Why does the small building at 15 Conestee Ave. keep reaching back to a drugstore that closed in the late 1990s? Over the past nine years, three restaurants have opened in this building just off Augusta Road. Two of them used the pharmacy as the starting point for their names, logos, cocktails and menus.
The Pharmacy at Augusta opened on Oct. 2, 2025. If it were still open, it would have turned one this past Friday. Instead, by late July The State described it as closed. Portofino's Italian Restaurant had announced it would move into the space. That makes Portofino's the fifth name tied to this address in the record, and it's a different kind of tenant. Every concept since Campbell's has borrowed the building's memory. Portofino's brings an Augusta Road history of its own.
Five signs over one counter
Taken together, the building's history reads like a ledger of tenants:
- Campbell's Pharmacy. The State describes the building as a neighborhood pharmacy in the 1960s. The Greenville Journal says longtime residents may remember it as Campbell's Pharmacy, which sold sandwiches and closed in the late 1990s. Old photographs show a storefront sign reading "Drugs Campbell's Sodas," and the business is remembered as a soda fountain and counter-service shop.
- The Common Cure. This neighborhood bar and grill, from John Ko, the owner behind Oakblue Kitchen, opened at the end of March 2017. It closed in late February 2018, after roughly eleven months.
- Tipsy Taco. It opened in 2018 and had the building's longest recent run. In April 2025 it announced that the Conestee location would close that Sunday, April 6.
- The Pharmacy at Augusta. Tipsy Taco owners Tony King and Brian Shelton brought in a consultant to build a new concept, and it opened on Oct. 2, 2025. It had closed by the end of July 2026.
- Portofino's Italian Restaurant. In July 2026, it announced a second location here with a September target.
The Pharmacy at Augusta never dispensed prescriptions. The name was a nod to the building, and so was most of the concept.
How the drugstore kept getting quoted
The Common Cure set the pattern. Its branding work describes the name, the tagline "Over The Counter Remedies," and an illustrated mortar and pestle as a deliberate tribute to the building's history. The designers worked from a moodboard of old Campbell's photographs.
The Pharmacy at Augusta went further. King and Shelton hired Nelson de Hoyos, formerly executive chef at Hall's Chophouse, to create what the Greenville Journal called a refined sports bar. Cocktails such as "The Remedy," made with tequila and mezcal, passionfruit and habanero tincture, came with small shareable drip stands made to look like IVs. The State noted a second drink, The Perfect Dose, built on vodka, juices and sparkling wine.
The menu reached back even further than the cocktails. De Hoyos went past the building's Tipsy Taco years to Campbell's and its sandwiches, and he asked the neighborhood for help:
"I tried to bring all the experiences from the past here and make it more elevated. For the menu, I asked locals [what] they remember about Campbell's, and they had great feedback. I decided to make the sandwiches."
That research became a lunch menu with five grilled-cheese options, burgers and chicken sandwiches. Nearly three decades after Campbell's closed, the chef learned the building's menu from the people who used to eat there. Residents' memories of a lunch counter were the most valuable thing the address had to offer, so each new operator went looking for them.
The tenant whose history is first-hand
Portofino's doesn't need to ask anyone what the neighborhood remembers. The State describes it as a longtime family-owned restaurant, and the new location is close to where it started nearly 30 years ago. Portofino's once had two locations, one on Augusta and one on East North Street. The Maynard family closed both and moved to Orchard Park Drive on the Eastside in 2010. Brent Maynard, the founder's son, bought the business in 2018.
So the move to Conestee is a return. The Augusta Road connection that The Common Cure and The Pharmacy at Augusta built through branding and borrowed recipes, Portofino's already has as part of its own record. Maynard frames it in terms of the families the restaurant has served:
"Over the years, we've had the privilege of getting to know multiple generations of families, and we look forward to welcoming many more. Today, that tradition continues as the next generation of our family brings fresh energy and a deep commitment to the same values that have guided us from the beginning."
The State says the menu at the Orchard Park location runs to traditional dishes such as parmigiana, saltimbocca and tortellacci. The restaurant is best known for its salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, beets, garbanzo beans, onions, mushrooms and mozzarella with a house-made Italian red wine vinaigrette. Any family that ate at the old Augusta location will remember that salad, and Campbell's Pharmacy plays no part in its story.
What's confirmed about the opening, and what isn't
The announcement and the target date are on record. Whether the doors have actually opened is not. WYFF reported on July 28 that the Conestee location was expected to open sometime in early September. The State reported a September opening two days later. As of this weekend, we haven't found a local news report confirming the opening. Portofino's online ordering page still lists only the Orchard Park Drive address for pickup. That is not proof the new dining room is closed, but it means hours and any Conestee-specific menu haven't been published in the sources we could check. The restaurant's own website is the place to watch.
The record shows a pattern. In the past, the gap between tenants here has run anywhere from a few weeks to about six months: Tipsy Taco announced its April 2025 closing, and The Pharmacy at Augusta opened that October. When The Common Cure closed in 2018, Greenville News reported in the same story that Tipsy Taco planned to open that April. This time the next tenant was named in the same social media post that announced the closing.
Down Augusta Street, the long-running fixtures
The same idea of earned tenure shows up a short drive down Augusta Street. The Goodwill at 3214 Augusta St. had its last shopping day on Saturday, Aug. 1, and closed for renovation on Aug. 2. The organization says the site keeps accepting donations throughout construction. Upstate Business Journal reports the project at 23,829 square feet. It includes roughly 9,000 square feet of retail, 4,000 square feet for a career-and-training center with job fairs and employment services, and 8,000 square feet of production space, with reopening projected for summer 2027. Until then, Goodwill's store directory lists Goodwill at the Trail at 115 Haywood Road and a Greenville store at 1902 Woodruff Road.
The street's oldest seasonal habit is six weeks away. The Augusta Road Business Association's Holiday Open House returns on Sunday, Nov. 15, from 1 to 5 p.m. The association describes it as a tradition that began in the 1980s, with greenery going up and families walking from one Augusta Street business to the next. The association says more details are coming on its event page. That afternoon is also a likely time to see whether a new sign has gone up on Conestee Avenue.
The history of 15 Conestee Ave. shows how much a building's past can matter to the people who live around it. If you're weighing what an Augusta Road property's own story might mean to the next owner, Thomas Tamrack would be glad to walk through it with you. Let's Connect.
