

Mortadella even appears on a thin pie at Woodhaven Pizza, where the chefs top pizza dough with shaved imported mortadella and fresh mozzarella.

Mortadella is difficult to make, meaning the majority of Charleston establishments, like Woodhaven Pizza in Mount Pleasant and Melfi’s downtown, source theirs from elsewhere.

Melfi’s executive chef Ashley Kegu likes to get her mortadella — the star of occasional specials at the King Street restaurant — from Tempesta Market in Chicago. One of her favorite ways to serve it is atop a simple white pie.

“It is absolutely fantastic. It’s a very silky, melt-in-your-mouth meat,” Kegu said. “As people got more educated about it, there have been more American producers that have been able to produce a high-quality mortadella.”

Sorelle executive chef Nick Dugan uses Antica Email, an International Gourmet Foods mortadella from Bologna, Italy. Its production follows the specifications of the Bologna Mortadella Consortium, Dugan said.

Simply shaving mortadella paper thin and pairing it with stracciatella cheese and pistachio pesto is one of Dugan’s favorite ways to serve the Italian meat. He also likes to dice mortadella and give it a spin in the food processor, blending it with ricotta Calabro to create what he calls mortadella pâté.

An ingredient Dugan works with often, the chef is happy to see it on more restaurant menus.

“I think chefs have always loved working with and eating mortadella. Or at least I have,” Dugan said. “The popularity and trends aren’t really set by the chefs; they are set by the guests. Chefs try their thing, and sometimes crowds latch onto them and sometimes they don’t.”

We’re putting Charleston’s lively performing arts scene in the spotlight. Ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, here are 10 theaters and performance venues around town, plus a few shows you may want to add to your calendar.

Sottile Theatre | 44 George St. | This theater serves the College of Charleston and the community. Upcoming performances include:

Charleston Gaillard Center | 95 Calhoun St. | The center was named after a previous mayor of Charleston. It has year-round music, dance, comedy, theater, and family programs. Upcoming shows:

Black Fedora Comedy Mystery Theatre | 164 Church St. | This spot is Charleston’s only live comedy mystery theater. Pro tip: You can volunteer to play a character. Shows include:

Dock Street Theatre | 135 Church St. | Known as America’s first theater, Dock Street is a non-profit and member of the Theatre Communication Group. Here’s a peek at the 2024-25 season:

Theatre 99 | 280 Meeting St. | This improv comedy hub offers shows based on audience suggestions. Prepare to laugh at one of these shows:

34 West | 200 Meeting St., Ste.100 | Shows are written by 34 West’s own actors and designers. Here’s a glance at some upcoming shows:

Queen Street Playhouse | 20 Queen St. | Home of the Footlight Players, this is the city’s original theater company. Below are some shows you can watch in its 93rd season.

James F. Dean Theatre | 133 S. Main St., Summerville | See the Flowertown Players perform in this historic theater’s 48th season. There are main stage shows, youth productions, and a studio series.

Holy City Magic | 49 1/2 John St. | See where the magic happens with performances by magicians including Howard Blackwell and Gogo Cuerva.

PURE Theatre | 134 Cannon St. | This professional regional theater is in its 21st season.

The North Charleston Performing Arts Center plays host to Broadway shows. The 2024-2025 lineup was revealed, and seven hits from the Theater District will take center stage including “Tina,” “Ain’t Too Proud,” and “Mamma Mia.”

Heads up: This isn’t a comprehensive list. Know of another spot we should highlight? Shoot us a message.

Sullivan’s Island Town Administrator Andy Benke recently sent a check for more than $200,000 to the Charleston Water System (CWS) in an effort to solve a dispute between the two entities, but, unless the town comes up with another $850,000 or so before July 20, CWS has threatened to cut off the town’s water supply.

At an April 1 meeting, the Sullivan’s Island Town Council voted to approve a payment of $227,381.92 to the water system, a figure determined by water utility rate consultant Raftelis, based on a 1994 contract between CWS and the town. Benke said the check was mailed, but, as of April 11, there was no word from CVS and no indication the check had been cashed.

CWS CEO Mark Cline insists that the town of Sullivan’s Island owes the water system $1.078 million, a difference of $850,618.08. Since they are still trying to solve this issue through mediation, neither side is saying much, though both the water system and the town released statements regarding the disputed terms of the 1994 contract.

“Charleston Water System does not agree with the town of Sullivan’s Island’s viewpoint or its recollection of the historical facts,” Cline said in a statement released by the water system. “We fully intend to discontinue the town’s water service July 20 unless their past due amount is fully paid and they have entered into a new contract that appropriately covers the costs of providing water service to their community. It’s not fair that our other customers have been subsidizing the town’s service for years now.”

