‘Everything you want’: How a booming York County food scene led to a big week ahead
The culinary talent assembled in the upper room at Hobo’s in Rock Hill spoke to a change that’s become obvious in recent years. Chefs, managers and owners from Kounter, Epic Chophouse, Legal Remedy and other area food spots represented places that just a short time ago, didn’t exist here.
“It’s wild to kind of see the transition in the past five to 10 years,” said Andy Clinton, interim president and CEO with Visit York County. “The number of restaurants. We have award-winning restaurants, award-winning chefs. It’s great to see how vibrant it is.”
Andy Clark is senior vice president of US Foods. He’s been at the roughly 700-employee company in Fort Mill for eight years. A company that supplies food products to restaurants and stores throughout the area.
“I really have just been amazed and frankly excited to watch the culinary landscape evolve and change in this area,” Clark said. “Frankly, there were times where you probably had to go to Charlotte to get certain types of cuisine and certain types of dining experiences. You can find just about everything you want in York County now.”
The evolution of York County dining is what has Visit York County and US Foods in partnership on the first YoCo Taste Trail Week. Those same groups launched a taste trail prior to the pandemic that operated more like a culinary scavenger hunt over the course of a year. Now, the aim is to create a special week event similar to a Charlotte Restaurant Week, but specific to York County.
“We wanted to do something to incorporate more visitors, more participation, more restaurants,” Clinton said.
More than 20 area restaurants are signed on so far. More could join by the Aug. 7 start. YoCo Taste Trail Week runs through Aug. 14.
Like Clinton, Rob Masone grew up in Rock Hill. The owner and executive chef at Kounter in downtown Rock Hill has run restaurants in other parts of the country, and worked extensively in Charlotte. Masone sees a food scene in York County now that can compete with other areas well known for their taste.
“To be surrounded with so many folks,” he said at the Taste Trail kickoff event Monday night at Hobo’s. “Everybody in this room is doing something very unique and something very different, but giving themselves the identity which is exactly what Rock Hill needs and what Fort Mill needs, and what York County in general needs.”
Masone said 37% of his business comes from Rock Hill, meaning people routinely come from Charlotte, Columbia, Lake Wylie and other spots. He imagines it’s the same for other local spots, as word gets out about the food scene here. Masone said his restaurant will use the Taste Trail event to take another step forward.
“We’re going to use it as a platform to test some new things, to test some culinary skills in the back,” Masone said. “To gauge some client or guest reaction to some of the things that we’re doing. It’s going to be a good way for us to kind of springboard some new ideas onto the menus.”
When Epic Chophouse opened in Fort Mill, its ownership group billed it as the kind of place people might expect to find in bigger cities like Charlotte. Even now the most common thread among reviews for the Kingsley restaurant, said executive chef partner John Reavis, involves its location.
“They didn’t have to drive to Charlotte to get a good meal,” Reavis said. “They can just go right up the street to Fort Mill. They can go to Napa (at Kingsley) or they can come and see us. Such a small town you need these type events to help remind everybody that we’re still there.”
Reavis has been in the area five years and doesn’t see himself leaving. He’s in Lake Wylie, another area that’s added plenty of restaurants in recent years. Yet restaurants face constant challenges to stay on the minds of would-be diners, even at Epic Chophouse which is up to 200 or more people per night in reservations of late.
“There’s still somebody out there who doesn’t know that we exist,” Reavis said. “This gives us that opportunity to get one more person in the building or as an entrepreneur, to get them to come back in the building one more time.”
Then it’s up to the restaurants participating in the Taste Trail to show what they can do.
“These moments allow guests to really feel what it means to have a great expectation and experience maybe they didn’t get somewhere else,” Reavis said.
Prix fixe menus, or multi-course options at a set price, are available for $25-$50 depending on the participating restaurant. Menus are posted for Ay Papi Tacos & Tequila, Epic Chophouse, Flipside, The Improper Pig, Illumination Wines, Kounter, Legal Remedy Brewing, Old Town Kitchen & Cocktails, Salmeri’s, The Social Cork Win Bar, Sol Cafe, Spice Asian Kitchen and Towne Tavern.
More than a dozen others are listed featured restaurants including sites not just in Rock Hill and Fort Mill, but also Lake Wylie, York and elsewhere throughout the county.
The Taste Trail event is designed to give diners new, fresh options from area restaurants but also to boost traffic for those restaurants.
“We want to think maybe the pandemic is somewhat in the rear view mirror now, but the operators in this room can attest to the fact that it’s not quite in the rear view mirror yet,” Clark said Monday night. “And there’s no better time and no more important time to support our local restaurants.”
For reservations, contact a specific participating restaurant. For more on the YoCo Taste Trail Week, search or log onto visityorkcounty.com.
