Have you tried Southside Smokehouse & Grill? We are very fortunate in the Upstate to have so many little towns with hidden gems, sprinkled around to discover. Southside Smokehouse & Grill in Landrum, just south of the NC border is one such gem!
Chef Sarah McClure creates delicious menu items to lure diners to the smokehouse. You’ll find her husband and co-owner Robert Hall behind the bar mixing cocktails that will be the envy of all your friends on social media when you tease them with photos.
“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!” If you’re a parent, never have truer words been spoken. Going to an ice cream shop is one of the hallmarks of a happy childhood. There is just something about staring at vats upon vats of delicious frozen possibilities and colorful toppings that makes a kid scream with delight, and let’s face it – parents have their own inner shout of glee, too. If you are looking for a sweet treat and that iconic ice cream parlor feel, check out Hub City Scoops on Main Street.
Here’s the Scoop
Located downtown in a bright cheerful space, Hub City Scoops atmosphere is clean and inviting. The staff is friendly and knowledgeable about the products and happy to answer questions and provide samples and suggestions.
Hub City Scoops’ menu provides plenty of tantalizing choices. Rotating about 28 flavors of super premium ice cream, options include traditional cups, cones, milkshakes, coke floats, and sundaes. There are also unique offerings, such as their ice cream flights with a side of waffle cone chips, ice cream cookies, and dessert nachos. The Hub City Scoops Facebook page and Hub City Scoops Website, list the hours of operation and a complete menu with photos of specialty treats, and the flavors of the day allowing you to make a mental list of must-try samples.
Genius!
So, the next time you’re in the market for a sweet treat or special outing, don’t hesitate to give this family-friendly shop a try!
Hub City Scoops also offers birthday party options! Beginning at just $125 for a party with 10 people, they include set-up and clean-up, ice cream, and more!
Try a Scoop for Yourself
Hub City Scoops 138 E. Main Street Spartanburg, SC 29306 864.586.1100
Looking for a new restaurant to try? Our very own CAMP restaurant in Greenville is one your whole family will enjoy! But this isn’t the kind that will require an overnight stay. We have all the information you need to know before you visit CAMP.
CAMP | Tostada
The location that formerly housed the Greenville News offices is now one of the newest social hubs of Downtown Greenville. The AC Hotel, Insomnia cookies, and CAMP offer guests to Camperdown Plaza fine dining, cocktails, warm cookies & entertainment on the outdoor stage.
There’s a place tucked away in the foothills of Travelers Rest that will transport you far from the daily grind of everyday life in the Upstate. Hotel Domestique’s Restaurant 17 is the place where you can pour yourself into a seat on the patio, and just breathe in the surrounding beauty. The menu is carefully curated, utilizing ingredients supplied by local farmers, cheese artisans, beekeepers, and more.
A meal at Restaurant 17 is more than just nourishment, it’s an experience. Paired with a weekend getaway stay at Hotel Domestique, you’ll forget you’re less than an hour from home.
Restaurant 17 in Travelers Rest, SC
Owner’s Name: Rich Hincapie
Do you have a kids menu? Yes What are your contactless delivery options? Curbside pickup
Do you offer outdoor dining? Outdoor dining – covered, open & heated What makes your spot unique? Nestled in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Restaurant 17’s beautiful setting is the clear root for the restaurant’s modern, place-driven perspective. It all adds up to an experience that brings people together over tables of authentic, thoughtful food and drink. Where old-world hospitality meets familiar European views, the cuisine reveals an elevated twist on classic Italian and Mediterranean favorites. Chef Haydn Shaak marries classical training with his dedication to local farms and ingredients to craft a truly unique menu inspired by the seasonality of the Upstate.
What dish is the most popular? Southern Fried Chicken Padano
What dish are you the proudest of? Chef Haydn’s Southern Vegetable plate features local and seasonal vegetables from our local farmers, and we are proud to showcase the produce of our region in a unique, fresh way.
It’s my first time at your restaurant, what do you suggest we order? The Cheese & Charcuterie Board and House Made Ricotta Dip are must-haves for snacks to start. For Small Plates, the Domestique Puttanesca and Sausage + Peppers Radiatore are house favorites. Finally, for entrees, the Southern Fried Chicken Padano and Mountain Trout Piccata are fan favorites!
Are you looking for vegan restaurants in Greenville, SC? Or maybe you’re looking for vegetarian restaurants in Greenville?
The lifestyle of eating meat-free isn’t new, but it has become more mainstream in recent years. The days of going out to eat as a vegetarian or vegan and eating a dinner of side dishes are gone, as restaurants cater to a new fanbase. You know a plant-based diet is mainstream when traditionally meat-heavy BBQ places offer a meat-free alternative!
We’re here to clarify some things and then help you find the delicious meals you’ll want to seek out with a list of vegan and vegetarian-friendly restaurants in Greenville, SC.
