Why do we go out to eat?
For one, cooking is work—satisfying work, but between the shopping and the prep and the clean up, it’s a whole other job after we get home from our jobs, one with its own requirements of skill, time, energy. At the end of the day, we want to be free and with our people, somewhere that’s vibrant and full of others on the same mission—a communal instinct that probably goes back to our roots around the fire, breaking bread, building bonds. It’s also true we go out to taste things we could not otherwise taste at home, because not everyone knows what to do with an octopus.
It’s rare to find all those things happening in the same place. But when you put yourself in the expert hands of Greenville restaurateur Josh Beeby, you can relax. You’ve been understood.
The whole concept behind his new Augusta Road spot The Burrow is to provide beautifully made comfort food with a global bent, served in a well-designed space that hums with life.
The wallpaper features foxes and otters and owls and meerkats, animals you’ll find repeated on the pint glasses, the backs of the menus. But, too, the family-size booths are high-backed and round, cozy and comfortable for conversation. The dining room is intimately lit, the buzz from the bar perceptible but not loud—a heartbeat. The name itself is a play on words, burrow and borough, home and neighborhood both. It’s a clear reflection of Beeby’s intention: this is a place built to satisfy the people who live close by.
Knowing Beeby’s other restaurants—Barley’s with its endless beer list and the Belgian-inflected Trappe Door—you’d expect the bar menu to be strong, beers to be interesting, and wine list thoughtfully curated. All that is true. But it’s also true that if the spirits in combination are unique enough to make questions for the waiter—what is Genepy des Alpes anyway?—there’s a well-educated answer at the ready. From a true whiskey sour to a Tequila Smash, cocktails at The Burrow are pleasantly balanced, pretty, and freshly inspired.
The poutine features the stellar French fries to which you’ve become accustomed at Trappe Door, now napped with mustardy gravy, candied bacon, and cheese curds. The Greenville Hot Fried Chicken sandwich is loaded with house-made pickles, and just the right level of spice. These things will easily become staples in your restaurant-possibility brain. There’s also a beautiful hanger steak and an elegant chargrilled octopus, courtesy of the Argentinian-style parilla, an open wood-burning grill that lends the whole room that particular memory of campfire.
And that’s what makes The Burrow great. This is not only comfort food for the family, but—played well—a comfortable date night, ladies night, or celebration. This is not only a neighborhood restaurant, but a place that speaks to why we live, and eat, in neighborhoods at all.
The Burrow, 2017 Augusta St, Greenville. (864) 412-8677, theburrowgville.com
