Move over Charleston, this SC city is booming. Here’s your guide on where to go, what to do
Anyone visiting Greenville today after decades or even five years would look around downtown wide-eyed and wonder.
It is that different.
For sure, a few historic buildings remain along Main Street — some smaller shops, the former Chamber of Commerce building — but there is so much new and so much more to do.
Even The Greenville News complex has been sold and replaced with an AC Hotel by Marriott and restaurants.
First and foremost, Greenville has become known as a foodie mecca. It’s been said more than 100 — some say as many as 200 — operate within the downtown sphere. There’s been some shakeout, but places like Soby’s, a fine dining restaurant that opened well before Greenvlle came into its own, remain.
Similarly, The Hyatt Hotel, which with an adjacent convention center, was part of the city’s original vision for revitalization, operates at the north end of Main Street. Dozens more hotels, representing every major chain, have filled in tracts to the south.
Textile town to urban city
The transformation has been noticed by major travel guides and magazines. Visitor spending to Greenville County amounts to more than $1.3 billion each year, the Greenville Visitors Bureau says.
Greenville has been called a city on the rise, a best small city, friendliest, best place to work remotely, best place to visit and most recently best place to vacation in 2023 by The New York Times..
Among the places these various publications considered must see and do are Mast General Store, Kitchen Sync restaurant, Falls Park on The Reedy — “Stunning natural beauty right off Main Street,” CNN said.
Unity Park, a 60-acre, city-developed park along another section of the Reedy River is probably too new to get into the pages of these magazines but for sure it will be.
Lifestyle journalist and podcaster Ari Bendersky wrote in The New York Times that visitors should go to the second location of Charleston’s Lewis Barbecue; Mr. Crisp for seafood, Keipi for Georgian khachapuri and ancient wines; Aryana for Afghani and Califas for Mexican birria tacos.
He quoted Sid Evans, the editor in chief of Southern Living, as saying “The food here is adventurous, and the chefs have embraced the global influences shaping the modern South.”
Southern Living called Greenville the No. 1 southern city on the rise in 2022.
Culinary gold mine
Southern Living called Greenville’s food scene a “culinary gold mine.”
Passerelle French Bistro next to Falls Park was named most romantic in the world by CNN Travel. It’s owned by Michael Minelli. His wife Jenifer, is the chef.
Minelli worked at Soby’s, where the Minellis met. He said working alongside Carl Sobocinski, owner of Table 301, Soby’s parent company, was essential in his development as a restaurant owner.
Passerelle was once one of Table 301’s venues. Sobocinski has long espoused the idea of developing concepts and passing them on to able hands.
“It’s been nothing but great,” Minelli said. “I get misty eyed.”
Travel + Leisure cited some of Greenville’s newest restaurants for dinner such as Jianna, a second-floor Italian restaurant; Urban Wren, “plates that resemble edible works of art (the chorizo-lobster corn dogs and tuna poke are personal favorites);” Camp, contemporary American. The Lazy Goat, Mediterranean-inspired, was the only longtime restaurant listed.
Greenville also has a number of rooftop bars, among them Up on the Roof at Embassy Suites and Juniper at AC Hotel and SIP atop One City Plaza, an office building.
Other specialty shops, features
Other notable businesses worth visiting are O.P. Taylor’s toy store, M. Judson Booksellers, Southern Tide Signature Store, and various boutiques. Greenville Mayor Knox White has been known to say a city cannot have too many women’s clothing stores.
The walk along Main Street is an adventure in itself with broad sidewalks lined by trees and other foliage. And at night the white lights in the trees create an almost fairyland feeling. No touch is too small for Greenville leaders focused on bringing back a forlorn landscape in what was once a city dominated by the textile industry.
Public art including sculptures, statues, murals, architectural elements/structures and historic pieces are found throughout. The most famous are the Mice on Main, nine small bronze creatures set on the ground along Main Street. It’s fun to try to find them all. There are clues available.
The statues honor many who shaped Greenville, including Max Heller, who as mayor began what long-time current mayor White calls the Greenville story of renewal, and Shoeless Joe Jackson, the legendary baseball player banned from baseball due to the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
Greenville is home to signature festivals including Artisphere in May, Euphoria, Sept. 14-17; and Fall for Greenville Oct. 13-14.
Also heralded in the city’s West End, immediately south of downtown, is the Greenville Drive baseball stadium. The building, reminiscent of Boston’s Fenway Park — the Drive is a High-A affiliate of the Red Sox — has its own Green Monster. Major League Baseball has honored the team for its fan experience. The next home game is Aug. 1 against the Rome Braves.
No visit is complete without a trolley ride, which runs along Main Street, including travel to the ballpark. And it’s free!
Joe Jackson
A museum honoring Shoeless Joe is located across from the baseball stadium inside the house Jackson and his wife Kate lived in for many years. The 1940 house was moved about 2 miles to the new site in 2006 in a major undertaking and includes Jackson memorabilia and a baseball library. Its address is 356 Field Street, in honor of Jackson’s lifetime batting average, still the third highest in baseball.
Jackson played 13 years in the major leagues until he and other White Sox players were accused of throwing the World Series in 1919. He denied cheating — and his batting average bears that out — but was banned from baseball for life. He came back to Greenville, operated a liquor store in West Greenville and died in 1951. Many from Greenville and around the country have tried to get the ban lifted to make Jackson eligible for the Baseball Hall of Fame. So far, no luck.
Conde Nast has named Greenville the friendliest city in the country twice and sixth best small city. Greenville has been on that list for 10 years.
No respectable list of things to do in Greenville would ignore the Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail, which begins in downtown and then extends some 20 miles to Travelers Rest.
Reedy Rides offers bike rental and the trail is easily walkable.
Theater and culture
And then there is the Peace Center for the Performing Arts, a sprawling complex resurrected from what was once a carriage factory manufacturer and the first home of Duke’s mayonnaise.
Six is finishing its run this week and Wicked opens Aug. 2.
The Peace Center also has an outdoor pavilion and beach music fans will be drawn to the Catalinas concert on Sept. 1.
For more edgy theater, check out the Warehouse Theater in the West End. It bills itself as “intense, intimate, unexpected.” Its 50th season opens Sept 8 with Twelfth Night.
Farther north is Greenville Theatre, located in an arts area alongside the Greenville County Museum of Art, Upcountry History Museum, Greenville Library and Children’s Museum. All are worth some time.
The history museum has an exhibit of children’s book author Eric Carle while the museum features American artists notably the world’s largest public collection of watercolors by Andrew Wyeth.
Places to stay
Greenville has no shortage of places to stay, including The Westin Poinsett, a 12-story Beaux Arts building built in 1925 that fell into disrepair along with the rest of Greenville’s downtown in the 1970s. It’s fully restored and is located in the heart of downtown.
Among the newer hotels is Grand Bohemian Lodge, a Marriott hotel that overlooks Reedy River Falls and Liberty Bridge.
It is a AAA Four Diamond boutique lodge, the hotel says on its website. It has a spa, curated art collection, an outdoor bar and restaurant overlooking the Reedy.
Hilton and Marriott have a number of properties downtown.
To round out a weekend stay, here’s a brunch suggestion from Open Table reservations service. It lists Soby’s New South Cuisine among the top 100 brunch restaurants in the country.
It’s South Carolina’s only one to make the list.
Brunch is served on Saturdays and Sundays with an a la carte menu of “Soby’s classics and Chef’s features” such as Fried Green Tomato Benedict, Challah French Toast, Croque Monsieur and biscuits and gravy and a favorite at brunch and dinner, shrimp and grits.
