Ryan Cunningham works for Hub City Hospitality and Kelly Newell is a therapist. When they aren’t out on the plentiful trails of Spartanburg County with their three dogs, odds are you can find them at some of their favorite Downtown Spartanburg spots.

Get Ryan and Kelly’s guide to a Downtown Spartanburg weekend below, or build your own using the shopping and dining options available downtown.

On our perfect Spartanburg weekend, we would get off work and head to Monsoon Noodle House for a dinner packed with Asian flavors. Our favorite dishes are the House Noodles – which are rice noodles in a sweet and savory sauce that are stir-fried with beansprouts, carrots and onions — and the Tom Kha Soup — a unique Thai soup with coconut milk and chicken.

Once we left dinner, we’d make sure to check out any local art or theater events going on around downtown. You can typically find live music somewhere in Spartanburg and there really is a lot of art downtown.

If we have a babysitter for the night, we’d want to check out FR8yard or the Nu-Way, depending on the time of year, for a few drinks and time to catch up with friends.

Depending on how hungry we start the day Saturday morning, you would find us at The Skillet, using corned beef hash to get our day going. 

Post-breakfast, it would be coffee time at Little River Coffee Bar before soaking in some time outside, either with a stroll around downtown or a short trip with our dogs to Glendale Shoals, Hatcher Gardens or the Mary Black Rail Trail. Each option is close to downtown and easily accessible.

After some time in the great outdoors, we’d regroup a bit at home. Usually that involves Clemson football but occasionally, it calls for a quick nap.

A few of our favorite dinner spots are Miyakos, Venus Pie and The Kennedy. You can’t go wrong with anything at any of these spots, so it entirely depends on what we’re in the mood for. Miyakos sushi is dynamite, and Venus Pie’s pizzas always hit the spot. The Kennedy is just so unique, with so many interesting dishes, that every visit lets you try something new.

If we have some flexibility after dinner, we love hitting up Main Street Pub for a drink (or two). It’s always a fun way to end our night, heading to a place so many folks in Spartanburg have gone to for so long.

When we decide to venture out Sundays, we normally do a little shopping either downtown or somewhere not too far away. One of our favorite spots is Paisley Paw, especially for our oldest dog, Millie. Millie has some specific allergies and the staff at Paisley Paw always helps us out navigating what treats and toys we can get for her.

Once it’s time to eat, our nephews love the new Bronco’s location on East Main Street or classics like Flock Shop and Cribbs Kitchen. Once we eat, we again take some time to stroll downtown and play at the new playground at Denny’s Plaza. Or we’ll trek out to Cleveland Park for their playgrounds.

By this time, we’ve had a full weekend so once late-Sunday afternoon comes around, it’s time to wind down and get ready for another week.

To summarize, our perfect Downtown Spartanburg weekend would be time well spent with good friends, eating good food, drinking good drinks and supporting good businesses.