not ready for prime time. we used to enjoy the old la bastide restaurant that previously existed and held very high hopes for the new restaurant as we missed the quality of the food and atmosphere of the old. our first visit to restaurant 17 was a pre-opening wine tasting. the wine was amazing, the service was good, but the food was fair at best. some of the tastings had meat that had gristle in it and was very hard to chew, some just really didn't taste very good at all. we decided that they really hadn't opened yet and that we were sure things would improve once they got traction and fully opened. months passed and i took my wife there for our anniversary. again, the food seemed to be that of a chef who just hasn't come into his own yet. odd tasting mismatched flavors and food that just plain wasn't cooked. as the evening went on, many cyclist types who were dressed inappropriately for a restaurant of this caliber, got louder and more obnoxious and more intoxicated astimepassed. restaurant staff never said a word to them. i'm sure this is the caliber of individual the hincapie brothers are trying to attract, but it's surely going to drive away people from greenville looking for elegant dining venues. a month later we went up to visit their new coffee shop. the girl served us cold coffee and stale pastries. when i asked if she could nuke my overpriced cup of cold coffee, she said she had no microwave or any other way of heating coffee. great. thanks for $20 worth of cold coffee and stale pastry. we went to the lobby to enjoy the atmosphere. the entiretimewe were there the hotel patron was on his cell phone on a personal call. it got to the point where another woman from what i thought was an empty hotel sat on the couch next to us to wait for the hotel staff to finish his personal call. this lasted 15 minutes or so. after she talked with him, i figured i better catch him before his next personal call kicked off. i asked him if the bar was open to purchase a bottle of wine. he said the hotel bar was closed every weekend. i'm sorry, what? people pay exorbitant amounts of money to stay at your hotel and they can't get a drink for three days of a weekend? this place is beautiful inside, however from what i can see, it's a dismal disappointment in every other way i can see. i will save myself the ride up there and take my family to high cotton, soby's or rick irwin's/nantucket. i be given them the benefit of the doubt and was disappointed over and over. i hope the wealthy cyclists from all over the world keep that place open, because greenville socialites certainly will not. i will tell all my friends that this place is a thumbs down.