The restaurant doesn’t smell the same, it doesn’t look the same, but the spirit is definitely there.

The Carolina Drive In this week officially makes the move to its new home at 105 Rutherford St. The storied diner, which opened on Old Buncombe Road in the 1950s, has ebbed and flowed in recent years. The move is in large part owner Nick Skenteris’ strategic answer to keeping the diner relevant in an ever-changing and growing food scene.

When the new Carolina opens this week it will open with a fresher look, a state-of-the-art drive-thru, a larger kitchen with a chargrill, and a more extensive menu. Longstanding Carolina favorites like the chili cheeseburger, the steak fingers and the chili dogs remain, but Skenteris and his team has also added a number of healthier options and Greek specialties which reflect a desire to find a rhythm within a new Greenville.

“What we’re doing now, in this new place, is trying to stay true to the roots, but at the same time trying to appeal to a newer, more modern crowd of people,” said George Skenteris, Nick’s son and a freshman at Wofford College. “We’re supplementing the older menu with things that are better suited for the times. So we’re going to stay true to the old stuff, that’s how we came up, but now it’s making it bigger and a little bit better to fit the changing times.”

Leading this charge is Carolina’s larger staff. Skenteris tripled his employees, from 10 to about 30, to fit the larger space, to manage the new elements like the drive-thru and to boost efficiency. Efficiency that will be imperative to keeping the restaurant humming with a combination of table service, drive-thru service and patio seating.

Cornelius Cureton is helping reframe some of the newer menu items. The Carolina’s new kitchen manager brings nearly two decades of experience in restaurant kitchens, including 16 years working in Stax Grill. Cureton has added a number of salads that go beyond the iceberg lot, including a dried fruit and nut salad, a London broil salad and traditional Greek souvlaki.

In addition, Cureton is planning on running daily features that will offer more creative fare. He plans to use the features to highlight items like fish, feta and spinach stuffed chicken, and shrimp Kalamos (shrimp baked with onions, tomatoes and feta cheese).

“I don’t want him to lose his burger and hot dog,” Cureton said of the Carolina’s longstanding classics. “But I want to elevate it to make people come back in.”

And in so doing, Cureton, Skenteris and the team are working to keep the Carolina competitive with the fast food places that surround it, as well as the burgeoning restaurant scene just a mile away on Main Street.

When Skenteris’ father, George, opened The Carolina with two business partners in 1954, the restaurant was located in a nexus of activity for Greenville. Then, Charlie Cavalaris, who started working at the restaurant as a soda jerk at the age of 13, recalled The Carolina was consistently slammed every Friday and Saturday.

Students from the former Parker High School could be seen sipping milkshakes alongside mill workers and families eating the restaurant’s famous chili cheeseburgers and chili dogs.

“It was so easy to prep for cause you just prep everything you got,” Cavalaris recalled. "But from 5 till about 11 on the weekends especially, it was busy busy busy."

But things change.

Skenteris started thinking of a new place when he first heard discussion of constructing Pete Hollis Boulevard. The road cut traffic to Old Buncombe significantly, Skenteris said, and with it, The Carolina’s business.

A week before opening, Skenteris has to turn no fewer than five people away who try to come in to get something to eat.

“Hey y’all, we’re not open just yet, but we will be next week,” Skenteris said gently to a couple that has wandered into the Carolina last week.

“The thing about this location is visibility,” Skenteris said. “I don’t have a real estate division in my family, but if it’s good enough for McDonald’s, QuickTrip, Arby’s, I think it’s a pretty good spot."

One thing that hasn’t changed is Skenteris himself. A week before he opened the new restaurant, Skenteris greeted everyone, old friends and new with the same honey sweet drawl and smile.

“Hey sweetheart,” and “How you doin, honey?” poured out of his mouth without filter. Everyone received a greeting and a smile. It is Skenteris who brings a warmth, and even in a new location, a sense of home.

The doors to the Carolina that George Skenteris built closed Sept. 23, and you can see a glint of nostalgia in Nick’s eyes when he talks about it.

“It was bittersweet,” he said.

For now, that building will remain in the family, serving mostly as an office and storage facility. But the new building will be the heart of the business.

“I miss the history and I miss the memories of what my father and the whole family did down there,” Skenteris said of the old space. “My father laid the foundation, but I guess you could say this is my place now. This is the next generation.”

The Carolina Drive In is set to open later this week. The restaurant’s hours will be 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The Drive-thru hours will be the same.

The restaurant is located at 105 Rutherford St., Greenville, across from the QuickTrip gas station.