Wedding DJ at Smoked in Columbia, SC

The Space

Smoked occupies the ground floor of two historic buildings on Main Street in downtown Columbia, in the Columbia Commercial Historic District. The building on one side is thought to be among the earliest structures raised on Main Street after the burning of Columbia during the Civil War, and its neighbor, built later in the 19th century and dated to around 1872, has held a string of tenants over the years, including a Piggly Wiggly grocery store before it became part of the restaurant.

Sibling owners Gregg and Sarah Middleton opened Smoked to combine their separate loves of smoked meats and raw oysters into one restaurant, and that pairing shows up on a menu built around house-smoked prime meats, fresh seafood, and local ingredients, alongside a bar known for award-winning cocktails. The result is a restaurant that reads as a genuine dining destination first, with the historic building itself as much a part of the draw as the food coming out of the kitchen.

Capacity & Layout

Smoked offers private dining spaces that can hold special celebrations and corporate gatherings, and a back patio that works for dining or events outdoors, giving a couple a choice between an enclosed room inside the historic building or open-air seating behind it. Because the restaurant does not publish a fixed capacity for either space, a couple planning a reception here should walk the private dining room and the patio in person to see how many tables and how much dance floor actually fit.

The building’s two-storefront history means the interior is arranged as a series of connected rooms rather than one open hall, which suits a smaller wedding or rehearsal dinner that wants distinct areas for dinner and mingling more than it suits a large reception needing one continuous dance floor. Counter seating is also available, useful for a smaller gathering that wants some guests close to the bar rather than seated at formal tables throughout the meal.

Amenities

The bar pours award-winning cocktails alongside a full wine list with corkage available for guests who want to bring their own bottle, and the kitchen offers gluten-free options on request, which is worth flagging to the venue ahead of a wedding with dietary needs in the group. Smoked is open year-round, so there is no seasonal closure to plan around, and it already runs entertainment of its own, which is worth checking against the timeline if a couple wants their own DJ set instead.

Getting guests there is straightforward: valet parking is available during operating hours, with street parking and two public garages, on Cannon Street and on Taylor Street, as backup for a larger guest count. The restaurant is wheelchair accessible throughout, and the dress code runs smart casual, in keeping with an upscale fine-dining room rather than a formal ballroom. Hours run late into the evening on weekends, with dinner service continuing past 10pm both Saturday and Sunday.

Location & Getting There

Smoked sits in downtown Columbia’s Main Street corridor, inside the Columbia Commercial Historic District, which puts a wedding here in the middle of the city’s restaurant and nightlife strip rather than off on its own. That location makes it a natural fit for a rehearsal dinner or a smaller reception where guests are already staying downtown, with the historic streetscape outside doing a lot of the visual work for photos before anyone steps inside.

With two public parking garages and street parking nearby, out-of-town guests have several ways to reach the restaurant without depending on a single lot filling up. Inside, the restaurant’s private dining room sits within solid, historic brick walls that read as much like a dining room as a wedding hall, so a DJ setup here favors a contained sound built for a private room rather than the open, cavernous acoustics of a purpose-built ballroom.