Contact:
John Boyanoski
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High Spirits Hospitality named Small Business of the Year
GREENVILLE, S.C.—High Spirits Hospitality has been named Greenville Chamber’s Small Business of the Year for 2021. 
 
High Spirits Hospitality is the parent company of three businesses: Liquid Catering, High Spirits Events, and Bravo1 Protection. The first of these businesses, bartending company Liquid Catering, was established in 2011. The company expanded in 2013 with the creation of the downtown events venue, the Old Cigar Warehouse. In 2015, Bravo1 Protection, a security company, was launched. In 2017, High Spirits Events was formed, and has since coordinated events and large-scale festivals such as the Tacos ‘n Tequila Fiesta as well as the upcoming Hog & Barrel: A Bourbon, BBQ & Bacon Festival. In addition to these three companies, High Spirits Hospitality also manages Topside Pool Club, a seven-story high pool overlooking Falls Park.
 
This is the latest of many honors for this company.  Last year, High Spirits Hospitality was named to the SC Biz NewsRoaring Twenties list, which recognizes the fastest growing companies in South Carolina. Tammy Johnson, the company’s CEO and President, is an active volunteer and community leader. She serves on the board of The University Center of Greenville, and is on the Advisory Committee for the Truist Culinary & Hospitality Innovation Center at Greenville Tech. Johnson has formerly served on the boards for the City of Greenville's Accommodations Tax Commission, Clemson Area SBDC, and the Board of Advisors for the Greenville Chamber. She was the 2012 Chair of PULSE, the chamber's young professional program, and is a graduate of Leadership Greenville Class 39. In 2017, Tammy graduated from the "Streetwise MBA" class as part of the Greenville Chamber's Minority Business Accelerator program, where she is now active as a mentor. She also has served on the board for euphoria, a food, wine, and music festival.

She has been recognized with many awards, including 2017 50 Most Influential by Greenville Business Magazine, 2018 Woman-Owned Business of the Year by Community Works, 2014 SC Young Entrepreneur of the Year by the Small Business Administration, 2014 Entrepreneur of the Year by Business Black Box Magazine, and 2012 Greenville's Best & Brightest under 35. She was also a 2013 finalist for Greenville Chamber's Young Professional of the Year and a 2016 finalist for the Greenville News Emerging Leaders award.
 
“We’re honored to have been named Greenville Chamber’s Small Business of the Year,” Johnson said. “The pandemic has created a lot of challenges in the past 18 months, and we are honored to be recognized by our peers.”
 
 About High Spirits Hospitality
High Spirits Hospitality is the parent company to four independent brand companies – Liquid Catering, the Old Cigar Warehouse , Bravo1 Protection, and High Spirits Events – as well as the lead operation for Topside Pool Club in downtown Greenville. What started as a small bartending service has now grown into a company with 30 full-time employees, over 100 part-time employees, and a single vision of providing exceptional, hospitality-driven service to each and every guest. Learn more at www.highspiritshospitality.com.

High Spirits Hospitality  has been named one of the 40 fastest-growing companies in South Carolina for 2020 by SC Biz News.
 
Twenty large companies and 20 small companies have been named to the statewide list presented annually by SC Biz News. This honor recognizes the state’s fastest-growing companies based on both dollar and percentage increases in revenue from 2018-2019.
https://charlestonbusiness.com/news/business-services/79293/
 
In order to qualify for the Roaring Twenties designation, companies must have a physical presence in South Carolina and be a for-profit entity or a nonprofit organization (EXCEPT FOR: government entities and charitable organizations, including 501(c)3 organizations.  These types of nonprofits are not eligible).
 
Company size was determined by gross revenue: A small company was considered as having $10 million and under in revenue. Large companies were classified as having over $10 million in revenue. Small companies must have had revenues of at least $500,000 each year for the years 2017, 2018 and 2019.
 
Profiles of the winning companies will be published in the winter issue of SCBIZ magazine. The winners will be honored with a virtual event on October 15th.

The winners, and their locations, are listed in alphabetical order below:

Click here to read the Chamber's feature on High Spirits Hospitality as the July small business of the month. 