Coastal Crust | Green Salad & House Marinated Olives Appetizer
Vegetarian, Vegan, & Plant-Based Diets – What’s The Difference?
Growing up with a Godmother who was a vegetarian, I quickly learned to read labels and ingredients before offering her things. Items I had never thought of included animal by-products, and even to this day, some things surprise me. Once, someone pointed out that one of the fruit-filled pastries in the grocery store bakery contained a pork by-product (and it wasn’t lard). So what’s the difference between Vegan, Vegetarian, and Plant-Based diets lifestyles?
Vegetarian VS Vegan: A vegetarian diet is the most flexible of the options. There are several sub-categories of vegetarianism; most eliminate meat from their diet and retain some animal-sourced items, such as eggs, cheese, honey, or other non-meat)
Vegan VS Plant-Based: The critical difference is that veganism includes avoiding animal products of all kinds, including clothing, while plant-based usually refers strictly to the diet. So vegan would be the most extreme of the three, with no consumption of animal-derived products at all.
Bar Margaret – Greenville, SC Vegan/ Veggie burger option
Blue Moon Specialty Foods – Spartanburg, SC Veggie lunch plates, veggie wraps (omit the cheese for vegan), and a large selection of prepared meals in their market.
Core Life Eatery – Greenville, SC It offers several “build-your-own” menu items that can very quickly be made vegan. The pasta used is rice noodles, and they offer roasted tofu as an alternative meat option.
Downtown Deli & Donuts– Spartanburg, SC Plant-based bowls and wraps, portobello burger, black bean burger, veggie sandwich, and other vegan items at Downtown Deli & Donuts
The Exchange Co. – Simpsonville, SC This coffee shop and creperie offer vegan crepe options!
Farm Fresh Fast – Greenville. SC Veggie Stir Fry, wraps, and more on their “No-Kill” plant-based menu
V. V. Spot – Serving The Upstate, SC V.V. Spot offers Vegan food restaurant tours and is a great way to learn how you can make small changes in your current eating habits to be healthier. You might be surprised! If you want to learn more about what V.V. Spot offers, check out our Review of The Vegan Restaurant Tour Of The West Village.
White Duck Taco – Multiple locations Jackfruit meal alternative offered, plus easily veganize menu items by swapping meat for beans and omitting dairy.
Wholly Smoke Family Restaurant – Mauldin, SC They offer four different vegan entrée options that include jackfruit as a meat alternative.
If you’re looking for more restaurants in Greenville and the Upstate, be sure to check out our Restaurant Guide.
Feed & Seed is a unique nonprofit in Greenville, SC that seeks to reduce food waste while producing excellent products for consumers and giving access to food to families who live in a food desert in Greenville.
Feed & Seed, located in Judson Mill right off the edge of downtown Greenville, is home to a fairly unique operation that only opened last year. And they are in that exact location for a very good reason: because it’s a food desert.
Feed & Seed wears many hats and I’ll tell you why a visit to them is a delicious idea.
About Feed & Seed
Feed & Seed is a nonprofit located in the middle of a food desert in Greenville. The USDA defines a food desert as, “A tract in which at least 100 households are located more than one-half mile from the nearest supermarket and have no vehicle access; or at least 500 people, or 33 percent of the population, live more than 20 miles from the nearest supermarket, regardless of vehicle availability.”
There are more than 6,500 of them in the United States, including 21 in 14 different counties in South Carolina, according to the USDA. However, Feed & Seed is not a food bank but they certainly have in mind people in low-income areas who are struggling with food insecurity. The nonprofit went through miles of bureaucratic red tape to allow the use of SNAP (food stamps) to be used to buy their products.
They house a cafe where they sell local produce, meat, dairy, and their own housemade take-and-bake meals, as well as a cafe where you can order breakfast or lunch. I’ve had their Italian sub and wow, I’ve been dreaming of that deliciousness ever since.
They also work with local farmers to buy their produce and fruit, which is awesome because farmers often can only sell their goods on-site or during the farmers’ market season, which is only about a third of the year or even less sometimes. That’s a small window to stay in business.
Feed & Seed also hosts community events and has space for meetings, parties, or other gatherings.
Meeting the Needs of the Community
Feed & Seed saw the need for fresh produce and local food and was founded to fill the gap between the people who need that and the people who provide it. That’s the reason for the location they chose and the idea took off from there.
The nonprofit partners with several local farms and others in the area who grow and produce that nourishing healthy food that everyone needs but may not have access to. They do that by buying produce directly from farmers, processing it themselves, and selling it right at their store.
Feed & Seed also has a program for Oconee County and Pickens County called FoodShareSC where boxes of fresh produce are sold for $20 cash or $5 EBT. Pickup locations are in Easley, Clemson, and Seneca. These boxes are filled with 10-12 varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables. Anyone can order a FoodShareSC box. In Greenville, Foodshare Greenville is run by Mill Village Farms.
