If you haven’t visited Hampton Station in Greenville, SC yet, go ahead and put it on your bucket list. Located just minutes from Main Street and directly on the Swamp Rabbit Trail, it’s in a great location. Before you head there, we’ve got you covered on things to do, places to eat, and things you should do with your kids.
This article includes:
Things to Do at Hampton Station
Where to Eat in Hampton Station
Great Things Especially for the Kids at Hampton Station
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Tuesday – Saturday 8 am – 5:30 pm. They serve breakfast those days from 8-11 am and then lunch is served 11 am – 2 pm.
Feed & Seed
701 Easley Bridge Road, Suite 6010, Greenville
864.412.4720
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.
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.
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 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
Are you craving pizza? Greenville locals have told us where to find the best pizza around town. Peruse our list to find your new favorite pizza in Greenville, SC.
There are over 75,000 pizzerias in the United States and as a $36 billion a year industry, Americans are champions when it comes to pizza eating. They eat approximately 100 acres of pizza per day, which is a gorgeous picture to imagine.
The South is known for some exceptional cuisine but it’s the Northeast that takes the award for the best pizza, especially the New York/New Jersey region (I’m originally from NJ and lived in Rome for a time, which I’m proud to say makes me a pizza expert – this is the only thing I’m an expert at so let me have it). Most pizzerias claim they are NY-style pizza, which consists of a thin crust topped with a delicious tomato sauce and melted cheese.
One astute Kidding Around Greenville reader noted that when people get asked what their favorite pizza place is, it’s implied it is NY-style because “let’s face it, is the only style that really matters.” Well said, sir.
How about pizza for dinner in Spartanburg tonight? A home-cooked meal is always nice, but it’s also time-consuming. What is something that everybody in the family can enjoy and it can be made simply for picky eaters or with more exotic choices for adults? Pizza is a meal everyone can agree on and after all, National Pizza Day is February 9th, so go celebrate!
Where do you go for great bubble tea in Greenville, SC? Our writer, Kristina, goes on a mission to find the best bubble tea in Greenville, SC. Here’s what she found!
I was on a media trip with my kids, writing about another city and things to do there, and kept passing bubble tea shops. I was intrigued. What was this concoction? So I decided to try it out, asking the employees what it was and which one to order. I ended up with a Taro tea and popping strawberry bubbles.
Oh my gosh. This thing called bubble tea was amazing. I was hooked. So when I got back to Greenville, I was determined to find the best bubble tea. Greenville, SC has to have some pretty good bubble tea, right? I searched so I could experience it whenever I wanted right at home. So that’s what I did. And, now you can enjoy amazing bubble tea, too!
Bubble tea, sometimes called Boba Tea, is tea mixed with milk or sometimes fruit and topped with tapioca pearls. These are usually chewy or can be filled with a fruit juice concotion so they pop when you eat them. The drink is of Tiawainese origin and was invented in the 1980s in Taichung.
Bubble tea isn’t the same everywhere and if you go to any bubble tea shop, there is a massive number of combinations you can choose, which is why I need to give credit to every place I tried because they were all so nice and patient. All the employees helped me out to choose the best bubble tea for myself and my tastes.
I went to Kung Fu Tea, Cosmic Rabbits Tea Company, Asia Pacific, O-CHA Tea Bar, and Ding Tea, all in Greenville. I also tried out the make-your-own bubble tea packets from Trader Joes. Here are my reviews of each one.
Kung Fu Tea has an extensive menu with both caffeinated and decaf teas, milk teas, slushies, milk caps, milk strikes, and seasonal specials. It’s overwhelming but the staff can help you out. I got a Taro Milk Tea with strawberry bubbles and low sugar level. I really appreciated that you could choose the sugar level here because I prefer usually to eat my calories and not drink them. This tea was awesome. It was so flavorful and I had to stop myself from drinking it all within a few minutes. I loved the texture of the bubbles (it’s a thing I like about bubble tea in general).
My rating: 5/5
581 Haywood Road, Greenville
233 N. Main Street, Suite II Greenville (this location is not open yet as of this writing)
Kung Fu Tea Website
Ding Tea has an enormous menu, offering everything from milk tea to fruit juice to yogurt to coffee. Again, pretty overwhelming for a new bubble tea drinker like myself but the staff here were so patient and helpful. I told them what I like and they pointed me in the right direction. I got a Taro Boba Green Milk Tea and it was delicious. This was another place where you could pick your sugar level, which I appreciated.