The President and CEO of High Spirits Hospitality, Tammy Johnson, was recognized as a 2020 Women of Influence by theGSA Business Report and Michelin. 
Rick Jenkins with GSA Business Report introduced Tammy during the virtual award ceremony with a special shout out regarding her 'Mom-osa' creations sold at The Old Cigar Warehouse for Mother's Day. 
"The wife told me to tell you [they] were excellent. Great job," Rick said. 

Watch the video below to see more of Tammy's roundtable talk with Addie Sheek of Crawford Strategy (and to discover what is actually in a Mom-osa).  

By Molly Husley 
March 19, 2020

SC Biz News is speaking with small businesses and community leaders about the impact of the new coronavirus on business and industry, and how this is changing how they operate.

Before staff members enter the kitchen, management checks temperatures for fever. Gloves are changed much more frequently, and deep cleans are performed round-the-clock at Hamby Catering and Events. 

“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions around here,” said Candice Wigfield, owner and president of the Charleston company. “There have been very low lows and very high highs, but the sense of camaraderie and the willingness for everyone to get creative and to pitch in and really work harder than we have ever worked before — it brings tears to my eyes every time I just step back and just kind of take in what we are trying to do.”

Wigfield said Hamby has lost over $400,000 in canceled event revenue from South Carolina’s outbreak of the new coronavirus. Still, through “contact-free” delivery and a mobile market opening in Mount Pleasant on Tuesday, Wigfield has built new avenues to rebound from the pandemic’s blow to the hospitality industry.

“Very quickly, we realized we would have to pivot the direction of our business and get really creative about our strategies if we had any hope of surviving,” Wigfield said.

As events began to dry up following the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in South Carolina, Wigfield was forced to lay off or furlough over 50% of her workforce, primarily events preparation staff. Hamby retained a core food preparation and management team of 15 to 20 people.

“We want Hamby as a company to survive so that on the other end of all this, everyone has a job to come back to,” she said.

During peak season, Hamby employs 150 people.

“We just don’t have work for them, and it’s just devastating,” she said. “For me as a small-business owner to hear the stories of ‘How am I going to make my rent, how am I going to feed my children?’ it is just heartbreaking, and it all just happened so quickly. That’s the brutal part of it. There was just no real time to prepare properly.”

Still, Wigfield leapt to new opportunities that would evolve her business to meet community demands while keeping customers and employees safe from exposure to the virus. Prior to Gov. Henry McMaster’s mandate to curb public gatherings of more than 50 people, Hamby planned to offer family-sized casseroles, salads, chili bowls and other meals to stock customers’ freezers or tables with delivery and pickup options involving several tiers of social distancing.

Transactions are conducted “contact-free,” with a customer’s debit or credit card number and no signature pad. Customers can choose to have meals delivered to their doorstep without coming in contact with the deliverer or can drive to a location for curbside service.  

On Wednesday, Hamby opened a mobile market food truck location in Mount Pleasant in conjunction with Bottles Beverage Superstore. Wigfield said that Mount Pleasant customers had requested a Hamby’s location for their neighborhood before the outbreak, but calls from families stocking up for a potential quarantine spurred her to open the food truck in Bottles’ parking lot.

Wigfield also hopes to incentivize “contact-free” purchases through waiving delivery fees, including wine from Bottles, and offering an additional $20 to every $100 gift card.
 
Greenville’s High Spirits Hospitality offers beverage catering, event security and production services. The company, which has two event venues, also faces the dilemma of event planning when few want to gather.

“Everything in this month has been canceled,” said Tammy Johnson, High Spirits’ CEO and founder.

High Spirits hosted some events in early March, but since McMaster’s crowd prohibition, all remaining events have been put on hold. In the meantime, most of High Spirits’ event planning staff has been able to work from home, aside from their facilities team.

The company’s event planners have prompted couples to host an elopement ceremony on their original date while postponing receptions or larger ceremonies for the summer or fall.

“The hard thing is that this is kind of indefinite. We don’t have enough information to know how far in advance we need to cancel, and that is frustrating. That is frustrating for the couple that is planning a $30,000 wedding, and they have no idea if they should postpone or go ahead as normal.”