Reducing Food Waste
You know how you have this grand idea of buying three heads of kale that you plan to cook the following week for your family and then, two weeks later remember it’s there and it really doesn’t look all that great? Or maybe you bought a bunch of peaches, put them in your refrigerator and found them a month later all moldy? OK, please tell me I’m not alone here. Americans waste an enormous amount of food. It’s truly awful and after I toured Feed & Seed, I was determined to make smarter choices in menu planning and remembering what I’ve bought and how to use it.
Feed & Seed steps in to help make sure that food waste doesn’t happen by buying produce, veggies, and fruit directly from farms and immediately making use of it so it doesn’t go bad.
Food banks are a necessary part of the community in Greenville but even they have limitations. With food banks, they often cannot keep enough fresh produce because they don’t have the necessary refrigeration and storage. At Feed & Seed, they have massive refrigerators plus have come up with ways to reduce food waste by freeze-drying and dehydrating fresh fruits and vegetables, which give them long-lasting staying power and significantly reduce food waste.
They also offer rental refrigeration to farmers who need a place to store extra goods. This is a huge service to smaller farms especially.
The Cafe & Store
Feed & Seed sells a huge variety of local goods from honey to jams to dairy to meat to produce to coffee. I could have spent a ton of money there!
I really like that the nonprofit has such a laser focus on local food. Honestly, it makes me feel good to buy something I know was grown or produced right here in the Upstate because it goes right back into our local community.
The one thing I didn’t try was their take-and-bake meals and soups. They looked so good and I saw some of the chefs preparing lasagna while I was there on a tour and it looked amazing. I did have an Italian sub and cookie and both were delicious. It’s obvious the chefs take pride in their dishes. You can even order online to save time.
For many families with single parents, making healthy meals is a huge challenge. It’s these families, especially that Feed & Seed had in mind when they started to offer their ready-made meals that people can purchase and take home and heat up in the oven or microwave. They are nutrient-dense and provide a healthy alternative to fast food. SNAP benefits can be used to pay for these.
Feed & Seed also sells local produce bags for $15, which you can buy anytime you’re over there. If you love a good CSA (Community Supported Agriculture), Feed & Seed has a similar option with their Crop Box, which is a weekly box full of fresh fruits, vegetables, and produce that you can pick up once a week from March-May. It’s $30 or $45 per week depending on how big of a box you choose. This is a fantastic way to support local farmers.
Volunteer Opportunities
As you may imagine, this operation requires a lot of effort and Feed & Seed needs a lot of volunteers to make their vision a reality.
Volunteers are needed to assist in packing boxes for their FoodShareSC program to feed families in need. You can see current volunteer opportunities on their website or sign up for their email newsletter to get all the information right to your inbox.
Volunteers must be 14 years old to give of their time at Feed & Seed and those under 16 must be accompanied by an adult age 18+.
Besides the box packing, volunteers are needed on local farms that Feed & Seed works with, to help with tax preparation, and to assist with events.
Visiting Feed & Seed: Review
Obviously, Feed & Seed has a lot on their plate (no pun intended) and have chosen to tackle some pretty massive issues in the community. They truly hit the ground running when they opened and have only expanded as they have continued to seek to bring fresh food to everyone. Plus, they’ve got a really great thing going at their cafe and market, which I highly recommend you visit.
They are open Monday – Friday 8 am – 5:30 pm. They serve breakfast those days from 8-11 am and then lunch is served 11 am – 2 pm.
Looking for great restaurant for brunch in Spartanburg, SC? There are a lot of restaurants in Hub City with brunch menus. How do you pick one? We asked our readers for their favorite brunch spots in Spartanburg and this list where they guided us.
Here are our readers’ favorite brunch restaurants!
Wondering what Bobby’s BBQ & Seasoning has to offer? Delicious barbecue in Fountain Inn, SC, that’s what! Learn all about Bobby’s BBQ & Seasoning right here, including some menu highlights you don’t want to miss. Seriously, we can practically taste this article.
But, wait.
You’ll also find Bobby’s BBQ on our list of Greenville’s Top 5 BBQ Places. So if you love BBQ, you’ll want to check that out, too!
When visiting Bobby’s BBQ, it doesn’t matter if it’s your first time or your 20th; you will be treated like family. Don’t believe me? How many other restaurants keep spare sets of infant clothes and diapers in both the men’s and women’s restrooms when a little guest has a blow-out?
Sarah Nelson knew if she ever owned a restaurant, she would help parents with things like that so they could enjoy a meal, even under the most stressful of situations. If you have ever been caught in a situation like that, you can appreciate the gesture. It’s just one way the Nelsons welcome diners, and why they’ve created a loyal fan base.
