GREENVILLE — A lot can happen in 20 years. And this year, euphoria is proving the point with a lineup of events that is at once new and unique but also familiar.
This year’s food wine and music festival will bring 81 events during four days in September. These include 18 classroom culinary learning experiences, seven Michelin chefs and two events that honor Greenville’s culinary past.
“We really felt like we wanted to highlight what makes Greenville and the culinary scene so great,” said Morgan Allen, executive director of euphoria. “We had lots of people giving us ideas and places we might not think about.”
This year is an examination and a celebration of Greenville’s culinary landscape over the last 20 years.
The festival that started as Southern Exposure with a wine tasting and Ritz crackers on Saturday and a jazz brunch on Sunday has evolved into a four-day festival in the fall, but a year-round event. The Spring Fest takes place Thursday, April 23 – Sunday, April 27.
Each year has brought something new, from a concerted partnership with Michelin in 2016 to a more-focused effort to diversify the culinary talent in 2022, to an effort to uplift smaller restaurants this year.
This year brings new locations and restaurant participants including Maria’s Kitchen at The Drop-In Store, a beloved bodega that sits in the back of a convenience store on the edge of the North Main community.
Another will be held at Spinx Market & Eatery, which opened in the fall in the West End and serves up a wine selection, locally made sourdough and the gas station’s famous fried chicken.
And yet another first, one of the guest-chef dinners Saturday evening will be held at Saskatoon Steakhouse & Wild Game. The restaurant owned by Edmund and Renee Woo has been serving a unique wild game steakhouse experience for over 30 years.
“We wanted to be really intentional about let’s find something that hits so many places in Greenville and the diversity in cuisine,” Allen said.
At 20 years now, euphoria is leaning into its grassroots, but in a more formal way. The four-person staff has organized a variety of experiences based on local connections.
No superstar Emeril this year, but there are some exciting attendees.
Jordan Kahn, owner of the two-Michelin star and Michelin green star restaurant Verspertine and the one-star restaurant Meteora in Los Angeles will cook at a dinner with three other Michelin chefs Saturday evening. The chef who was born in Savannah, Ga., at 17, was the youngest chef to work at The French Laundry, Thomas Keller’s famed restaurant.
Looking to the past, euphoria will be a dinner honoring Devereaux’s, the former ambitious restaurant that decades ago pushed the bounds of eating in the Upstate during its nine-year run.
Another event will pay homage to American Grocery Restaurant, which operated in the space that is now Curean for 10 years. The restaurant, which opened in 2007, is considered one of the first in Greenville to push forward and honor local sourcing.
This year also brings the most classroom sessions, which meld learning and flavor, and a free community concert which will take place Wednesday, Sept. 17 at Camperdown Plaza.
The euphoria non-profit arm, Local Boys Do Good donated $140,000, the most ever, from funds raise during last year’s events.
The money, which was presented Wednesday evening went to seven local non-profits, with each receiving $20,000: Walt’s Waltz, the Meyer Center for Special Children, Mill Village Farms, Feed & Seed, Southern Smoke Foundation, The Family Effect and a la Heart GVL, a new initiative to provide emergency assistance and support to local food and beverage industry workers.
Tickets for euphoria go on sale April 24. The schedule is available online now.