Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2017 - 61

1. Crispy Farm Egg with NC
Country Ham, Gnocchi alla
Romana, Butterbean Salad
Romesco at American Grocery

2. Miso Glazed Pork Belly
with Boiled Peanut Hummus,

AAron Greene

Kimchi Tare, Crispy Leeks at
American Grocery
3. Pineapple Express and
Grocery

AAron Greene

Blackberry Sour at American

Those local chickens are responsible for another starter, one that always attracts immediate attention
from diners: the fried deviled egg.
Similar to a Scotch egg but without
the sausage, the egg is covered with
a thin breadcrumb coating, which
adds another texture, another dimension, to the Southern church
supper staple.
American Grocery's trout originates across the state line, at Sunburst
Trout Company near Canton, North
Carolina. After raising trout mainly
to feed a short-lived chinchilla business, Dick Jennings opened the first
commercial trout farm in the South
in 1948, thereby establishing a permanent place for himself and his
family among the pioneers of sustainable aquaculture in America.
To Sunburst trout filets, American Grocery adds a Spanish touch,
serving the fish over a paella with
chorizo sausage and potatoes.
North Carolina's Brasstown Beef
supplies ribeye steaks, from cows
that have been fed special dietary
supplements of cinnamon, garlic,
and kelp. Founded in 1954, the
farm is an environmental stewardship award winner of the National
Cattlemen's Beef Association.
While she was serving those un-

official restaurant apprenticeships
in New York, Darlene became a
Certified Sommelier.
"The philosophy at American
Grocery Restaurant of sourcing
high-quality products from local,
artisanal purveyors is the same focus we share with our wine selections," she says. "I take great care
to seek out the 'farmer' winemaker,
not the 'factory' winemaker."
The difference is strikingly apparent. The menu offers a flight
of three rosé wines: one from
Provence in the south of France,
one from near Lisbon, Portugal,
and one from the Basque region of
Spain. The Spanish Txakolina Rosé
from 2016 went on our "to buy" list
immediately. The Ameztoi family
has been making wines in Basque
country for seven generations.
American Grocery's custom wine
room holds more than 100 handpicked artisan boutique wines from
all over the world.
As we sit in a room decorated
with a pig cut from a wooden crate
and with the word "Fragile" imprinted across its chest, we learn
that one of American Grocery's
top-selling cocktails is the Pig on
the Porch, made with house-infused bacon bourbon and South

Carolina's own Blenheim ginger
ale, bottled independently since
1903. The drink is garnished with a
homemade pork rind.
Bar manager and head mixologist Kirk Ingram, born on the north
side of Chicago, makes his own bitters, tinctures, and tonics.
For dessert, banana pudding is
transformed into a maple-bourbonsyrup-soaked cake, local strawberries
are dressed in vanilla-whipped mascarpone cheese, and lemon cake,
in the shape of a muffin, sits atop a
smearing of toasted meringue.
When the check comes to the
table, it's accompanied by a grocery
list. It's a clever way of honoring
all the local and regional suppliers whose commitment to the land
and waters of the Carolinas and
beyond has made this downtown
Greenville restaurant such a culinary wonder.
American Grocery Restaurant
732 South Main Street,
Greenville, South Carolina
864-232-7665;
americangr.com
Fred and Jill Sauceman study and
celebrate the foodways of Appalachia
and the South from their home in Johnson City, Tennessee. 
July/August 2017 61

http://www.americangr.com

Blue Ridge Country - July/August 2017

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