Looking for something delicious from a great food truck in Greenville, SC? We love visiting local food trucks and our readers do, too! They voted in our annual KABOOM Awards for the best food trucks in Greenville, SC. Here’s what they said.
1st Place: Kona Ice
See more great food trucks in our long list of Greenville’s Great Food Trucks.
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Don’t miss our Kidding Around Guide to Restaurants in the Upstate
Is it time for something delicious? Discover the best family bakeries in Greenville, SC. Our readers voted on their favorite bakeries as part of our KABOOM Awards. Here’s what they said.
1st Place: Strossners
Finalists:
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Don’t miss our Kidding Around Guide to Restaurants in the Upstate
Looking for the best desserts in Greenville, SC? If you’re looking for a delicious treat, this is the list for you. Our readers voted for their favorite desserts in Greenville, SC as part of our annual KABOOM Awards contest. These KABOOM Award Winners are Greenville’s top sweet treats.
1st Place: Dillard’s Ice Cream
Finalists:
SPONSORED 1635 East North Street, Greenville , SC
At Clare’s Creamery, we have a passion for sharing our love of ice cream with everyone we meet. We strive to create a tradition celebrated with valued friends, family and neighbors originating from these core principles: Small batch ice cream hand-crafted in Greenville, South Carolina Recipes made the way we like them (and we hope you like them too) Quality ingredients sourced from the best local & national suppliers Welcoming environment & prices that are affordable to all our neighbors
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Don’t miss our Kidding Around Guide to Restaurants in the Upstate
1st Place: Ice Cream Station
Finalists:
1st Place: Houni’s Italian Ice
Finalists:
Local and Loved: Ice Cream and Frozen Treats in Greenville, SC
What do laundry, coffee, and wifi have to do with each other? You’ll find all three at Green Laundry Lounge, a modern, eco-friendly laundromat in Greer, SC. And this is not what you imagine when you think of a typical laundromat. It’s bright, incredibly clean, modern, and comfortable. They offer a variety of services from self-service to drop-off services, all geared to take the hassle out of laundry day.
Looking to explore more of the area? Here’s your ultimate guide to visiting Greer, SC.
Have you ever seen a poll that says something like “Which is worse: doing laundry or cooking dinner?” I don’t know about you, but I have no hesitation in telling you that I despise doing laundry. I’d rather clean toilets than do laundry. Laundry is so time-consuming and boring. But Green Laundry Lounge may change my mind.
Green Laundry Lounge’s Founder and Part-Owner, Jay Desai, is trying to reinvent laundry and dry-cleaning services so communities and families can spend more time together. Desai, who cares deeply for the environment, built a sustainable laundromat. With energy-efficient washers, dryers, and sustainable laundry products, you’ll have peace of mind knowing your laundry is being cleaned safely.
Green Laundry Lounge has an outdoor park, patio, lounge with food and drink options, an iPad station for both kids and adults, books, and a kid’s area to encourage community and gathering together. While you can drop your laundry off, you’re also invited to stay and spend time with your family while you’re doing your laundry.
The entire facility is bright, clean, and well-maintained.
Green Laundry Lounge’s laundromat uses some of the best laundry appliances available. With washer capacities up to 80 lbs and dryers up to 83 lbs, you’ll be able to wash and dry up to 9 loads at a time (think about how much time you’ll save!). You’re able to choose as many washers and dryers as you’d like, or just utilize one. The largest capacity machines can get you in and out in under an hour.
Each machine has a delicate cycle for your most fragile fabrics. And yes, you can certainly wash and dry your large items like those down comforters and your pet’s bedding.
As for the Dry Cleaning services, Green Laundry Lounge actually uses an Organic Dry Cleaning Technology, better known as Wet-Cleaning. No harsh or harmful chemicals or solvents are used. They only use bio-degradable soap, conditioner, and water. The staff is careful in handling your delicates, and steam machines take care of your ironing and pressing needs.
Green Laundry Lounge offers same-day laundry and dry cleaning services. You can stay and wait on your laundry or drop it off to pick it up later.
They also offer a convenient rewards program that rewards you each time you come in. With every purchase, you get points that can be used for discounts or free services. It’s a great way to save money while getting your clothes clean and fresh.
Green Laundry Lounge has a Cafe & Lounge with both indoor and outdoor seating. You can have a hand-crafted specialty coffee, traditional chai, Beer & Wine, and a snack while waiting on your laundry. There’s even wifi if you want to get some work done while you’re there.
