A stylish indoor/outdoor space above Greenville's Main Street, SIP is the brainchild of Jason Fletcher, who also owns The Green Room, Ford’s Oyster House and The Loft at Falls Park under the umbrella of his High Street Hospitality Group. The transition in career from information technology to the hospitality industry may not seem like a logical career path, but it’s the path that Jason Fletcher followed.
SIP's Wine Emotion machine — Photo courtesy of High Street Hospitality Group
Fletcher moved to Greenville, SC,in 2007 from Munich, Germany, where he was doing consulting work with BMW. Two years later, he opened The Green Room to fill a void of what he missed about Europe: a casual, Euro-style restaurant.
New Orleans-style Ford’s debuted in 2011 in the West End, and two years after that (Are you picking up the pattern here?) Fletcher launched SIP. The opportunity to have a rooftop sold Fletcher on this space, which is above Proaxis Therapy on the north side of Piazza Bergamo.
A wine lover, Fletcher envisioned his newest venture to be both a laid-back lounge and an educational wine-tasting experience. The latter focuses on the Wine Emotion machine, a clever contraption that holds some 40 bottles of wine and uses inert gas to prevent air from getting into the open bottles.
The beauty of the machine is that it can dispense a 1.5-ounce taste, a 3-ounce taste and a 5-ounce glass of your choice of wines from around the world. So, you can taste a wine that may cost $100 a bottle, without committing yourself to an expensive purchase. As Fletcher says, it’s a way of making wine "accessible and unintimidating."
In addition, there’s a menu of some 75 wines by the glass, which differ from those offered in the Wine Emotion machine. Inside, you’ll also find a full bar, with crafted cocktails made from house-infused vodka and more. In summer, sangrias mixed tableside can quaff the thirst of a crowd. The sweet, fruit-infused libation can be made by the pitcher in either red or white varieties, with sauvignon blanc, dry rosé or spicy Spanish rioja as the starting point.
A menu of nibbles, from cheeses and cured meats to vegetables with roasted tomato hummus, complements the wine offerings.
On the sprawling outdoor space, comfortable rattan-framed couches provide plenty of seating, interspersed with planters blooming with flowers and small trees. On one end of the terrace, an awning covers more seating and a communal table, which hosts events such as wine tastings and dinners.
All in all, SIP is a perfect place to kick back on a warm evening in downtown Greenville and watch the world go by.
