Southern Progress

A serene, sylvan setting and a radical approach to city planning have made Greenville, South Carolina, a surprising new hot spot.

- Tom Vanderbilt

Joe Clarke, chef-owner of American Grocery Restaurant in Greenville, South Carolina, was running late for our meeting. But provisioned with an Autumn Sweater cocktail (a blend of pecan-infused bourbon and black-walnut bitters) and a plate of fried deviled eggs, I was in no ruckus-making mood.

Clarke was behind schedule because he had been working on the launch of his second restaurant—a far harder task today than when he opened American Grocery nine years ago, for reasons implied by the crane toiling on a new high-end apartment building outside. It’s just one of multiple signs that Greenville, though a name that may still draw a blank for many (its official has hag is the self deprecating # yeah THAT greenville), is on a fevered upswing.

Clarke, a South Carolina native who worked in Hollywood for a dozen years, returned to the state with his wife in 2005. Back then, Greenville’s West End neighborhood, where he took over a boarded-up building, was somewhat down at the heels. Today, his place sits on a virtual restaurant row that’s soon to be inhabited by chef Sean Brock, whose Husk in Charleston was named by Bon Appétit as the Best New Restaurant in America in 2011.