Ice skating is out, 2 new restaurants are in as downtown Greenville continues to evolve

After 11 years, Greenville’s downtown holiday season ice rink will need to relocate due to new restaurants coming into the hotel complex that owns the courtyard.

The last day for Ice on Main is Jan. 17.

Windsor-Aughtry Co. told city officials in November that the restaurant now in the Courtyard Marriott hotel — Nantucket Seafood — will be leaving in February.

It will be replaced by two smaller restaurants owned by Indigo Road Hospitality Group of Charleston and will include an outdoor bar and seating area that will take up about a third of the space that had been used by the ice rink.

Normally, the courtyard, located between the hotel and Greenville City Hall, is an underused grassy area.

The $45 million complex, Main @ Broad, was completed in 2010 and includes a 135-room Courtyard Marriott, office space, retail and a parking garage.

Nantucket Seafood, part of the Rick Erwin Dining Group, has been located in the building since it opened. Erwin could not be reached for comment, but The Greenville News reported he intends to move the restaurant, not close it. No location has been identified.

Erwin closed Rick’s Deli & Market, also downtown, Dec. 31, after 10 years.

The city, meanwhile, is looking for a new place to put the popular Ice on Main. About 20,000 people skate there each season, which runs about two months from mid-November to mid-January.

That number may be less this year because the rink was closed for about a week during unseasonably warm temperatures in late December and early January.

Beth Brotherton, spokesperson for the city of Greenville, said a number of events have happened on the ice, including an event by the Palmetto Curling Club this week, and last year, a couple got engaged on the ice.

This story was originally published January 7, 2022 at 1:10 PM.