Lillia Callum-Penso

lpenso@greenvillenews.com

John Ko and Marc Connolly have just the thing to get you ready for spring. Their new restaurant, The Common Cure, promises to be a relaxing, family-friendly good ole neighborhood spot for good food, good drinks and of course, ping pong.

“We’ll have it on the patio at all times,” says Ko, who also owns Oak Blue downtown.

The Common Cure opens officially this week (watch Facebook for details on hours) in the spot that formerly housed The Local Taco, which Ko used to own but sold to a restaurant group a year and a half ago. And while the space will look pretty familiar to fans of the former restaurant, the menu is vastly different.

In an effort to further the neighborhood spirit, Ko and Connolly actually polled neighbors about what they wanted to see. The results have been compiled into a sandwich, salad and burger-heavy menu that is designed to offer enough variety to please most anyone and to be pretty straightforward. You won’t find foams or dusts here.

“It’s not highbrow, says operating partner Marc Connolly. “But well-executed.”

The food is broken into three main sections – burgers, sandwiches and salads. There are about 12 sandwiches and burgers, ranging from a basic grilled chicken sandwich to a more complex burger stuffed with jalapenos and cheddar cheese. Ko and Connolly also tried to add a few unexpected touches like using blue cheese in their mushroom burger, and adding a house-made black bean and quinoa burger. And, there is a bahn mi.

The menu also includes a classic chili cheese dog and a classic “pharmacy burger,” a nod to when the space was Campbell’s Pharmacy.

There are nine entrée salads (yes, they listened), and they get a similar straightforward but stepped up treatment. The kale and quinoa will please any healthy eater, and the grilled romaine and an Asian with tempura crunch and seaweed salad add an unexpected addition. All can be upgraded with a protein, including steak tips, grilled or blackened salmon, grilled or fried shrimp or grilled or fried chicken.

“But we’re catering to the neighborhood,” Ko says. “If someone has an idea, we’re happy to provide for somebody.”

Case in point, there are four different types of fries – shoestring, waffle, sweet potato and onion rings.

“We had a lot of debate about fries,” Ko says with a laugh. “People are pretty opinionated about fries so we’re gonna feature all the fries.

So what about tater tots?

“We can make that happen,” Connolly says without skipping a beat.

For brunch, which will be served on Saturday and Sunday beginning mid-April, expect classics like omelets and chicken and waffles, as well as both a vegetarian hash and a corned beef hash.

On the beverage side, the bar has been upgraded with a 12-tap system. Plans call for focusing heavily on craft and local and regional offerings. Beer is also available in the bottle, and the wine list is equally inclusive enough to please most people.

The cocktails will remain relatively simple, save for a few craft offerings, Connolly says. And in case you were wondering, yes, you will be able to get a great margarita.

And in the spirit of the former soda fountain, there will also be some milkshakes, both regular and adult. Connolly is currently playing around with some ideas like bacon bourbon.

“I live in the neighborhood, all my friends live in the neighborhood and it was like let’s just have a good neighborhood bar and grill,” Ko says. “So that’s kind of what we created.”

The Common Cure opens March 28 at located at 15 Conestee Ave., Greenville. The restaurant will serve lunch and dinner daily and add brunch on Saturdays and Sundays in mid-April. The restaurant will also do an extensive happy hour with half-priced drinks and appetizers from 4 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday.

For more information, check out The Common Cure on Facebook and Instagram.