Greenville, SC Trip....

Got here on Wednesday and ate dinner at the Lazy Goat...Sort of a tappas place. Had a terrific flatbread pizza with fennel sausage, onions, etc. served on a wood plank. They have a brick oven and it was very good. I did not find much else on the menu for me..Nice looking non-roadfood place..I did not pick the place...

Greenville's downtown area is amazing. It is absolutely beautiful. I guess everything is relative, but coming from the area we now live in, this was really impressive. We spent the entire day today looking at houses....It is a really nice city.

Today we had lunch at Lieu's Chinese Bistro and all four of us enjoyed it. I'm the Chinese food lover in the group and I insisted on going to this place and I really liked it. Strangely, they had a clear broth won ton soup and it was very good. I had a basic..I just wanted to just check it out and so I ordered sweet and sour chicken. It was very good and I can live with this place, if we decide to move to Greenville! I know I can get good Chinese food here.

Second dinner was wonderful! We ate at Sassafrass Southern Cuisine. I had one of the biggest and best double pork chops I've ever had. Brined and cooked to perfection and served with apple chutney, mac n cheese, and a terrific hush puppy and green beans with bacon. My wife had the tuna and she loved it, too. Our friends had the trout and a steak salad. It was all just terrific.

Service was great, the prices fair (restaurants are a bit pricy in this town) and the portions enormous. Nobody could finish their entree..Nobody had an appetizer. And nobody had room for dessert.

More to come tommorrow. Only bummer so far is the gas situation. The town is basically out of gas! No premium gas...Lots of stations without gas at all! A pain in the ass!

Continuing with my report, last night we "had to eat" at Devereau's, a place one of our friends wanted to go to. A place I would never in a million years go to on my own. I thought it was terrible. The prices were absurd, the portions were absurdly small, but most of all..the food itself was not good. I would stay away from this place at all costs.

After that horrible meal, I insisted we have desert elsewhere. We walked downtown and found this coffee and ice cream place called Spill The Beans and they had a machine I have never seen before..An ice cream auger (?). It was amazing. You place either vanilla or chocolate ice cream in a cylinder and add your toppings ..things like strawberries, milk chocolate, etc. The machine then spins it all together and it comes out like a firm soft serve. It was very good. After each order is completed, the operator pushes a button and water automatically shoots through the cylinder cleaning it and readying for the next order. I am going to guess this is a machine made by the Taylor Company..Just a guess.

Today, I got the crew to try Smokin Stokes BBQ...I ordered the rib plate with mac n cheese and baked beans..My wife had the pulled chicken and our friends both ordered the pulled pork. They also has slaw and potato salad.

The owner(s) displayed lots of trophies and signed testimonials..they loved their Cerrywine (soda) BBQ sauce..That's what they're known for. I was not impressed. Very thin and I just did not think much of it or any of their sauces frankly. Far too watery and lacking flavor.

Everyone liked their food..except me. Hey, I am a hard person to please so take my comments for whatever they're worth. I've eaten a lot of "Q" and my standards are Arthur Bryant's (KC,MO) and Tom Jenkin's (South Fla) and these ribs just did not stack up. I'd rate them a 4 on a scale of 10. Sorry.

I did not like the baked beans at all..The mac and cheese was just ok. But, the banana pudding was terrific! Made with oreo cookies (yup) it had a wonderful consistancy and taste. A real winner.

Greenville has a park downtown that is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen. They have a new minor league baseball stadium and we also visited the Furman Campus, which was absolutely beautiful.

Whoever was the urban planner for this town's revitalization should be hired to run this country! That's how good a job he or she's done. I thought Chattanooga had done a good job with their downtown area..It's nothing in comparison to what we've seen in this gem of a town. If you ever have the opportunity to visit or pass through on your way to someplace else, do yourself a favor and plan to stay a day or two. You will not be sorry.

I am just guessing but having access to some of this country's top firms like Fluor makes a big difference. However they got the money, this town has transformed the downtown area into one of the most amazing and friendly areas I've ever seen. Kudos to Greenville, SC!!

Sounds like a great time Ben! I can't begin to tell you how to deal with the gas. We're just trying to not go anywhere.

Nancy--It has improved a lot today (Friday) and premium is available in some places...Panic has slowed. I hope it is better for you....

Thanks for the report Baah Ben. When I used to have Clemson season tickets, I would always stay in Greenville. It really is a very nice place. I hope you are going to hit Charlie's Steakhouse. That was a must eat for me on every visit.

Looking forward to the rest of the report!

I just added on to my initial report......Hope you all enjoy it.

I have to agree with you about the revitalization; Columbia is trying that now and whereas it's a big difference from ten years ago it's not quite what Greenville's has turned out to be. I really hope ours will continue to grow. I remember well when downtown Greenville was a hole.