Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2015 - 60

Island red peas. Sweet corn maque
choux. Morel mushroom and
asparagus ragout. Sorghum-glazed
carrots. Swiss chard. Fried okra.
Fingerling garlic-encrusted potatoes. The morel mushrooms were
foraged from around Spartanburg.
The sorghum was imported, from
Monterey, Tennessee.
The menu changes, but one of
the constants, despite the season, is
white-chocolate banana cream pie.
Soby's New South Cuisine, 207
South Main Street, Greenville, South
Carolina
864-232-7007; sobys.com

Fred Sauceman

Amid ChAoS,
ConSiStenCy

Beacon Drive is One of Spartanburg's most recognizable landmarks.

Dorn said he recently passed
by "one of our better retail locations" and noticed that on the
marquee, it said, "We now sell
Clemson Bleu Cheese."
"I called him and said, 'Look,
that's the European way. Here, we
spell it blue.'"
clemson.edu/bluecheese

SenSible new
Southern Cooking
Eva Frye, our server at Soby's New
South Cuisine in Greenville,
South Carolina, says people drive
from the coast - from Charleston
no less - to have she-crab soup.
Oftentimes, the term "new
South cuisine" means an overdone amalgamation of things a
true Southern cook would never
imagine. Not so at Soby's. The
offerings are simple yet sophisticated and very much tied to the
region and its seasons, with an
occasional reaching out to coastal
classics like she-crab soup.
I can easily imagine Soby's
60 BlueRidgeCountry.com

deviled eggs being served at
Executive Chef Shaun Garcia's
grandmother's restaurant in
Spartanburg County. The only
difference? Piped filling and a celery leaf garnish.
Soby's, on South Main, is at
the center of lively Greenville, in a
building that once housed a cotton exchange and later a grocery
store.
"Then it housed Cancellation
Shoes, with shag carpet," says Frye.
"They covered these beautiful brick
walls with plaster."
Enter Carl Sobocinski. The architecture graduate from Clemson
University revealed the old brick,
transforming the building into a
stunningly beautiful restaurant,
whose name is a shortened version
of his own. Frye tells us the skylight
is the oldest one in South Carolina.
We visited Soby's on a late
spring evening. Consider the offerings. Local hydroponic heirloom
tomatoes. Ramp succotash with
fava beans and sweet corn. Sea

Enter The Beacon Drive-In, located
in Spartanburg, South Carolina,
and you will witness one of the
miracles of the food world. Hordes
of people approach the counter.
Orders are shouted to the kitchen.
Nothing is written down. Your
order emerges just as you
requested.
John White, a World War II veteran, opened the place on
Thanksgiving Day in 1946. Fiftytwo years later, a section of
Reidsville Road was renamed John
B. White, Sr. Boulevard.
John White was good to his
people. The average career of a
Beacon employee during his time
was 28 years. The drive-in has a
hall of fame and memorial wall,
giving credit to the employees who
made the place successful.
"A social salad of young and
old, rich and poor, blue-collar and
professional, regulars and tourists
can be found huddled together in
wide-open, noisy dining rooms
where 350 people can eat at one
time," writes one of my former students, Susan Shelton. "It is an oasis
of comfort, constancy, and
companionship."
The chili cheeseburger is the
drive-in's best-seller, and employees say they serve more sweet tea
than any restaurant in the country.
http://www.sobys.com http://www.clemson.edu/bluecheese http://www.BlueRidgeCountry.com
Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2015

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