Foxcroft Food & Wine - Greenville — Restaurant in Greenville

Just a few steps away from free parking at Greenville's county square, a new wine bar with delicious food and a smart concept is stirring up the nightlife scene along Main Street. Foxcroft Wine Company has made the leap from the big city to Greenville, and other wine bars here in town better take notice.

Over the past 14 years, Foxcroft was able to learn what works and what doesn't work at its two successful locations in Charlotte, NC. Now they are bringing their expertise, their love for good wines, and a customer friendly pricing approach to a great central location near Falls Park.

The food, curated by Executive chef Justin Solomon, did not disappoint. My general rule is this: look at how fresh your salad looks when it comes to the table. If the arugula, the more finicky and more fragile among the mustard greens, is served crisp, with a dark green color, it always tells me that someone is paying close attention to the details in the kitchen. Of course now the heat is on, and the quality of what leaves the kitchen will have to remain top notch going forward.

The menu offers about 40 wines by the glass, overall very competitively priced when compared to other wine bars in town. What really makes this place unique is the retail approach. You can just walk in and buy a bottle of wine to take back to your home or hotel, or you can sit right there and have a retail priced bottle opened at your table. If you don't plan to empty the entire bottle over dinner, they cork it back up for you and you can take it with you.

The ambiance is great. The main bar room is designed to make you feel like you are right in the middle of a wine barrel, and it brings the same acoustics for a very lively atmosphere. The bar itself also offers some local draft beers, so if wine is not your thing, you can still enjoy a stop at Foxcroft. The available outside seating offers a quieter and calmer setting with views of Main Street and Falls Park. Hopefully they will manage to winterize the outdoor seating area, to keep that unique vibe alive through the cold winter days.

So what is missing? Greenville is home to lots of industry from Germany, and a few wines from Rhein and Mosel will need to be added to the shelves. South American wines may also deserve just a little more of a clear focal point, which is already given to wines from Spain, France and California. Since this is also a retail space, signage indicating which geographical region can be found where in the display shelves may make it easier for customers to find what they are looking for.

This new wine bar is exactly what Greenville needed, and the local competition will truly have to step up its game because the days of just getting by are over now. If you enjoy really good wine, or if you just want to have a small sip paired with a light plate without braking the bank, this is the place to come to. General manager Eric Heidal and assistant manager Ivy Stokes, together with their team, will now need to deliver consistent customer service and consistent quality to make this the number one wine bar and wine retail space in downtown Greenville.

This is my longest review yet, but I feel strongly the Foxcroft deserved some extra attention to put it on the map. I left here truly delighted, and will be...

We've been here several times- meeting a friend for apps/drinks, a birthday celebration dinner with 8+ people, and a date night. Not sure what was going on this time but something has definitely changed in the service area. While the food tasted great and the restaurant itself is clean/well maintained with relaxed ambiance, the service was shockingly poor. They close at 10pm--we arrived for an impromptu quick bite (2 ppl)--waited for 10 minutes for someone to come over to our table, ordered our glasses of wine and food by 845pm in an effort to streamline things for our server and be courteous of the time given the amount of time it took to be greeted. I worked in fine dining for many years and would never want to be "those" people closing down the dining room lingering so I am mindful of timing. There were about 5 other parties dining at that time and several folks at the bar. Our server was pleasant but after taking the order, she only glanced over once about halfway through when I was trying to get her attention to request a new napkin. She basically vanished. I had ordered one flight of wine at the start and would have enjoyed a glass with my meal but no one ever returned to our table. Around 920 pm it was clear the staff was completing side work which was the main priority instead of customer service. While side work needs to get done, I've never heard of ignoring tables/customers as if you were closed so you could get the side work done. At one point I saw our server take the trash out and she didn't return through the front door until we were walking out a little before 10. I ended up getting up and walking around to find and ask a staff member to run my card so we could leave. This was a very perplexing dining experience. When we left, there were still several parties finishing up....also being ignored and attempting to get their checks. so strange! I would avoid this place. Plenty of other options to spend your money in Greenville where you can get good food and good service. Dining isn't simply about the food/wine, it's about service...otherwise we would all just...

Super disappointed in the Wine Dinner from last evening :-( Our group of 4 had been looking forward to it for weeks! We came hungry with a good attitude but the food was just sub-standard! The first course was the shrimp cake, you can see by the attached menu, it sounds scrumptious! Unfortunately mine was served to me cold and was flavorless. Second course was seared tuna, unfortunately mine was again served cold but was cooked medium to well and was completed brown. To serve overcooked tuna, cold.....well that's just terrible. The third course was the meatball with pasta. The pasta was served cold and the meatball was slightly warm in the center. This was probably the most flavorful course but certainly substandard. The pheasant was served warm (although on a cool plate, none of the courses were served on a warm plates). With such a poor food experience it's not surprising the wines also underperformed. Since they were 'small batch' wines they were pricey and really not very good values. In fairness to the wait staff the wine explanations were very professionally done and the the staff was super knowledgeable. The wait staff was prompt at serving the plates and removing them but none of the really matters if the meal was flavorless. I credit the marketing group with fancy descriptions of the food which certainly made it sound like it would be flavorful but even some sea salt, fresh ground pepper and/or lime or lemon zest would have brightened up the courses. While I had heard great things about the food, and we may try it at some point in the future I would highly suggest you avoid the wine dinners, the restaurant just doesn't seemed equipped to execute at the level most...