Greenville’s food scene punches above its weight. I don’t mean that in a negative way towards any of the local restaurants around here. Greenville has plenty of great options to eat around here. And that’s the problem. If I can speak out about anything with a firm stance it’s the local hospitality industry.

There are approximately 1660 plus eateries and bars in Greenville county. 200 plus just downtown. Population 570,000 with a few more here and there. 343 people per establishment. Most demographics try to hover 450-500 per restaurant. Probably a less fickle fan base also.

Out of the restaurants, bake shops, bars, coffee shops, delis let’s say on average we need 10 people to fully staff. This obviously is a very rough estimate my old restaurants were ideal with 30 people each although we ran about 10% understaffed at all times. My deli employs two full time with two part time employees. 10 is a solid number but I’ll bet it’s closer to 15. If you were to staff all of the restaurants open in Greenville it would take almost 3% of our county population to fill the roles. 1 out of 34 people would have to work in the service industry.

Working population is about 60% so it would actually be 1 out of 20 people with a service industry job. Most of those employees are just shuffling from one place to the next because they can.

1 out of 20.

1665 places to eat in this county.

There are some very fortunate places that have hit the right spot at the right time. I’ve seen some amazing places here crash and burn and I’ve watched some with frozen bags of shit on plates but they are in that vortex of supporters where they’ll never suffer except for staffing on occasion. They usually have the same waitstaff since the Carter administration. I’m not knocking them good for you I find myself putting more effort in my craft out of survival not for fun. Maybe I need to buy some microwaves.

Slow death concepts right now? White people tacos are fading fast along with breweries. Insurance is a concept killer for small dive bars and regular bars. Rent in downtown is around $40 per square foot? I could be wrong I haven’t researched lately but I’d be surprised if it was lower.

Beef is getting real interesting again. It’s been a minute since we’ve had to kill a couple of million chickens so stay tuned.

When people ask me to consult I often warn them that I’m a tad jaded but I’ll also toss these numbers at them and encourage them to find another business to throw their money away. I wish I had the luxury of opening another place in an entirely different city and market. I’ve mentioned to my wife how the charcuterie boxes would thrive in a high volume tourist area. 30A in the summer with a little spot next to all the shops? It would thrive. Then I think about overhead and staffing. No thanks.

I didn’t build Grazeland around me I built it around Greenville’s over saturated market. This is about all I know. To survive I created a function around a function. Charcuterie is a decent enough business. I know if I have slow weeks that eventually the holidays come around and I make my grab and dash. Wedding season helps and Halloween looks to be a good time for me. I added sandwiches because I already have meat and cheese I just needed a bakery to bring me bread. Charcuterie is 75% of my sales. If I depended on the deli side I’d be out of business already. Everyday I’ll have a handful of customers come in for the first time and remark “this is the best sandwich I’ve ever had” and then never see them again. Greenville is tough. I used to do a small local market in my deli but no one bought anything. Grab and go specials? I’d throw most of them away. I quit making pudding because I’d throw it away after a week. Then I’d see someone remark about a fast food chain’s pudding being out of this world and it literally is poured out of a 10# can. I’ve already mentioned I’m jaded.

I got lucky by grabbing a chunk of the charcuterie business at the right time. I branded it well and am fortunate to be one of the first people you go to for charcuterie. I worked diligently to get there it wasn’t handed to me. Every few months or so I’ll see some asshat around here trying to replicate what I do. I’m not referring to the charcuterie part I didn’t invent fucking charcuterie hell I couldn’t even pronounce it 6 years ago. It’s the deliberate use of pizza boxes and my style is when I shake my head and then give you the finger through my phone. Use a little effort to create your own shit. Someone got upset with me several years ago for calling them out for using a Chinese togo box with little fried morsels in it and a dipping sauce that looked just like one of my most popular dishes at Southern. Some people can only replicate.

Greenville rarely has any new ideas it’s mostly a regurgitation of ideas from other places restauranteurs enjoy or a carbon copy of a concept they want to replicate. Believe me on this one I was just exposed to it for years. I cut my teeth with one.

Greenville tourism is decent enough for downtown restaurants to thrive. Swamp rabbit helps Travelers Rest but the busiest eatery out there is the chick fil a. The residents hate the ever growing population up there. A simple glance into the resident page will tell you that. If you aren’t in these locations the tourists will never hear about you if you aren’t exhalted on yelp. Yelp actually helps my exposure to out of towners. It’s definitely not the city whose main social media page won’t even acknowledge my presence without a $500 boost.

My jading is showing.

I’m not better than anyone else I’ll read that a restaurant I enjoyed dining at closed recently and then realize I hadn’t eaten there in the last year. Two miles from my home.

