By Taryn Kraimer

Twenty years ago Greenville, South Carolina was not a place you visited to experience cultures from around the world. Today, Greenville is a place where you can experience more than a dozen different international cuisines in a one-mile radius.

Greenville is a place where Carl Sobocinski saw potential back in 1997, giving new life to a building more than a hundred years old which was once a cotton exchange. Sobocinski opened Soby’s New South Cuisine, kicking off an explosion of downtown eateries.

Today, downtown Greenville is home to Rick Erwins which was awarded Open Table’s Top 50 Best Restaurants in the Nation, 2009. Then there’s Victoria Moore of the Lazy Goat who was one of four “Breakout Chefs to Watch” by John Mariani for Esquire Magazine November 2009. Nearby Soby’s New South Cuisine (Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence), High Cotton, Devereaux’s (Open Table Diner’s Choice) and American Grocery (Open Table Diner’s Choice 2010 Award) and dozens of other locally owned and operated restaurants feature a diversity of cuisine including Italian, Indian, Spanish, Asian and French. Acclaimed restaurateur Rick Erwin recently opened his second restaurant days ago, Nantucket. Nantucket is an authentic seafood restaurant in the downtown area. In autumn 2010, Charleston renowned chef Brett McKee of The Oak Steakhouse, O-ku Sushi and 17 North Roadside Kitchen, will be opening his restaurant Roadside Kitchen in the downtown area.

Despite these difficult economic times – and 2008 being the worst year for restaurants in the Upstate area on record -- the Greenville food scene has continues to thrive with few casualties.

“We’re feeding more people every night for the first quarter than we were a year ago. That’s an encouraging sign,” restaurateur Carl Sobocinski recently told The Greenville News. “Greenville restaurants will continue to flourish. We have put our stamp on Greenville as being a culinary town, a foodie town.”

For the past few years, chefs from all over the world have visited Greenville on a monthly basis to host guest chef evenings, cooking side by side with Greenville’s finest culinary gurus. Chefs like Thomas Keller, Guy Savoy, Craig Deihl, Alexander Genacelli, and hometown celebrity chef Tyler Florence have all experienced the magic that is Downtown Greenville.

Check back here for future Greenville culinary events.

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