To fill the vacuum left by postponed events, High Spirits hosted a Blood Connection blood drive Tuesday with a food truck and dropoff point for the Harvest Hope Food Bank.

Johnson has not yet had to furlough or lay off any staff and remains grateful that the summer and fall tend to be their busiest seasons.

“So far, the workload is still there because people are still booking events for the future, and we will assess the next few weeks as we have to,” she said.

Reach Molly Hulsey at 864-720-1223.

As if wowing your taste buds wasn’t enough, the third annual Tacos & Tequila Fiesta, presented by Lunazul 100% Agave Tequila, will be entertaining attendees with professional wrestling matches, taco painting from Open Art Studios, games and more.
Since the announcement of the fiesta’s return to downtown Greenville, the highly anticipated event has been growing their list of bartenders, restaurants and sponsors steadily. The following bartenders have been added to the competition:
Ashley Allison ~ Rey’s
Carson League ~ Vault & Vator
Ashlee Cleveland ~ Tacozzini
Brooke Davis ~ Luna Rosa
Matthew Milcznski ~ Bacon Bros Public House
Jeremy Krauze ~ On the Roxx
Brian Sizemore ~ The Farehouse
Connie Dimick ~ White Duck Taco
Madelaine Hoptry ~ El Thrifty
Zach Strength ~ Crafted at Nosedive
Clay Hall ~ Chicora Alley Fire House
As far as newly joined restaurants, you can plan to see White Duck Taco Shop, Woodside Bistro, The Farehouse, Chicora Alley and El Thrifty amongst the other 13 restaurants competing in the taco challenge. New competitors brought new judges for the competition: Keaton Wylie from GVL Today, Sam Slaughter food and drink editor of the Manuel, Luigi Bravo the owner of Latin Groove, and Morgan Allen the executive director of Euphoria.
Wrestlers from the Lucha Libre Wrestleforce, based out of Columbia South Carolina, will compete for 1.5 hours in the 16x16ft ring located in the grass lot beside the Old Cigar Warehouse. With more than 1,000 people in attendance at last year’s fiesta, these performers are guaranteed to have a lively audience energized by tacos and spirited by tequila.
Harris Teeter has signed on to be the official sponsor of the highly popular salsa bar. 9round Kickboxing fitness gym will be sponsoring a game while Sierra Nevada sponsors the beer.
Presented by Lunazul 100% Agave Tequila and produced by High Spirits Events, the Tacos & Tequila Fiesta is set to take place on Sunday, April 7 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at The Old Cigar Warehouse, 912 S. Main Street, Greenville.
Tickets can be purchased at www.tacotequilafiesta.com. VIP tickets are officially sold out! General admission tickets start at $45 in advance, or $55 day of, and include eight tequila tasting tokens and 4 p.m. admission. All tickets include unlimited tacos, live entertainment, and games to enjoy throughout the event. For every ticket sold, $1 will benefit Greenville Technical College’s Culinary Program.
All attendees must be 21 years of age or older and have a valid ID on them to enter the fiesta.


About Tacos & Tequila Fiesta and High Spirits Events
High Spirits Events is proud to introduce Greenville’s high energy foodie festival. High Spirits Events is a division of High Spirits Hospitality. They’ve brought in the area’s best restaurants and bars to bring you the best tacos and handcrafted Lunazul 100% Agave Tequila cocktails. Tickets include exclusive access to all you-can-eat tacos, tequila cocktail samples, cash bar, music from DJ Kel, live Lucha Libre wrestling, and more. Learn more at www.tacotequilafiesta.com.
About The Old Cigar Warehouse
Located at 912 S. Main Street across from Fluor Field in the West End, The Old Cigar Warehouse features more than 7,000 square feet of event space, an open catering policy and full event support, allowing the venue to deliver a seamless event. The Old Cigar Warehouse was built in 1882 and historically used as a warehouse for cigars and cotton. With 30-foot-high ceilings, exposed brick and stained floors, the warehouse is sure to inspire the most creative of events.  It is a division of High Spirits Hospitality. www.oldcigarwarehouse.com