Most ingredients are sourced locally. Desai believes that if you can find something in Greer or localy, why would you go somewhere else to source it?
While some of the items on the menu are standard year-round, there are also seasonal options. During my visit, I tried the Caramel Crunch Latte, and it did not disappoint.
Here are some of the amenities to enjoy at Green Laundry Lounge in Greer:
You’ll find Green Laundry Lounge located in the Palms off Brushy Creek Road.
10 Moorlyn Lane Suite G, Greer
864.479.0173
Have you visited Green Laundry Lounge yet? What’d you think?
Are you a lover of donuts? Have you heard that a new place is waddling into town? Greenville residents love their donuts and are going to have another donut shop to get their fix. Duck Donuts is opening its first location in the Upstate and people are excited!
(more…)Planning on baking some of your own bread? If you haven’t been able to find yeast in the store, one option you have is to bake your bread with a sourdough starter. Great Harvest Bread Company’s sourdough starter is named Carl, and they have been giving bits of Carl away free to anyone who wants to try their hand at sourdough bread baking.
Could baking with a sourdough starter be your new Coronavirus quarantine acquired skill? Yes, it could. I picked up a bit of Carl just a few days ago and after a bit of experimenting and chatting with friends more knowledgeable than I, Carl is not only still alive, he’s also made sourdough biscuits and a simple overnight sourdough bread.
(more…)Looking for great coffee in Fountain Inn, SC or want to try a delicious flight of coffee? Steam Coffee & Cream is a fantastic place to try! And they are super family-friendly so, a huge bonus. It’s only about 20 minutes from Greenville, SC.
(more…)Wondering if a visit to Greenville’s Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery should be on your to do list? Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery in Greenville, SC is a popular local food grocery and cafe with sandwiches, baked goods, and a wide selection of farm fresh produce and goods. Located along the Swamp Rabbit Trail, it’s the perfect place for families to enjoy great food and outdoor activities. Plus, they have a fun outdoor play area for kids to burn off steam while you enjoy a coffee and stecca. Win-Win!
Looking for more great places to eat out AND play with your family? Check out our list of Places to Dine And Play in Greenville.
I had heard many great things about Swamp Rabbit Café and Grocery before I actually stepped foot inside the converted warehouse, where an assault on my senses took me to another world of blueberry scones, perfect lattes and an eye-opening array of fresh produce and baked goods. It’s like entering a little world of food perfection in the middle of Greenville – well, actually, in the middle of the Swamp Rabbit Trail.
The Swamp Rabbit Café offers an incredible variety of local and fresh food and the owners obviously take great pains in finding the best products to offer customers. Over the years, the café and grocery has expanded their space. They have increased seating capacity in the café and now command an even more abundant and spacious grocery section. At least half of their food offerings are sourced from within 150 miles of Greenville so that customers know where the food comes from and are assured of its quality.
Plus, your dollars are going back into the local economy, so it’s a win-win for everyone. There are a variety of seasonal goods like apples, greens and vegetables plus refrigerators full of local meat, organic and sustainable dairy items, and even goat’s milk gelato. They also have a wall, yes, a wall, of nuts and seeds and a favorite from my own childhood – dried pineapples.
The shop also has a weekly produce box that you can pick up that is full of seasonal ingredients. Also, check their Facebook and website for deals as they often will post on social media their newest offerings. If you are a glutton for punishment, follow them on Instagram. The pictures of gorgeous food will have your mouth watering all day long. For a video tour and interview with one of the co-owners, Mary Walsh, see here.
After you get done perusing the grocery, head down the steps to the café side, it’s only a matter of deciding what you’d like to have from their offerings of coffee, muffins, scones, sandwiches, salads, and soups.
The scones are amazing – fluffy on the inside, crusty on the outside, and full of flavor. Why so delicious? The owners explain that they are so careful about what they bake with and only use “flour, evaporated cane juice, local free-range eggs, local milk, local butter, yeast.” The difference from other baked goods, like at a grocery store, is very noticeable.
If you are visiting for lunch, you have to give the turkey pesto sandwich a try. It is delicious, with the perfect balance of turkey, deliciously crafted basil pesto, all assembled on stecca. It is a go-to sandwich of mine on a regular basis. They also have gluten-free bread options if you need that.
The owners of Swamp Rabbit Café and Grocery not only have an eye, and palette, for quality coffee and food, but they also thought of the weary parents who are in need of respite. Just outside the café is a little fenced-in yard full of toys for the little ones to play with while mom and dad get their coffee and scone fix. It’s perfect for a Saturday morning to relax and let the kids get out some energy.
