The latest incarnation of the Greenville Bar and Grill is not rehashing of what it had been for so many years because, as co-owner Terri Russo says, “that time has passed.”
Gone are the boarded up windows meant to help acoustically when bands would play, and gone are the three layers of floors that many previous owners had just added onto instead of stripping.
You could say it’s the original Bar and Grill, found amid all the rubble.
Russo and her three partners, all of whom had worked together at Primo’s for about 10 years and who had frequented the Bar and Grill in the late ’70s and early ’80s, had a soft spot for this established eatery and watering hole.
“Nobody wanted to put the work into it to keep it up and going because it was in such bad shape, but it’s been a real labor of love for us,” Russo says. “We wanted to keep its integrity, but also at the same time we wanted it to be new, and different.”
A long while’s restoration (which the foursome initially thought would last some 90 days) was made so because of permits and the fact they kept finding things such as three floors and wiring in strange places. This year, the foursome re-opened a fresh and spare restaurant in exactly the same structure people remember. The floors are original, as is the sign, which was permitted back in 1929; the bar is long and sleek, and the windows are no longer boarded up.
The menu has lightened considerably, as well.
Both the restaurant’s chef and sous chef hail from the Crescent Court and are preparing far such as Tequila Pan Roasted Shrimp, Asian BBQ Salmon, Grilled Seasonal Vegetables in addition to bringing back bar-room favorites such as quesadillas, chicken fingers and sammys galore.
