BEYOND THE FEAST

Thanksgiving dinner is only the beginning for Charleston hoteliers Jaimie and John Dewberry, who extend the revelry with drop-in cocktails at their 18th-century home and a Black Friday boat ride on their vintage Chris-Craft.

- STEPHANIE HUNT

It's Thanksgiving morning and some 8,700 people huddle by the front steps of The Dewberry. Since opening the luxury hotel overlooking Charleston, South Carolina's Marion Square in 2016, John Dewberry has always envisioned the midcentury landmark as a sophisticated community hub, dubbing its tony brass-andleather lobby the "living room." But with the annual turkey trot starting line at your front door, welcoming throngs of drumstickhatted runners is another level of hospitality-one that's festive, energized, perhaps slightly sweaty. Yet it's an openhearted greeting John and his wife, Jaimie, love. They also love that as trotters trot, race, and wobble down the Meeting Street route, they pass the young family's 1770 Georgian-style residence, where they and their houseguests cheer them on, coffee in hand.

Actually Jaimie and John adore everything about Thanksgiving in Charleston-autumn's golden Low Country light; the cool weather and thinned crowds; the ginkgo tree at the hotel that, on cue in mid-November, turns blazing yellow. "Like nature's holiday lights," notes Jaimie, who serves as creative director of their design firm, D Studio. "I was always a Christmas girl, but John's converted me to a Thanksgiving woman. It's his absolute favorite holiday, one he loved celebrating with his dad."