All Male Ballet Company in....Greenville, SC? Yes, It's True.

Months ago, I'm talking July of 2011, a friend mentioned Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo would be performing in Greenville, SC in February.  She had seen this all male en point dance company, in Charleston, SC a few years ago and RAVED about them.

After checking out the dance company's website here:  http://www.trockadero.org/
I knew this was a show mom and I would enjoy.  Never having been to Greenville, SC we thought it would be a fun weekend trip and I was eager to see Greenville's Peace Center for the Performing Arts.  Here's their website:  http://www.peacecenter.org/

The tickets were incredibly reasonable in price.  As I recall the most expensive ticket was $35 and the least expensive $5.  We went with "middle of the road" and bought two $15 tickets in the founders circle and they were great seats!  We were really impressed with the Peace Center, what a great facility and they are doing expansion work on the building.  The arts are certainly alive in Greenville!

We left home on Saturday morning at about 9am for the 4-ish hour ride to Greenville.  With my trusty GPS, affectionately named, Mimi, on board, we made our way across the great state of South Carolina without a hitch and arrived in Greenville at about 1:30pm.

I booked a room at the Hampton Inn in downtown Greenville, located just across the Reddy River from the Peace Center.  This was a great spot because we could park on the car (I found on street parking!  and bonus, it's free on weekends!) and walk everywhere we wanted to go for the next 24 hours.

We checked in easily and had a very spacious room overlooking the Peace Center and wouldn't you know it, the Trockadero's were staying at the Hampton Inn too.  How did we know this?  Well, when the lobby is full of attracive young men with outstanding posture all wheeling little suitcases behind them we surmised we would be seeing them all later on stage!

Once we freshened up, we "hit" downtown Greenville, easily traversing down Main Street where we found a replica of Il Porcellino, the wild boar staute that sits in the market in Florence Italy!  Of course we had to take photos of each of us petting his snoot so we will return to Greenville! 

Then it was onto the Mast General Store, another recommendation from our friend, and lucky for us they were having a sale!  Two shirts, one jacket and a pair of shoes later, we continued meandering down the street and found our way to the Michelin on Main store.  I had no idea Michelin has their North American Headquaters in Greenville.  I couldn't resist a tee shirt with the state of South Carolina emblazened on it with the Michelin Man peaking around a Palmetto Tree.

By 4pm we were ready for wine time.  I had made a 5:30pm reservation at The Lazy Goat, but being ladies who enjoy trying new restaurants, mom and I sauntered into High Cotton for a glass of wine before dinner. Here is their website:  http://www.mavericksouthernkitchens.com/highcotton/greenville/   Great looking restaurant, high floor to ceiling glass windows, 3 floors of dining and an outdoor patio in good weather.  And not too crowded bar area at 4:30pm on this Saturday.  It was the perfect place to extol the virtues of this up-state city we had neglected for 19 years!

Just before 5:30pm we walked around the corner to The Lazy Goat for dinner.  Here is their website:  http://thelazygoat.typepad.com/  When we walked in there were barely 4 tables full of patrons and I was a bit nervous.  But as time ticked by the place began to fill up.  I was surprised in such a large space there seemed to be so few tables.  If a European restuarant had that much room the table would be packed in there!  This restaurant is also on several floors and as our server said, during the summer months all the levels and patio are filled.

The menu here has a plentiful selection of tapas style dishes and several entree selections, all with a Meditterranean flair.  We had a bottle of French sauvignon blanc.  For starters we shared the porchetta with spicey vegetables and the polenta souffle.  The server was funny when I asked how large the portion size of the porchetta was he asked if I knew what porchetta was (little did he know!) and when I said, "yes" his reply was good, because many women find it to be too fatty...Ha!  Not these women!  Bring on the porchetta!  Both starters were deliciously flavorful and the porchetta was perfect!

I had the crispy branzino for my main dish and mom had the chicken with Israeli cous cous.  Both were absolutely divine.  Perfectly cooked.  I have to say the presentation of the branzino blew me away, it was the hold fish, but it was filleted and put back into it's skin, that must take some skill.  The flavor was just bursting in my mouth.

Instead of indulging in dessert we had a French press coffee and I had my very first amaretto after dinner drink.  Let me tell you, I can easily get used to an amaretto digestivo!

It was closing in on 7:30pm by the time we were finished with dinner, perfect timing to walke across the river to the show.  When we got up and walked through the bar area, I could hardly believe my eyes, the bar was packed shoulder to shoulder, there was not an empty space in that bar.  We managed to slither out the door, and scooted off to the Trockaderos.

The show was great!  Honest to God, from far away, if you didn't know they were men dancing you would have thought they were women.  And the performance is not all serious, the Trockaderos definitely have a playfulness about them.  It was such fun to watch. 

Before we knew it the show was over and we were heading back to the hotel for a good night's rest.  On Sunday morning we were up and out of the hotel by 10am because we had a mission.  Yes, a Trader Joe's mission!  There are only two Trader Joe's stores in South Carolina, one in Mt. Pleasant (been there) and one in Greenville.  Well, we couldn't be in the same town as a Trader Joe's and not go. 

At 10:30am we pulled into a nearly empty Trader Joe's parking and after an hour of shopping the masses started to descend upon the store and we were ready to "get outta dodge".  We made our purchases, hopped in the car and skeedaddled back down to the South Carolina LowCounty.  But of courese we had to make a pit-stop at the Le Crueset outlet on the way home to browse, and ok, buy a few new cooking utensils!

It was a fun-filled, food-filled fabulous weekend!