“Charleston Water System wants the town to ignore the terms of the signed agreement we entered into almost 30 years ago, after Hurricane Hugo devastated our independent deep water well system,” Sullivan’s Island Mayor Pat O’Neil said in his own statement, which was released on April 3. “We entered into that agreement at a significant cost to ensure that our residents would have certainty as to the source of our water for decades to come. It’s hard now to accept the baseless claim that CWS is ‘subsidizing’ Sullivan’s Island when we paid almost $2 million in 1994 dollars to support the infrastructure that allowed them to sell water to us and to our neighbors on the Isle of Palms and when in 2020 we gifted them an easement through our public park and playground so there would be additional capacity to sell water to our neighbors in Mount Pleasant.”

According to CWS spokesperson Michael Saia, the $1.078 million it is demanding is “the cumulative portion of their bill they haven’t been paying since 2017. They paid this portion in full and without question for the first 22 years of the contract and then suddenly stopped on their own accord that year.”

The 1994 agreement between Sullivan’s Island and CWS states that “The life of this contract shall extend for a term of 30 years from the date of execution and shall be automatically renewed for additional 15-year periods unless Sullivan’s Island gives 180-day written notice. … of its intent not to renew this contract.”

Prior to presenting his April 1 motion to pay the Charleston Water System $227,381.92, Sullivan’s Island Town Council member Justin Novak pointed out that “Years ago, Charleston Water System decided to raise our rates as if our signed contract did not exist. The town disputed that rate increase and has continued to pay the undisputed amount owed in accordance with our long-standing, signed agreement.”

He added that the town has placed the disputed amounts in escrow, “pending a resolution of the dispute.”

When the contract was signed in 1994, the town agreed to pay CWS $1,986,216 to help with the cost of connecting its lines to Sullivan’s Island. O’Neil pointed out in a recent interview that the contract said Sullivan’s Island would not have to pay any additional capital charges except for work done for the benefit of the island’s water supply.

Charleston, SC - Odalys Peguero delivered a walk-off RBI single to right field with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Charleston RiverDogs edged the Columbia Fireflies 3-2 on Wednesday night at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park. The RiverDogs have won the first two games of the series by the same score. Wednesday’s game was played in front of a crowd of 2,934.

The final inning began without much action as Nicholas Regalado retired the first two hitters without a problem. That quickly changed with consecutive walks to Carlos Colmenarez and Narciso Polanco. Those bases on balls put the winning run in scoring position for Peguero. The second baseman dropped a single into shallow right field as Colmenarez slid across home plate with the decisive run.

Charleston (6-5) received a booming solo home run from right fielder Angel Mateo in the second inning to open the scoring. The long ball was his second of the year and the team’s eighth. All eight of the round-trippers have been solo shots.

Columbia (6-5) pulled even in the fifth, the final inning tossed by starter Gary Gill Hill. Austin Charles worked a leadoff walk in that frame and stole second base. He scored on Jhonny Perdomo’s single through the right side of the infield.

A bases loaded wild pitch from Doug Kirkland allowed the RiverDogs to move back ahead by a 2-1 margin in the seventh. The Fireflies answered back in short order, tying the game on an RBI single from Erick Torres in the top of the eighth.

Catcher Dionmy Salon went 3-3 at the plate to lead the Fireflies offensive attack. Mateo finished 2-4 with a double and a home run for the RiverDogs.

Gill Hill did not factor in the decision after allowing just the one run in 5.0 innings. Columbia starter Ethan Bosack was also dominant, surrendering a single run on a lone hit in 6.0 innings. He struck out seven. Gerlin Rosario tossed 2.0 scoreless innings out of the Charleston bullpen, allowing only one baserunner. Will Stevens took home the win despite allowing one run in the eighth inning.

Ballpark Fun

The first installment of a three-piece championship bobblehead collection was handed out to the first 1,000 fans into the ballpark on Wednesday night. The bobblehead featured 2021 standout Curtis Mead, who is currently on the Tampa Bay Rays roster. Bobbleheads featuring Carson Williams and Xavier Isaac are coming later in the schedule.

RHP Santiago Suarez (1-0, 0.00) will be on the mound for the RiverDogs in game three of the series, slated for Thursday night at 7:05 p.m. RHP Emmanuel Reyes (1-0, 6.30) will toe the rubber for Columbia. $1 beers will be available throughout The Joe on the first Budweiser™ Thirsty Thursday of 2024.

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