At a time when many people would be planning for retirement, Lori Nelsen was contemplating a second career. Not just any career, mind you, but an all-absorbing role as a restaurateur.
Lori was managing the lab in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department at Furman University when she became interested in farm-to-table cooking. She enrolled in a couple of classes at the Seasonal School of Culinary Arts in Asheville and was inspired by the creativity of the city’s chefs. And with that, she began exploring the possibility of opening a restaurant.
A number of potential opportunities fell through before she noticed the little white house for sale on Poinsett Highway on her way to work one day in early 2016. It caught her eye because the house came with 2.4 acres, and it was always her plan to have a farm plot. Fast-forward to August, when she attended a back-to-school faculty party at Furman. There she met David Porras, a Costa Rican-born chef whose wife had just taken a job at Furman. “We really hit it off. I think we talked for two-and-a-half hours,” Lori recalls. “We had very similar visions of what we wanted to do.”
They agreed to keep in touch, and in the meantime, Lori purchased the property on Poinsett Highway. That December, she showed David the property and explained her vision for the on-site farm. Thrilled at the prospect of a restaurant with its own sustainable vegetable plot, David agreed to come on as chef. His excitement grew as he got more involved in the project, and he ultimately signed on as Lori’s business partner.
A literal farmhouse-style cafe
After a long process of renovating the 1940s-era house and planting an organic farm on the hill behind it, Lori and David opened Oak Hill Café and Farm in June 2019, with a mission to serve the Greenville community and be a presence for sustainable and healthy food. Lori, an analytical chemist with two master’s degrees who’s always loved to cook, found the transition from the lab to the kitchen a seamless one. “It really helps to be able to understand things at a molecular level,” she says.
With a background in molecular gastronomy from his studies at the Basque Culinary Center in Spain, David also knows a thing or two about applying chemistry in the kitchen. “David and I complement each other because he’s so creative,” notes Lori. “I think in a straight line and he thinks everywhere. You have to have both to run a successful business.”
The cozy farmhouse-style café wasn’t even open a year before COVID-19 hit, and the owners survived the shut-down in part by beefing up their market offerings and featuring to-go items and fresh produce from the farm. In 2020, Oak Hill won recognition for David’s innovative and hyper-local cuisine from the James Beard Foundation as a semi-finalist for Best New Restaurant.
“When we opened Oak Hill, I was 60,” Lori shares. “But it never occurred to me to think of retiring . . . I’d be so bored.” On any given day, you can find the petite restaurateur at Oak Hill, baking bread, arranging charcuterie platters, plating desserts, and greeting guests. She schedules herself for 60 hours a week, but often works more. For Lori, building a community around food is an obvious labor of love.
Oak Hill Café and Farm
2510 Poinsett Hwy, Greenville
(864) 631-1397, oakhillcafe.com