My rating: 5/5
30 Orchard Park Dr Suite 20, Greenville
Ding Tea Website
O-CHA Tea Bar is right along the Reedy River, an ideal location for picking up a bubble tea and walking in Falls Park, which is exactly what my daughter and I did after visiting here. My daughter got a Strawberry Milk Tea and I got the Taro Tea (you can tell by now this is my favorite tea). Both were really good but very sweet. I didn’t have any options to choose the sweetness level at O-CHA Tea Bar but it was still good. O-CHA Tea bar has told us that you can choose the sweetness level.
My rating: 3.5/5
300 River St #122, Greenville
O-CHA Te Bar Website
Asia Pacific is a huge Asian supermarket that I love shopping at but they also have a restaurant in the back with authentic Chinese cuisine. I have a list of things I want to order here but haven’t got to yet. But I did try the bubble tea and it was awesome. They have several different kinds of tea here and what I liked most was that they gave you a sample before you bought anything. Of course, I went with the Taro because by now, I knew this was my favorite. I can’t remember the other kind of tea I sampled but the Taro won out. I do want to try their Lavender Milk Tea next time. There’s no option to adjust the sweetness level here.
My rating: 4/5
420 N Pleasantburg Drive, Greenville
Asia Pacific Supermarket Website
Cosmic Rabbits Tea Co. is a beautiful shop right in downtown Greenville where you can get really whatever you want when it comes to tea, both in-store and at the counter. Their bubble teas are green tea based. Cosmic Rabbits describes their bubble tea as a “creamy dessert beverage with a chewy topping at bottom” so yeah, not an everyday thing if you’re trying to stay away from the sugar, but oh-so-good. They have a lot of options for the bubbles, including the popping ones. The staff can help you choose the best option if you tell them what you’re looking for. My daughter and I got a Strawberry Milk Tea and Taro Tea.
My rating: 3.5/5
131 E McBee Ave., Greenville
Cosmic Rabbits Tea Co. Website
I wasn’t sure if I needed to include this but here we are. I had heard about the boba tea kit on some online forum so I figured I would test it out and found it easily at the Trader Joe’s in Greenville. It’s $5.49 for the Instant Boba Kit, which is about what one glass of Bubble Tea costs anywhere else, and includes four packets of brown sugar tapioca balls and four straws. You just heat up the packets for a few seconds in the microwave and pour them into a glass of cold milk or tea or other beverage of your choice. I was pleasantly surprised by how good these were and how easy they were to make! I’d get them again.
My rating: 3/5
59 Woodruff Industrial Ln, Greenville
Trader Joe’s Greenville Website
Where is your favorite place to get bubble tea in Greenville?
Searching for some delicious dessert in Spartanburg? Cakes, pudding, ice cream, we love them all. We visited Spartanburg’s Big Ben’s Desserts. And I think we’re all in agreement… it was a great spot to pick up a dessert treat. We’ve got some advice for what you should order when you visit Big Ben’s Desserts!
What do you get when you combine a hometown football hero and a love of baking?
The answer – Big Ben’s Desserts.
After opening in the fall of 2018 with a grand opening that left every last crumb sold, the Upstate has continued to show their love for Ben Hall and his dessert shop.
(more…)Looking for the perfect romantic restaurant in Greenville? Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. We asked our readers where they like to go for a romantic meal with someone special. With so many options to choose from in Greenville, it’s hard to pick just one favorite. Here’s a list of the top ten romantic restaurants in Greenville as told to us by our readers!
We also have a Guide to Restaurants That Offer Outdoor Dining in the Upstate to give you more options this weekend and any other time.
(more…)Are you looking for date ideas in or around Spartanburg? We’ve identified some of the most romantic dates in Spartanburg. The various date options on this list make it possible for Spartanburg couples to enjoy a variety of dates year-round.
(more…)Are you searching for the place with the best Chinese food in Greenville? If you’re looking for that perfect Peking duck in the Upstate, you’ve found the right place. We went in search of the best Chinese cuisine in Greenville the help of our readers. They had lots to say about this type of dining, but there were some clear favorites!
(more…)