James Beard-nominated restaurant in Greenville closes, plans new concept.

PositionOak Hill Caf and Farm

A highly regarded restaurant in Greenville has closed, but its owners have plans to open a new concept in the same location.

Oak Hill Caf and Farm, located off Poinsett Highway in Greenville, closed Dec. 18 less than four years after its inception.

Oak Hill Caf and Farm co-Owner Lori Nelsen said the closing of this farm-to-table restaurant concept was a combination of things that kept building, specifically the increase in costs of the mortgage, insurance, and food in addition to labor and staffing issues.

"For instance, our mortgage went up $2,000 a month since July," said Nelsen. "We came to a point when we said we need to rethink this, because we just didn't have the business to support the increase in costs. We didn't want to get into a spot where we couldn't pay our people, either."

A post about the closing on the restaurant's website noted its James Beard nomination for Best New Restaurant, stating that it was "proud to have turned a family home and clay backyard into a beautiful restaurant and farm. We hope our legacy will be remembered fondly by the community we served."

The restaurant, which is located between Greenville and Travelers Rest, is also in an interesting location for fine dining, said Nelsen.

"If you're thinking of fine dining, you think more of downtown as your first option," she said. "But we loved what we did here. We produced quality food for Greenville, and a lot of people appreciated that, but unfortunately it just wasn't enough to keep us going."

Nelsen, who worked at Furman University for 20 years as a chemist by training, running a lab in a sustainability program, left and opened Oak Hill at the time, because she felt the city didn't have a great farm-to-table restaurant. She partnered with Oak Hill Caf and Farm co-owner and Executive Chef David Porras, who was trained in culinary arts in Spain and moved to Greenville about six years ago from Athens, Ga.

"I thought this idea was exciting, a great food concept, a really enjoyable thing to do and offer people," Nelsen said. "It unfortunately didn't work out, but we have no regrets. The people we have met, the excitement they have had here, making a place for people who really cared about where their food came from with a great expression of flavor, we feel really did appreciate what we did here and are sad to see it go. We created experiences for people they couldn't get anywhere else."

Porras said it has been a roller coaster.

The local restaurant had received a...

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