columbia vs greenville vs florence (Lexington, Welcome: house, live in, shop)

[gsupstate]

Originally Posted by waccamatt

Columbia has great restaurants - I don't judge a city's culinary worth based on chain restaurants - I judge it on uniqueness.

Of the 100 plus restaurants in downtown Greenville and the fact that only maybe 5% are chains.....I'd say that gives Greenville a great of deal of the uniqueness you refer to. The fact that one of the most famous chefs in the nation (Tyler Florence) is from Greenville and looking for a restaurant location in Greenville says great things about the culinary scene. The fact that many famous chefs regularly visit Greenville (Rick Tramanto and Thomas Keller to name a couple) shows the growth of a local foodie scene.
Chef Rick Tramonto
Thomas Keller Restaurant Group

The many wineries just north of Greenville, along with the numerous area organic farms and healthy grocers (Whole Foods, Earth Fare, Garners, Fresh Market, Bloom, etc).....many of which have no showing in Columbia......

All in all, seems to add up to a great deal more than "chain restaurants" as you say.

[g-man430]

Don't forget about this annual food festival gsupstate: intro Greenville is also set to get a Trader Joes within the next two years. Pretty sad when Spartanburg can get a Costco but Columbia can't.

[waccamatt]

Originally Posted by gsupstate

Of the 100 plus restaurants in downtown Greenville and the fact that only maybe 5% are chains.....I'd say that gives Greenville a great of deal of the uniqueness you refer to. The fact that one of the most famous chefs in the nation (Tyler Florence) is from Greenville and looking for a restaurant location in Greenville says great things about the culinary scene. The fact that many famous chefs regularly visit Greenville (Rick Tramanto and Thomas Keller to name a couple) shows the growth of a local foodie scene.
Chef Rick Tramonto
Thomas Keller Restaurant Group

The many wineries just north of Greenville, along with the numerous area organic farms and healthy grocers (Whole Foods, Earth Fare, Garners, Fresh Market, Bloom, etc).....many of which have no showing in Columbia......

All in all, seems to add up to a great deal more than "chain restaurants" as you say.

Tyler Florence? Oh yeah, the guy that Applebee's brags about, lol.

Unique restaurants? The Vista, Five Points and the Devine Street corridor are full of them - Miyo's group, Hampton Street Vineyard, Divino, Dianne's on Devine, Bull Market, Gervais and Vine, Saki Tumi, etc. Nightlife - is there a Wet Willies in Greenville? Jillian's? Grocery stores - Earth Fare, Fresh Market, Rosewood Market, 14 Carrot, etc. See how ridiculous this game is? For every store, etc. there is in Greenville, there is something else that's in Columbia. This whole thread is ridiculous.

[gsupstate]

Originally Posted by waccamatt

Tyler Florence? Oh yeah, the guy that Applebee's brags about, lol.

Kind of obvious that to understand this discussion, one needs to know more than just wings and beer.

Tyler was the founding chef of Cafeteria in Manhattan.
Cafeteria - You Are. You Eat.

A bit more about Tyler.
Tyler Florence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[g-man430]

Originally Posted by waccamatt

Tyler Florence? Oh yeah, the guy that Applebee's brags about, lol.

Unique restaurants? The Vista, Five Points and the Devine Street corridor are full of them - Miyo's group, Hampton Street Vineyard, Divino, Dianne's on Devine, Bull Market, Gervais and Vine, Saki Tumi, etc. Nightlife - is there a Wet Willies in Greenville? Jillian's? Grocery stores - Earth Fare, Fresh Market, Rosewood Market, 14 Carrot, etc. See how ridiculous this game is? For every store, etc. there is in Greenville, there is something else that's in Columbia. This whole thread is ridiculous.

I need to try some of those restaurants. Here are some of the ones located in downtown Greenville: http://www.greenvillecvb.com/visit/search-Results.aspx We're all picking on Waccamatt.

[Skyliner]

Originally Posted by g-man430

I need to try some of those restaurants. Here are some of the ones located in downtown Greenville: http://www.greenvillecvb.com/visit/search-Results.aspx We're all picking on Waccamatt.

Those aren't restaurants, g-man.

[g-man430]

Originally Posted by Skyliner

Those aren't restaurants, g-man.

The link didn't work. Sorry about that Skyliner. Go here: Greenville Restaurants - Greenville Dining Guide - Greenville Night Life On the bottom select "downtown - Main Street area" under location and "all" under dining type. After that click search.

[CarolinaSouth803]

Originally Posted by g-man430

The link didn't work. Sorry about that Skyliner. Go here: Greenville Restaurants - Greenville Dining Guide - Greenville Night Life On the bottom select "downtown - Main Street area" under location and "all" under dining type. After that click search.

Actually G-man...i hate these back and forth things just as much...but while early it was stated that it was 100...doing what you say do on the link only returned 80 restaurants. If you go do the same thing on the Columbia CVB site you'll get about 170 options. I took the liberty of deducting Coffee shops, book store cafe's, Night Clubs that sell food and sections that while are the city limits of Columbia...aren't downtown {Forest Drive and part of Rosewood Dr.} and still came up with about 120 choices. And looking at that site i can name "Wet Willies, Gotham Bagel, Carolina Ale House, Baker Brothers American Deli @ Adesso, Paulies Philadephia Eatery and etc (and no fast-food places were included in this either) as being missing from that list. I'm sure their are more...i just can't think of them right now.

See how this game can go back and forth...and with that said i'm sure Myrtle Beach or Charleston will blow both Columbia and Greenville out of the water with the number of restaurants they have.

But don't be fooled... Columbia has a lot of local, state or regional eateries located downtown. The only uber popular chains restuarant located downtown are Longhorn Steakhouse and IHOP...no Applebees, Chilli's, Ruby Tuesdays and etc are downtown.

[g-man430]

The list I linked to doesn't list all of the restaurants in downtown Greenville. There are over 100 restaurants in downtown Greenville alone. Very few chains. I hate arguing about this silly stuff too.

[CarolinaSouth803]

Originally Posted by g-man430

The list I linked to doesn't list all of the restaurants in downtown Greenville. There are over 100 restaurants in downtown Greenville alone. Very few chains. I hate arguing about this silly stuff too.

That's all i was saying too...I know Greenville has a lot of resturants, coffee shops, ice cream eateries and etc downtown...but i wanted it to be known that the immediate nodes in downtown Columbia have just as many...which aren't major chains. Places like Motor Supply Company Bistro, Blue Marlin, Ristorante Divino, Gervias & Vine, Nonnah's, SakiTumi Grill, Harpers, The Oyster Bar, Hampton St Vineyard, Mac's on Main, M Vista, M Cafe, Gothom Bagel, Yesterday's and more that i can't think off of the top of my head right now. Of course Columbia has lesser known nationwide chains like Damon's, Carolina Ale House, Wild Wings Cafe, Jimmy John's and etc. but still has a lot of local or state run eateries downtown. I think Mont ENT was boasting P.F. Changs...which is chain and really isn't that good...maybe it was the one we went to in Charlotte wasn't great.