Relocation/housing trip to Greenville, SC

Hey Swagger,

I'm borrowing/slightly altering my thoughts from a Greenville thread from a few months back below. I've lived here for about 3 years and can walk downtown, so I'm pretty familiar with the scene (and the neighorhoods in and around downtown). Should you have additional questions, feel free to hit me up here or via BM. Also, if you find yourself with a spare half hour while you're here, maybe I can buy ya a pint.

Bars/Restaurants
(From a beer standpoint, the first 3 below are the only ones I'd call a "must visit".)
* Barley's- Until recently, had the best tap list in town in a landslide. Decent pizza, too.
* Trappe Door- In Barley's basement. Incredible selection of Belgian beers, most of them bottled, but with an always intriguing small selection of taps as well. Great mussels.
* Mac's Speed Shop- Beer and BBQ, what's not to love? These guys opened up earlier this year and immediately dropped arguably the best beer selection in town on us. A lotta taps, a lotta cans, a lotta bottles. Good food, and not just BBQ.
* Blue Ridge- From a beer standpoint, this brewpub is maddeningly inconsistent. Great food, though. Grab an ESB or seasonal brew and some awesome pimento cheese dip, steer clear of the pale ale and blonde.
* Nose Dive- Our local "gastropub". Small draft selection, excellent burger. If you happen to be around on Saturday or Sunday morning, the grits bar makes for a divine brunch.
* Mellow Mushroom- I reckon these guys are all over, so you probably know what you're getting into: pretty good pizza, pretty good beer selection.
* Velo Fellow- In the basement of the building that houses the Mellow Mushroom. Very nice pub food, cozy atmosphere, great jukebox and a small but carefully chosen tap list.
* Carolina Ale House- If you're into sports bar kinda places with a ton of TVs and the typical wings and burgers kinda menu, this is your place. A lot of taps, half of which are BMC, but plenty of good selections, too.
* The Green Room- Great food, small tap list but with a selection or 2 that usually isn't on anywhere else in town. (Example: They almost always have NB Belgo IPA on.)
* Misc.- There are a number of places to drink up and down Main St. Most of them aren't especially noteworthy from a craft beer standpoint, but if you're looking to put a pub crawl kinda thing together, it's easily done. Also, there are a ton of great restaurants downtown, not necessarily with much of a beer selection. Hit me up with a BM if you're looking for a certain cuisine.

Bottle Shops
(I consider the first 2 the "must visit" shops.)
* Greenville Beer Exchange- Right around the corner from Barley's. Impressive selection of brews shoehorned into a tiny space. Plentiful growler offerings.
* The Community Tap- Just outside of downtown. The selection is a notch smaller than GBX, but the customer service is awesome. Great little neighborhood business, and they frequently toss some suprising stuff on the growler station "just because". In some cases, these will be the same brews that GBX has advertised for a "rare beer" event.
* Whole Foods- A little out of the way, but I throw them in here because they've got some kinda wacky deals going on that result in them putting brews on the shelves here that aren't a part of normal SC distribution. "Brewery exclusives" or something, they call 'em. Example: I picked up a Diamond Knot DIPA from Washington.

 

A BM conversation with Jeremy revealed that Mauldin and Greer are strong contenders for his next home. I know zero about Mauldin and not very much about Greer. (Although this little place is pretty cool: http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/28203/view=beerfly )

If anyone can help out with those areas, please chime in.

 

Jeff pretty much hit all the highlights with his list. If you are moving to Mauldin or Greer, the quick trip up Hwy 29 into Greenville is your best bet. Not a lot going on in either if I'm honest.

 

One thing Jeff didn't exactly state, but kinda hinted at ... southern hospitality. Those upstate SC BAs I've met have it in spades!

 

Perhaps we are due for another Greenville BA meetup?

 

Hopswagger, make sure your new crib has a big deck, den, backyard or basement!

 

Let me know when you are in town. And don't worry, you will get to meet quite a few of us in the Upstate once we do another planned tasting. Cheers!

 

Hey Jeremy, depending on what part of Roper Mtn Rd you're on, you may want to add Green's onto your bottle shop radar as well. While you're not likely to find anything super rare there, you'll certainly find a wide selection of quality beer in surprising quantity*, and the prices are in general quite competitive.

http://www.greensbeverages.com/mapsc1.shtml#Greenville

*As in, huge stacks of stuff like Torpedo laying around. Be sure to check dates on that kinda stuff. This ain't exactly the craft beer hotbed of the world, and it's not uncommon to find old (for my preference) IPAs laying around. This applies to all the shops, but Green's and Whole Foods in particular really stockpile certain stuff.