The very best welcome I received in Charleston, South Carolina, came not from a friendly resident – although there are plenty of those around – but from a ceramic plaque hung on the door of a local bed-and-breakfast labeled “Shalom Y’all.”

This salutation, courtesy of the all-kosher Broad Street Guest House (133 Broad St.; 843-577-5965; www.charlestonkosherbedandbreakfast.com) – probably the city’s only such specialty lodging – summed up a lot of the qualities that I like about Charleston: funny, unexpected, and inviting in equal measure. And it demonstrated that whatever my Yankee preconceptions were about this stately seat of the Deep South, Charleston was ready to topple them.