Photo Credit: Bobby’s BBQ
Bobby’s BBQ & Seasoning
Owners – Tay & Sarah Nelson
Do you have a kid’s menu? Yes
What are your contactless delivery options? Curbside Pick-up
Do you offer outdoor dining? Yes – Open Air, Covered, Heated
What makes your spot unique? We are a family-owned restaurant serving Texas-style barbecue. While most Carolina barbecue restaurants are known for their pulled pork and chicken, we specialize in brisket, housemade sausage, and smoked turkey breast. We love everyone who comes to the restaurant and try to make them feel at home. Everything is made from scratch, and all of our sides are adaptations of family recipes.
What Locals Have To Say About Bobby’s BBQ & Seasoning
We Love Bobby’s!!!!
Erica K.M.
The BEST local bbq is Bobby’s BBQ in Fountain Inn. Great sides, smoked turkey breast, brisket, sausages, even jackfruit for vegetarians. Community outreach by the owner. Never a bad bite!
Amy
Bobby’s BBQ. The brisket is insane! The turkey is so tender. The sides are ridiculous.
Looking for a great burger in Spartanburg, SC? Spring has sprung, and nothing screams outdoor dining like a juicy burger and fries! Searching for a great burger in Spartanburg just got easier with our list of places to grab a cheeseburger with the family.
Have you visited the quaint Stone Soup Cafe in Landrum, SC? The restaurant has beautiful comfortable seating indoors and out. We love the pretty garden-like setting outdoors, as well as the cozy and comfortable indoor seating. And, we loved the relaxed ambiance and friendly service. Here’s why you should add this spot to your list of great restaurants for a date night, or a relaxing meal out with friends and family.
Outdoor Seating at Stone Soup
Stone Soup Setting
From the minute you pull into the stone parking lot, after your drive down Main Street Landrum, you’ll feel like you’ve entered a little mini-vacation spot in the mountains. Surrounded by mature trees and pretty hanging lights you can choose to either dine indoors or out. Either way, you can enjoy a leisurely meal in a beautiful setting.
This place is the total opposite of busy city, downtown dining in loud buzzing restaurants. My husband and I have visited a couple of times for a date night, and each time is just as good, if not better, than the last.
Outdoors, and tables are set under shade awnings and a pavilion. There are both fans and heaters so the space can be enjoyed in a variety of weather. Indoors, cozy and comfortable tables are spread throughout a couple of smaller rooms of dining space with great big windows, allowing for easy conversation and a relaxed ambiance.
It is rather unusual for my husband and me, especially leaving the kids at home, to enjoy a drink, then an appetizer, a meal, and also stick around for coffee and dessert. But at Stone Soup we do because it was just that beautiful and relaxing. We probably spend an average of 2 hours on our date night meals Stone Soup. The service was wonderful and we never once felt rushed. In fact, our waitress suggested at the end of our meal that we just keep sipping our coffee and take our time.
Stone Soup Menu
All that and we haven’t yet discussed the food. The menu at Stone Soup includes a wide variety of wood-fired pizzas, sandwiches, unique appetizers, and entrees, plus cocktails, and a small selection of the day’s desserts.
We ordered (and highly recommend) the Tuna Bites for an appetizer. It was gorgeous and delicious. The tuna bites are black sesame-crusted Rare Ahi Tuna, pickled ginger, wasabi cream, chopped red peppers, and green onions, on top of the lightest, crispiest wontons you’ve ever seen or tasted.
We ordered the tuna bites again on a second visit, and they were just as delicious!
For our meals, we’ve enjoyed sandwiches like their salmon BLT and a woodfired calzone. The bacon on that BLT was some of the thickest and tastiest I’ve had while the salmon was cooked perfectly. The calzone was massive and could have easily fed two people, which it didn’t because my husband loves calzones and ate the whole thing. It was just that good.
Dessert isn’t printed on the menu, but just ask your server for what they are offering that day. We intended to get one dessert and share it, but, on the day we went, they had both peanut butter pie and a chocolate flourless cake that may as well have been fudge. So, we got them both and we had no regrets.
Stone Soup Market
Stone Soup also carries a selection of housemade baked goods, deli salads, and specialty items that can be purchased in their market. They also have housemade frozen casseroles to pick up and bring home.
Stone Soup 1522 E. Rutherford Street Landrum, SC 864.457.5255
Tuesday through Thursday 11:30 am to 8 pm Friday 11:30 am to 9 pm Saturday 11:30 am to 8:30 pm
More to See and Do in Landrum, SC
Explore This 110 Year-Old Covered Bridge: Campbell’s Covered Bridge
Upick Tulips at Thompson Family Farms Near Campobello, SC!
Pick Lavender at Elf Leaf Farm: Greenville County’s Only Lavender Farm
