The plates that define Greenville: what they are, and where to eat the canonical version.
The plates that define Greenville. what they are, where they came from, and where to eat the canonical version.
Slow-smoked pulled pork dressed with thin vinegar-and-red-pepper sauce. The original American barbecue sauce, traceable to Native American basting traditions.
Where: Henry's Smokehouse, Mac's Speed Shop
Price: $12-18
Sharp cheddar mixed with mayonnaise and roasted red peppers (pimentos), sometimes pickled jalapeño. The Carolinas claim it as a regional staple sandwich filling.
Where: Soby's New South Cuisine, Tupelo Honey
Price: $8-12 starter
Stone-fruit cobbler from the Upstate peach belt: ripe peaches, lemon, sugar and biscuit topping. South Carolina grows more peaches than Georgia, with Gaffney (an hour northeast of Greenville) the peach capital.
Where: Soby's New South Cuisine, Tupelo Honey, Henry's Smokehouse
Price: $8-12 dessert
Buttermilk-marinated chicken, double-dredged in seasoned flour, fried until the crust crackles. The Carolinas variation often runs spicier than Georgia's Nashville-influenced style.
Where: OJ's Diner, Tupelo Honey, GB&D (Golden Brown and Delicious)
Price: $14-22 plate
Lowcountry classic that travels Upstate via tourist demand: stone-ground grits cooked low with butter and cheese, topped with sauteed shrimp, andouille and pan sauce.
Where: Soby's New South Cuisine, Stella's Southern Brasserie, Halls Chophouse Greenville
Price: $22-32
Dry-cured ham from the Appalachian foothills: salt-cured, hickory-smoked, aged six months or more. Served thin on biscuits at breakfast, or as a cured meat platter.
Where: Soby's New South Cuisine, Tupelo Honey, Stella's Southern Brasserie
Price: $8-16 starter
Green peanuts boiled in salty brine, sometimes with Cajun spice or garlic. Sold by the bag at roadside stands all summer; an official state snack of South Carolina since 2006.
Where: TD Saturday Market, Mac's Speed Shop, Henry's Smokehouse
Price: $4-8 bag
Black tea brewed strong, sweetened heavily while hot, served over ice. South Carolina claims to be the birthplace; Charleston Tea Plantation is the only commercial tea farm in the United States.
Where: OJ's Diner, Henry's Smokehouse, Stax Omega Diner
Price: $3-5
Slow-smoked pulled pork dressed with thin vinegar-and-red-pepper sauce. The original American barbecue sauce, traceable to Native American basting traditions.
History: Vinegar-pepper sauce is perhaps the oldest barbecue sauce in the United States, with roots in basting techniques used by Native Americans in the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. It moved north into the Upstate through Carolina migration patterns. The Upstate uses the thinner vinegar sauce more than the Midlands mustard. Henry's Smokehouse has been doing the Upstate vinegar style on Wade Hampton since 1992.
Where to try it: Henry's Smokehouse, Mac's Speed Shop
Watch out for: May contain mustard
Sharp cheddar mixed with mayonnaise and roasted red peppers (pimentos), sometimes pickled jalapeño. The Carolinas claim it as a regional staple sandwich filling.
History: Pimento cheese became regional shorthand for Southern fixings in the early 1900s, when home economists pushed it as a sandwich filling for school lunches across the Carolinas. Greenville restaurants run it on every variation: Soby's serves a Spicy Pimento Cheese starter at dinner and brunch; Tupelo Honey runs pimento cheese fries.
Where to try it: Soby's New South Cuisine, Tupelo Honey
Watch out for: Dairy, Egg
Stone-fruit cobbler from the Upstate peach belt: ripe peaches, lemon, sugar and biscuit topping. South Carolina grows more peaches than Georgia, with Gaffney (an hour northeast of Greenville) the peach capital.
History: South Carolina is the second-largest peach producer in the United States behind California and ahead of Georgia despite Georgia's nickname. The Gaffney peach belt runs from Cherokee County through Spartanburg County into Greenville County. Peach season is mid-May through August; cobbler shows up on most Upstate menus then.
Where to try it: Soby's New South Cuisine, Tupelo Honey, Henry's Smokehouse
Watch out for: Wheat, Dairy, Egg
Buttermilk-marinated chicken, double-dredged in seasoned flour, fried until the crust crackles. The Carolinas variation often runs spicier than Georgia's Nashville-influenced style.
History: Fried chicken in the Carolinas traces to West African frying technique combined with Scottish flour-dredging. The meat-and-three diner format kept fried chicken on the lunch counter through the textile-mill years. OJ's Diner on Pendleton has been frying since the 1980s, with the chicken often sold out by 14:00.
Where to try it: OJ's Diner, Tupelo Honey, GB&D (Golden Brown and Delicious)
Watch out for: Wheat, Dairy, Egg
Lowcountry classic that travels Upstate via tourist demand: stone-ground grits cooked low with butter and cheese, topped with sauteed shrimp, andouille and pan sauce.
History: Shrimp and grits is rooted in the South Carolina Lowcountry, where Gullah cooks paired local shrimp with ground corn. Greenville is Upstate not coastal, but the dish anchors Southern menus across the state. Soby's and Stella's run versions on regular menus; Halls Chophouse keeps it on the brunch board.
Where to try it: Soby's New South Cuisine, Stella's Southern Brasserie, Halls Chophouse Greenville
Watch out for: Shellfish, Dairy, Pork
Dry-cured ham from the Appalachian foothills: salt-cured, hickory-smoked, aged six months or more. Served thin on biscuits at breakfast, or as a cured meat platter.
History: Country ham is a Carolina mountain tradition: pigs raised in the Appalachian foothills, cured with salt rubs, smoked over hickory, aged through the cool months. The technique came with Scotch-Irish settlers in the 1700s. Greenville sits at the edge of country ham country; Soby's keeps a country ham starter on the menu year-round.
Where to try it: Soby's New South Cuisine, Tupelo Honey, Stella's Southern Brasserie
Watch out for: Pork
Green peanuts boiled in salty brine, sometimes with Cajun spice or garlic. Sold by the bag at roadside stands all summer; an official state snack of South Carolina since 2006.
History: Boiled peanuts have been a Southern snack since the late 1800s, when farmers boiled green peanuts to use up excess crop on the farm. South Carolina formally adopted them as the official state snack in 2006. The Gaffney-to-Greenville drive in summer is dotted with roadside peanut shacks selling fresh bags hot from the boiler all day.
Where to try it: TD Saturday Market, Mac's Speed Shop, Henry's Smokehouse
Watch out for: Peanuts
Black tea brewed strong, sweetened heavily while hot, served over ice. South Carolina claims to be the birthplace; Charleston Tea Plantation is the only commercial tea farm in the United States.
History: Sweet tea is the unofficial Southern beverage. South Carolina's House of Representatives passed a 1995 resolution declaring sweet tea the official hospitality beverage. The Charleston Tea Plantation on Wadmalaw Island is the only commercial tea farm in the United States, growing the source for the Carolinas tea-and-sugar tradition.
Where to try it: OJ's Diner, Henry's Smokehouse, Stax Omega Diner
Greenville's signature dishes include Carolina vinegar-pepper barbecue, Pimento cheese, Peach cobbler, Southern fried chicken, Shrimp and grits. See our signature dishes chapter for where to eat each.