Be sure to add Three Girls on Spring to your Charleston checklist.
Planning a trip to Charming Charleston? This beloved city is abundant with Southern hospitality, sweetgrass, historic beauty, and rife with restaurants. While Southern cuisine isn’t exactly known for vegan options, fortunately, there’s Three Girls on Spring, Charleston’s first Italian plant-based delicatessen. I head to the eatery straight from the airport on my frequent Charleston travels and trust me, you’ll definitely want to check it off on your ‘must-eat’ list!
Each dish at Three Girls on Spring (Instagram @threegirlsonspring), along with its sister Connecticut eatery, Three Girls Vegan (Instagram @threegirlsvegan), is crafted in-house, using the highest quality ingredients. Best of all: Behind the mouthwatering, made-from-scratch menu of melty mozzarella and other cheeses, sandwiches, pizzas, meats and more, there’s an inspiring story of heart, soul and love.
Owner Tracy Alexander cultivated the creative take on Italian classics after her mother, Theresa Picone’s 2011 stage four lung cancer diagnosis. Tracy, along with her nurse practitioner sister, Kristi, began researching ways to prolong their mother’s life after doctors gave her 10 months to live. Soon, they discovered research that connected animal products with cancer tumor cell growth, as well as the benefits of a plant-based diet.
The caveat? As explained by Tracy, the whole family is “VERY Italian” having long-centered meals around recipes including processed meats, sausages, pastas, and, of course, cheeses.
While it was an initial challenge to convince her mother, she ultimately went fully vegan, along with the rest of the family adopting a plant-based diet in solidarity, as well as participated in clinical trials and forgo traditional chemo and radiation.
Another challenge: The 9-month long process of creating a vegan mozzarella recipe that would look, taste and melt like traditional mozzarella. With the help of Tracy’s daughter, Brittany Guerra, soon recipes for vegan ricotta, parmesan and signature party-platter fermented and aged mini cashew wheels encrusted with maple bacon, black peppercorns, cranberry, pumpkin seed, pistachio and fresh thyme soon followed.
Health improvements for her mother along with the rest of the family, along with successful sales at local retailers and farmers markets eventually led to the start of Three Girls Vegan in Guilford, CT in 2016, followed by Charleston’s Three Girl on Spring in 2023.
Three Girls on Spring, “a plant-based Italian delicatessen serving classics with a twist” features a rotating menu of delicious dishes. Think comfort food — all made with whole food ingredients and without preservatives. Standouts sure to make your mouth water include traditional Italian favorites, along with sandwiches, such as:
Apizza’s (gluten-free options)
Lasagnas (gluten-free options)
Multiple cheeses
Award-winning ‘Belissimia’ cutlet, mozzarella, fire-roasted red pepper, organic Genovese basil pesto on fried dough
BEC bagel, featuring ‘bacon’ made from organic apples, chipotle cheddar from cashews, organic Genovese basil pesto
'Porchetta', and Provolone on housemade rosemary focaccia
'Crabcake', made from artichokes, spicy remoulade on a pretzel roll
Meatball, made from portobello, pesto focaccia
Hot italian sausage broccoli rabe
GF tuna-free tuna, made from sunflower seeds (gluten-free option)
Want to stock your (hotel or AirBnB) fridge for your trip? Or, be like me and do both by swinging by on the way to the CHS airport to bring favorites back home! Check out their shelves and refrigerated ready-to-go options:
Cannoli dip made from blanched almond ricotta
GF tuna-free tuna
Meatballs with sauce and parmesan
Chipotle cheddar
Mozzarella
Parmesan, grated and hard
Mac and cheese balls with buffalo sauce and bacon dust
Assorted APizzas (gluten free options)
Pepperoni, made from apples and soy-free
Smoked maple coconut bacon
Pesto sauce
Nacho cheese sauce
Caesar dressing
Three Girls on Spring (threegirlsonspring.com) also offers bespoke catering event services, as well as nationwide shipping from Three Girls Vegan (threegirlsvegan.com).
Better yet, beyond the incredible — and delicious — food, there’s a healthy and happier ending. The plant-based lifestyle helped Tracy eliminate beta-blockers, a thyroid prescription and Grave’s Disease. Finally, Tracy’s mother, Theresa, actively lived a full seven years after that initial cancer diagnosis to her 80th birthday, which allowed her to bear witness to the birth of additional great-grandchildren, along with her daughter’s incredible business built from love.
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