Why? As an honest consumer it would be

1. Price point was just a tad more than I’d want to spend for a regular night out. $75 for two people isn’t a regular dinner for me.
2. The fare was a little too specialized for me. Yes I like that style of food but it’s not on my weekly digestion rotation.
3. In that two mile radius I have literally 200 other places to chose from. I live in the city.
4. Like most of Greenville I’m a creature of habit. If you are able to sink your consumerism into my routines you’re gold. I’m just like everyone else I’m looking for a 5 tool concept of pricing, above average fare, consistency, atmosphere and friendly service. Preferably local. Those aren’t high standards.

I just eliminated 75% of the places in Greenville. Even some of my favorite go to’s have changed owners and aren’t the same anymore.

The general public doesn’t understand the food cost chain. If your hamburger meat went up from $2.50 a pound to $6 a pound at the grocery store that means the food purveyors prices went up too. A simple example of food costs is you mark up your pricing 300% across the board for your menu. If you’re serving an 8oz burger patty that used to be $2.50 a lb (that was the price of ground beef before Covid) then your patted protein would be $1.25. Marked up 300% and that’s loose because 33.3% food cost is a tad high then your burger price starts at $3.75 add bun, cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion and a dollop of mayo and it may (last time I costed it out buns were $.34 each, cheese $.26 lto .$16 cents a squirt of mayo $.05) that would put you right at $6.80 for just a regular old burger in 2019. 33% is not the best food cost so if you pushed it down to 30% it would be around $7.20. Give or take here folks I’m not using a calculator I used to do food cost in my head for fun.

2025

Last time I checked ground chuck was around $5 lb. That’s the 81/19 regular ground with a toenail or two included. So now it’s 2.50 per patty buns are around $.40, cheese probably $.30 lto hasn’t blown apart although iceberg lettuce is high right now. So that same cheeseburger went up to around $11.35 with a 30% food cost in mind. $11.35 sounds reasonable but let’s not forget to add some fries to that. Bacon? $4 a lb average if you’re using 18-22 per that means you get 18-22 pieces of bacon per pound. Thats some skinny ass bacon around 25% of that will break, crumble or get too burnt on the corners because your convection oven is surly. We will round it out to 16 perfect slices of bacon per pound. You know you’re gonna eat a slice or two while you’re working. $.25 per slice of bacon. Two slices per burger =$.50 so mark up is $1.50 ish. Now your burger is around $13. Still haven’t added the fries. Last time I costed potatoes out fries were around $.40 per ideal portion. Ideal. If you own a restaurant that serves fries go through your trash on the line and see how many fries are hanging out. I used to keep a 5 gallon bucket on the line for “fry trash” to see how much we threw out. We’d fill it up on a Friday night. So fries $1.50 additional menu upcharge. Fry oil was also around $20 a box then. The shittiest brand is about $30-$36 now. Don’t quote me on that though. Anyway your burger is now $14.50- $15.00. $15.12 if you like pickles.

The consumer doesn’t calculate for market increases in the service industry like they do the grocery stores. They expect restaurants to eat more of that 4% bottom line. All they see is their favorite burger place go up 30% over the next year and either eat at home or opt for the Soylent Green burgers the fast food chains serve. I used to work for a steakhouse when steak prices were considered high at $9 a lb I can’t imagine what it must be like now. You gotta have some balls to open a steakhouse right now. Or anything for that matter. When I opened LTO we were labeled too expensive for a double pattied burger with brisket, sirloin and short rib grind for $10.95

With side included and bacon. You see Greenville likes the finer things in the foodie world but they don’t want to pay for it out of their pocket. I’ll watch customers at the deli raw dog a footlong sandwich with no beverage because I don’t offer free tap water. I charge $1.50 for beverages and bottled water.

I’ve said it for years. Greenville wears the crown of a foodie town. It’s just made of brass.

The food is here. The support is not. Greenville is a value seeking town and that will never change. Sure there are some fantastic foodies here I’m surrounded by them.

Greenville is unique with its ever growing service industry without the population to man it and support it.

But

We keep opening up new ones every week.

The bubble burst long ago. Put your half million/million dollar investment into something else. Or at least another city. I’m not jaded when I say that it’s simple economics here.

I’m glad I don’t depend on consulting for my income..

If you’re kicking ass out here kudos to you old boy but don’t take it for granted. It can fade fast. From what I’ve heard..

I’m about to hit the middle of my lease soon. Always got the things on my mind. Might have my sign up by the end of it. I could give you some fun stories of dealing with the city along with trying to run a business too but then we are really talking jaded.

I think I used the word jaded about a dozen times here.

Jaded

Anyway hit me up if you ever need restaurant consultation. Cheers