This SC restaurant offers an upscale menu with a side of vinyl. Here’s why you should visit

Here’s a restaurant you don’t see every day in Greenville.

Its general manager would take issue with calling South Main Social a restaurant, though. Or a listening room.

Rich Adams says simply, “It’s a destination.”

It is a place with a vast collection of vinyl records and a creative menu with such choices as chicken tempura bao buns and smashed dumpling tacos. Don’t forget the Worcestershire potato chips and Bourbon-Soy Glazed NY Strip.

Located at 631 South Main Street near Falls Park on the Reedy, it was developed by Foxcroft Food & Wine founder Conrad Hunter and inspired by Japan’s traditional kissaten-listening cafés.

Hunter worked as a professional musician — he began performing at 14 — and trained at Berklee College of Music in Boston.

He says on the website “a bottle of Bordeaux redirected his path toward hospitality.”

The city of Greenville calls South Main Social “high-quality sound and intentional ambiance.”

“Guests can enjoy a curated vinyl collection — spanning jazz, bossa nova, ambient, and more — played through a vintage hi-fi system, alongside in-house sets and guest DJs,” the city said on Facebook. “The result is a space designed to slow down, connect, and fully experience music, food, and conversation.”

Culinary Director Stephanie Klos said she draws from Southern and Asian influences.

The restaurant’s cocktails have been called inventive and include such creations as electrostatic driver (Hendrick’s Gin, Don Q Gold Rum, Hibiscus Mint Cordial, Lemon, Fever Tree Cucumber) and all analog (Caravedo Pisco, Novo Fogo Cachaca Lime, Sugar, Creme De Violet, Egg White).

They’re not all frou-frou. They’ve also got Miller High Life and regional craft beers.

“It’s about creating a space where people can listen, connect, and enjoy what’s in front of them, whether that’s the music, the food, or the company they’re with,” the website says.