The brother and sister duo who run BIN112, a restaurant in downtown Greer, had never heard of the small town tucked between Greenville and Spartanburg until a few years ago. But for the past three years, they have called Greer home.

After spending most of their lives moving from place to place with their family, they are both ready to settle down and plant roots.

Jason, the chef at BIN112, says he has moved 36 times in his life, most recently from Washington, D.C. his sister, Allison, the restaurant manager, claims to have moved 31 times, her last from Montana.

“we don’t really have a home, we’re not really from anywhere,” Jason said while seated in a sturdy, comfortable stool at a table in his restaurant. “my father always got a better job,” he laughed while describing the many towns and states where his family lived while he and Allison were growing up.

The frequent change of scenery forged a tighter bond between the brother and sister.

“I think because we moved so much it was kind of like be friends or don’t have any friends,” Allison joked as she looked across the table at her older brother.

“We’ve always got along,” Jason added.

The restaurant is truly a family business. Their parents helped them obtain the building and still share in the partnership. Jason’s wife, Lori, also helps at the restaurant and tends bar on weekends, even though she has a full-time job.

Jason and Lori live above the restaurant in a nearly-2,000 square foot apartment they renovated along with the restaurant downstairs. Allison lived with the couple a few years before getting her own house.

And the Clarks have adopted Portabella, a stray dog that used to hang out in front of the restaurant.

Real-world training

Jason and Allison have been in the restaurant business for many years.

Jason has been cooking since he was 13. He was trained at the Baltimore International Culinary College, but says “hard knocks” and the knowledge gleaned working alongside top chefs provided the training he couldn’t get in culinary school. He’s worked in six major restaurants and as a chef for law firms in Washington, D.C., where he fed “presidents, ambassadors, princes — all kinds of royalty,” along with many football and baseball teams.

“It was extremely interesting to cook things I never had an opportunity to touch — ingredients I never knew existed,” he said.

The training has influenced Clark’s own style of cooking. He describes his cuisine as “a Southeastern menu with an international twist.”

He combines recognizable Southern foods — such as collard greens, grits and pimento cheese — with different spices and flavors to create his own unique interpretation of a familiar, regional dish.

“Jason has always been very creative when it comes to his food — he is an artist — on the plate and with recipes,” Allison said.

Clark is careful not to go “too far out there” with his creations. He wants his dishes to take customers back to their childhood, while offering something fresh to spark their palate. He has “thrown a little bit of Greek” into his collard greens and a touch of spice and tang into his homemade pimento cheese. The pimento cheese, though not printed on the menu, has been an ongoing special that turned into a staple.

On the menu is the “BIN Stack,” composed of a grilled filet mignon stacked with a crab cake, fried green tomato and potato flata, served with saut