Topside Pool Club has started a new business series aimed at letting some of the Upstate’s biggest names in business tell their story in a new kind of setting.
Poolside Chat will launch on April 4 at 5:30 at the downtown pool club with special guest Phil Hughes, said Jaci Willing, Topside membership and event director. A limited number of seats are available for this exclusive event and free registration can be found at www.topsidepoolclub.com.
Hughes is the founder and President of Hughes Investments, Inc., a commercial real estate development company, which develops office buildings, retail shopping centers, industrial facilities, apartment buildings and urban mixed-use projects in the Carolinas. Some local projects include RiverPlace, Poinsett Plaza, Falls Park Place and RiverWalk.
He graduated from the Lawrenceville School (1973), Duke University with degrees in Political Science and Economics (1976), and the University of South Carolina with a Juris Doctor and MBA (1979). For the past ten years he’s taught as an adjunct professor with Clemson University’s Masters in Real Estate Development program.
Hughes has been actively engaged with the Urban Land Institute for more than 30 years, serving as a member of the Board of Trustees, Council Chairman, Chairman of South Carolina and as a lifetime Governor. He is a founding Board member of the Palmetto Promise Institute, a state policy advisory group, and currently serves on the boards of various civic, art, educational and charitable institutions. As a strong advocate of quality economic development, he administers Hughes Investments’ annual grant program, the Elevate Upstate Community Vibrancy Awards.
The Poolside Chat program will occur monthly. The speaker in May will be Paul Sparks, managing principal with RealOp Investments.
“Topside is an amazing location for an after-work networking event,” Willing said. “We created the Poolside Chat series to highlight that.”
​

About Topside Pool Club
Offering stunning views of downtown Greenville and Falls Park, Topside Pool Club is a private membership club located on the top of Falls Park Place building downtown. Members enjoy full access to the pool during normal business hours along with the opportunities for special events. More information can be found at www.topsidepool.com.

In honor of this year’s upcoming Tacos and Tequila festival, which is this Sunday, April 7, we’re going around tasting the best tacos Greenville has to offer.
First up, we’ve got Papi’s Tacos, located right in the heart of downtown off the Reedy River.
Often describes as a “food truck without wheels,” Papi’s rocks all the classic you would expect from Mexican taco stand. The menu is pretty simple, with your choice of tacos, tortas, salads and dips – all made using family recipes from the real life Papi and his family.
Your best bet if you want to try out Papi’s is their chicken barbacoa taco, pictures here, which comes with shredded chicken, lettuce, pico de gallo, crema and queso piled up in a fresh and warm corn tortilla. Papi’s has a variety of salsas free to grab as well, including habanero, avocado, red salsa, mild salsa, and others.  
All tacos are $3, or three for $8.25, although stop in on Tuesdays and tacos go for two bucks each as a part of a “Taco Tuesdays” deal.
If you’re looking for an authentic-tasting Mexican taco right down the street, Papi’s is a good bet.

Let’s play Jeopardy. The clue is: excluding Christmas, 4th of July, and the official start of College Football Season, this is the greatest day of the year.

The answer: What is Tacos ‘N Tequila Fiesta?

This year will mark the third annual fiesta – happening Sunday, April 7, 4-7 p.m. (3-7 p.m. for VIP) at The Old Cigar Warehouse downtown – and it’s sure to (again) be an over-the-top meeting of tortillas filled to the brim + cups with salted rims.

For those unfamiliar with the fest, 20 local restaurants + bartenderscompete for best taco, best cocktail and best sidekick (side dish/dessert)– all judged by a panel of influencers – while general admissionattendees get 8 tequila cocktail tasting tokens + unlimited tacos to taste all the creations + cast your own vote. (VIP get 10 tokens and an extra hour at the fest.) Proceeds will benefit The Culinary Institute of The Carolinas at Greenville Technical College.

To top it all off (like guac, but not extra), there will be entertainment likeLucha Libre Wrestling, DJ Kel, painting + games to play in between your snacks and sips. Note: This event is 21+.

Que-so… tickets are on sale now and are expected to sell out, so waiting to buy them is nacho best idea. Bonus: Head to our Instagram to enter to win a 4 pack of VIP tix.

Pro Tips: Tag us in all your pics with #GVLtoday, enjoy responsibly, and let the good times (and tacos) roll. ​