The café is right off the Swamp Rabbit Trail so you can easily access it from there as well. I saw a bunch of families with their kids on bikes or in pull-along trailers stop in for a quick snack. If you take your car, there is plenty of parking.
Find the Swamp Rabbit Café at 205 Cedar Lane, Greenville, SC 29611.
Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery Hours:
Open Daily: 7:30 am – 8 pm
Raise your hands if you think your friendly neighborhood delivery service was heaven sent. This is how I first felt when I experienced by first grocery delivery in Greenville, SC. Hubby was out of town and we just had come back from a big trip. Chores had piled up and kids were off from school because of storm warnings. How to do everything when your hands are already full? Thankfully, Publix online shopping and same day delivery came to the rescue. It was so easy and free, thanks to a special offer for new customers. It was like having elves show up in your house. Probably the easiest supermarket trip ever.
With the coming of two big app-based delivery companies, Instacart and Shipt, more supermarkets are able to offer the same-day delivery service, some within as little as one hour! I’ve noticed that Publix works with both companies which probably explains why they have great delivery coverage.
Before you proceed, bear in mind that there are pros and cons to online ordering. For instance, online prices are sometimes higher than found in the store. Costco, in fact, readily states that prices are higher online, right on their website. Online shopping also takes away the option to pick your own produce and the social interaction that comes with shopping in stores. That being said, online shopping also helps you manage your grocery shopping better and lowers the chances of impulse buying. Whether it’s curbside pick-up or same-day delivery you choose, on-line grocery services like Instacart and Shipt, are definitely a big win for parents when it comes to convenience and time saved. Please note that alcohol is not available for online deliveries.
Before the same-day delivery service, we were already thrilled with the idea of curbside pick-up. For those not familiar, it’s grocery shopping online with the option to pick-up your groceries at a designated time of your choosing. How does it work? You create a shopping list through your grocery app or website. Upon checkout, you select a time to pick them up. Your receipt should give you a designated number which the store will use to identify your items. Typically, the store you choose will have a reserved parking area for pick-ups. Usually the order is free but depending on your store, there might be a minimum order of $30. Please see your preferred supermarket for more detailed guidelines, such as a time cut-off for same-day orders, pricing and procedures. Fortunately, there are quite a few stores offering curbside pick up.
Lowes Foods of Greer
850 East Suber Road Suite 200
Greer, SC 29650
Lowes Foods of Simpsonville
2815 Woodruff Road
Simpsonville, SC 29681
Lowes Foods off Pelham
3619 Pelham Road
Greenville, SC 29615
Multiple Publix and Walmart locations – please see their website for the complete list.
An Instacart membership offers a free 14-day trial and after that charges $99 per year. Stores that they work with are listed below.
Note: Check your own location – stores vary by location.
A Shipt membership also offers a 2-week free trial, a recurring membership of $99 after trial, plus $15 off on first order, with the option to cancel anytime. Shipt also has a Monthly plan of $10.99 and free delivery on orders over $35. Read local mom Jackie Vest’s review of Shipt.
Tip: Check out their facebook page for deals and digital coupons.
Note: Check your own location – stores vary by location.
Do you use curbside or delivery services? Which one do you like best? Please feel free to share in the comments section.
Be sure to check out our giant list of resources and services for families in Greenville, SC.
Have you ever wondered what your kids are eating for lunch? Local mom Kristina Hernandez interviewed Joe Urban, director of Food and Nutrition Services of Greenville County Schools. She asked him all the questions about school food that you might have wondered about but never asked. Here are the answers!
Food. Our kids eat it every day at school during the school year. They grab those lunch trays and peruse the options, talk to the nice lunch lady, and ultimately choose what they want to nourish their bodies and get through the rest of the day.
Last year at The Children’s Museum of the Upstate’s Countdown to Kindergarten event, I met Joe Urban. Joe and his team were manning the new Greenville County Food Services (GCFS) food truck, a somewhat revolutionary concept that brings much-needed food into under served areas of the county.
I ended up having a great conversation with him and started following his Instagram account (@schoolfoodrocks), which seriously made me want to get in line with my kid at school every day to try their lunch options. They post all kind of yummy options – roasted vegetables, fish tacos, and braised brisket – stuff that I’d love to learn to cook in my own kitchen. This was no ordinary school lunch food. My interest was piqued so I reached out to Joe to learn more.
