SC has one of the 50 best new restaurants in the US for 2023, Esquire magazine says. Why it’s great

A year-old French restaurant in Greenville was named one of 50 best new restaurants in America for 2023 by Esquire magazine.

Scoundrel is the creation of Greenville native Joe Cash, who has worked in restaurants in New York City and Copenhagen, Denmark.

He’s a graduate of Greenville Technical College’s Culinary Institute of the Carolinas, where he enrolled after busing tables and washing dishes at Lone Star Steakhouse near Haywood Mall while attending Eastside High School. He knew then he wanted to be in the kitchen.

He moved on to some of Greenville’s finer restaurants — Restaurant O and Liberty 33, then in Charleston, before heading to New York City.

There he worked at the acclaimed Per Se before going to Noma in Copenhagen, Denmark, which was considered the world’s best restaurant.

In 2014, Cash went back to New York to become the executive sous chef at Torrisi Italian Specialties, then executive chef at The Pool, both owned by Major Food Group.

He wanted to open his own restaurant in New York City, but a visit to Greenville — and COVID — changed his plans. He was surprised by how Greenville had changed, enough so to welcome a restaurant he calls sophisticated and romantic.

He and his wife, Jocelyn, and son, Thor, took the leap.

Scoundrel opened in October 2022 in a location in downtown Greenville that was once an Indian restaurant.

You get the idea that while this is traditional French food, it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

“Step into a world of culinary charm and French finesse at Scoundrel, where every bite is a melody and every dish a symphony of flavors,” the restaurant’s website states. “This ain’t your regular joint — it’s a swanky journey through the heart of Paris, right here in downtown Greenville, SC.”

They serve escargot, of course, described as “french snails, fines herbs, and too much butter” for $22 as well as a hamburger called Dirty Rotten Scoundrel, two patties (aged beef) with scoundrel sauce. Then there is a nod to MaMamma, Cash’s grandmother, with triple stock Chocolate cake topped with a big dollop of vanilla bean crème fraîche. ⁣

⁣Four Esquire food writers set out to sample some 200 restaurants for its 41st yearly list of best new restaurants.

“After a series of spirited debates, we settled on 50 restaurants that stood out from the rest,” Esquire’s Culture & Lifestyle Director Kevin Sintumuang wrote in the magazine.

They selected Ilis in a former rubber factory in Brooklyn as Restaurant of the Year, where they point out, “they prepared the fish as it would have been done centuries ago, wrapped in bark and cooked over flames.”

The magazine selected restaurants in 21 states and the District of Columbia. The most — 13 — were in California — with New York second at nine.

Of Scoundrel, the magazine said, “you’ll find French fare with flair.”

“Enter his (Cash’s) handsome, tall, brick-walled space, dip into the burgundy-colored leather booth — order that bottle to match, of course — and go for it: Plump and pristine briny bivalves to start barely require a lemon squeeze. Move to caviar service — thick potato pucks fried in duck fat and slathered with crème fraîche are just the right vessel.”

They also recommend tableside beef tartare — “a show in itself,” Esquire contributor Omar Mamoon wrote. Don’t forget the duck fat fries, he said.

For Cash, this is not the end. He hopes to start other types of restaurants in Greenville to form the Cash Group.