Carl Sobocinski’s Table 301 restaurant group has grown along with the city he now calls home
The Basics: Carl Sobocinski
Occupation: Owner of Table 301, the restaurant group including Soby’s, Soby’s on the Side, Nose Dive, Devereaux’s, The Lazy Goat, Passerelle Bistro and Papi’s Tacos, along with The Loft and a catering service
Hometown: Durham, N.H.
Education: Bachelor of Architecture, Clemson University
Member of the executive committee of VisitGreenvilleSC; Liberty Fellowship class of 2014; past chairman of the South Carolina Restaurant and Lodging Association; board of directors of the National Restaurant Association; chairman of the board of Euphoria
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Carl Sobocinski, a pioneer restaurateur in downtown Greenville, discovered his career almost by accident.
He now has 300 employees, up from 35, and owns Table 301, a stable of seven restaurants, a catering service and The Loft, with one restaurant set to close this month. However, he opened two new ones in the past year or so.
Sobocinski and Table 301 have a commitment to Greenville.
“I wanted to be one of those people who is a difference maker,” he said.
Ben Haskew, president of the Greenville Chamber, said Sobocinski achieved his goal.
“Carl paved the way” for the other restaurants, he said. “He made that leap into the restaurant business at a time when downtown” still was trying to recharge.
“He’s created a restaurant grouping that attracts all. Carl has really helped make Greenville ‘cool.’ He’s helped create activity such as Euphoria, helped build what I call an 18-hour activity center,” Haskew said.
And while Sobocinski is open to expanding, he expects to focus for the next year on closing down Devereaux’s and absorbing the workforce into his other restaurants. No employee will lose a job because of the closure, he said.
The restaurateur has also decided he wants to give back more than he had been with his civic and career work. A 2014 Liberty Fellow, Sobocinski is developing a project to help South Carolina deal with the epidemic of childhood obesity, removing the state from among the worst.
He has begun mentoring a young elementary school student as part of his project.
“It’s an incredible program,” he said.
But the New England native first came south to Clemson University to study architecture. While in his third year of school, he needed money, so he found a job at Keowee Key Country Club on Lake Keowee.
“It was almost instantaneous. I just fell in love with it,” he said of the food service industry. He began as a busboy and worked as a waiter, bartender, in management and then in the kitchen.
That first exposure to food service – his father was a salesman and his mother a schoolteacher – focused his career on that industry, although he uses his architectural knowledge and creativity to see the possibilities in restaurant spaces. He said he may have been going back to his roots, as his grandfather owned a Polish market.
He began his restaurant career with The 858, a restaurant in downtown Greenville in 1993.
Sobocinski later left that restaurant and began looking for a place to try a new restaurant concept.
He teamed up again with David Williams, a chef he had worked with while in college and who partnered with him until about two years ago. He had to create a business plan and a budget, learn about accounts receivable and all the business concepts that were foreign to him.
The biggest challenge, he said, “was how to get this business open on a shoestring” and still meet the quality the partners wanted.
At the time he was looking, the Cancellation Shoe Mart at 207 S. Main St. was up for sale.
To get the restaurant ready, the staff – built around a nucleus of about 10 former The 858 staffers – pitched in, as did friends and family. In fact, Soby’s participated in the Fall for Greenville festival before the restaurant even opened in 1997 with the help of a kitchen elsewhere and storage for the food at another Main Street eatery.
The restaurant immediately did well, he said, but “the biggest fear was we were an island.”
The Peace Center had opened. City Hall was across the street and The Greenville News was down the street. The Hot Dog King, a Greenville fixture, was next door. But no other restaurants were around.
The good news: On the day the restaurant opened, the Greenville News had a front-page story announcing the purchase of the Poinsett Hotel. That pointed to downtown revitalization.
His restaurant numbers soon grew. He now owns Soby’s, Soby’s on the Side, Nose Dive, Devereaux’s, The Lazy Goat, Passerelle Bistro and Papi’s Tacos, his newest venture.
Not all Sobocinski’s restaurants were long-term successes. Restaurant O, a top fine-dining destination, operated for six years. It was hurt because Table 301 spent too much money getting it opened and then was hit with the recession when people decided to scale back on spending, he said. After closing Restaurant O, Sobocinski opened Nose Dive in the same location.
Also, Devereaux’s is closing in late October, primarily because of lease issues, he said.
But growth “is who I am. I’m not as good when I get complacent or comfortable. I don’t like to do the same thing over and over,” he said.
Greenville has become a food destination, but Sobocinski credits that to industry rather than the influx of restaurants.
“It wasn’t The 858 or Bistro Europa. The reason we have become a culinary destination is because of the industry that has come here,” including Michelin, BMW, GE and others, he said. Those industry leaders and visitors to their companies travel often to big cities and expect to find a plethora of fine dining, even in Greenville.
Restaurant growth is strong economic development, he said. Restaurants hire local employees and many buy local goods. Downtown restaurants have become a destination for out-of-town visitors. Food trucks, relatively new in Greenville, are another example of entrepreneurship at work, he said.
“I think they’re great. Anything that showcases food, tourism and entrepreneurship is great,” he said. “It adds an element of uniqueness to the food scene.”