As the school year heats up, Joe and his team are working hard to deliver tasty and healthy options to 76,000 kids in 101 school and special centers. They have 750 employees who serve breakfast, lunch and after school snacks and are the largest food service program in the state, and 44th in the entire nation.
Joe is the Director for the Food and Nutrition Services department of Greenville County Schools, which means he oversees the food service operations for all Greenville County Schools locations. He was kind enough to answer our questions about food service at Greenville County schools.
Kidding Around Greenville: How does the Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services decide what to serve every day at GC schools?
Joe Urban: We have developed a three-week repeating cycle menu for all grade levels. Elementary students have four different menu choices every day for lunch, and Middle and High students have seven to nine different choices every day. All schools offer a scratch-made Soup and Salad Bar three times each week and up to six different varieties of fresh fruit selections daily. The cycle menu will be modified twice during the school year to account for new recipes and seasonal ingredients.
KAG: How do you come up with new recipes?
JU: We pay close attention to trends in the foodservice industry and develop recipes based on what is hot right now in the fast casual and higher education (college) segments of the industry.
Today’s students are very food savvy and demand higher quality ingredients. Students love international foods, especially Asian, Italian, and Mexican and they also like to customize their meals. We listen closely to what they say and develop our menus accordingly.
Good examples of this include our Build Your Own Taco Bar, the Build Your Own Mashed Potato Bar, the Build Your Own Mac-N-Cheese Bar, our student-created Penne Pasta Pie, our new Meatball Sub, and our new Build Your Own Grain Bowls featuring Korean BBQ and Mahi Mahi with a large variety of topping choices including Kimchi and Pickled Red Onions.
High quality seafood including Wild Caught Alaskan Salmon, Mahi Mahi, Alaskan Pollock, Catfish and others will be served a minimum of once per week in Elementary schools and twice per week in Middle and High schools this year. New concepts including a Build Your Own Chicken & Waffle Bar, a scratch-made Soup & Sandwich Bar, a Build Your Own Burger Bar and others are currently in development and will be tested with students during this upcoming school year.
KAG: Where do you source your ingredients?
JU: We work with a number of local vendors and source as many products as possible locally. Through our produce vendor, we have developed strong relationships with local farmers who plant fields specifically based on the needs of Greenville County Schools.
We have also entered into a new partnership with a local cattle farmer in Brasstown, NC to source all the ground beef we will be using in our scratch-made meals. These cattle are humanely raised, fed a strict vegetarian diet, are always on grass, and are never treated with antibiotics. Fresh, no antibiotic ever beef in school meals is a huge commitment on our part to ensure our students only receive the highest quality food possible.
KAG: Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services is the largest in the state. How do you manage serving good food on a daily basis to thousands of kids a day?
JU: It takes a huge team of highly trained and dedicated foodservice employees to meet our quality standards on a daily basis. We are very fortunate to have buy in from our employees on our mission to reinvent school food. We believe that we are positioned correctly at this time in our careers to push the perceived boundaries of school food service and provide our students with the greatest dining experiences possible.
KAG: Can you tell me a bit about your food truck? It’s pretty new, right?
JU: We purchased the food truck one year ago to help us increase the number of meals we can provide to needy students during the summer months. We operate more than 50 school and community feeding sites in the summer months as part of the USDA funded Summer Food Service Program.
We realized quickly that although we had these sites scattered throughout the county, there were many pockets of our community that needed our services but were not able to make it to one of our sites due to transportation issues. The food truck is the perfect answer to that issue: we simply take the food right to the kids that need it the most.
During the school year, it gets used as surprise pop up events at high schools to sample new menu items during lunch, sample fresh fruit to elementary students, and support various school functions.
KAG: Can parents volunteer to help Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services come up with recipes/test food – or is there something parents can do to help your mission?
JU: We welcome any suggestions and parents are always welcome to come sample items with us during their student’s lunch period.
KAG: Your Instagram page looks delicious. How do you decide which schools get to try out those meals?
JU: The vast majority of the food shown on all of our social media platforms are served at all schools. When we test out new items the schools are chosen by random so we can test the items out with different students as often as possible.
You can follow Greenville County Food Services on Facebook at Greenville County Schools Food and Nutrition Services, on Twitter at SchoolFoodRocks, and on Instagram at @SchoolFoodRocks.
Will you look at school lunches in a new light this school year?
Kristina Hernandez is a mom of two girls, freelance writer and photographer and New Jersey native who is thrilled to call the Upstate her new home. She loves cooking, trying new foods, and checking out all that Greenville has to offer. 
