Bakeries in Greer

The Corner Cookie keeps its specialty right there in the name. Based in Greer, it works as both a bakery and a food store, so you can pick up fresh-baked cookies and other sweets or grab a few food items to take with you. A simple, local stop for a sweet fix in the Upstate.

The bakery case is where most first-timers linger: pan de bono baked through the morning, buñuelos, chocolate croissants, and thick squares of tres leches. El Paisa is a Colombian panadería and sit-down restaurant on CCC Camp Road in Greer, run by a family that baked in Colombia before they opened here. A lot of the time it is the owners themselves working the counter and carrying plates to the tables, and the room keeps the easy, unhurried feel of a place that knows its morning crowd by sight. It is as much a full kitchen as a bakery. Early hours bring the paisa breakfast, arepas con queso, Colombian coffee, and hot chocolate; by midday the menu turns to empanadas and hearty platters of grilled meat with rice, beans, sweet plantain, and Colombian sausage. Along one side, a small grocery section carries Colombian sodas, snacks, and pantry staples, so people tend to leave with a bag of treats on top of whatever they came in for. The pan de bono is the thing customers name first, a warm, cheesy bread with a chewy pull, and the case keeps refilling as fresh trays come out through the day.

La Estrella is a working Mexican panadería in downtown Greer that runs two counters at once: a case of pan dulce, conchas, and cakes on one side, and a kitchen sending out tacos, tortas, and tamales on the other. It has been part of the neighborhood long enough to become a real morning habit, the kind of stop people make on the way to or from work before the day fills up. The tacos are where the kitchen has made its name. Reviewers keep coming back to the asada and carnitas on handmade corn tortillas, the lengua for anyone who wants it done the traditional way, and a salsa verde singled out again and again for its balance of flavor over heat. A line locals repeat is that this is not Tex-Mex. The tortas have their own following too, loaded and large enough that one can stretch across two meals, which is a good part of why people keep turning up. The bakery side carries the everyday draw, from sweet breads first thing in the morning to the cakes and tamales people order when it is their turn to bring something to a holiday table or a family gathering. Nextdoor readers have named it a neighborhood favorite across several communities around Greer, which makes it an easy call for both an early pastry run and the celebration order you would rather not get wrong.

Katie's Cupcake Emporium is a cupcake bakery on East Wade Hampton Boulevard in Greer. As the name suggests, cupcakes are the specialty, which makes it a simple stop when you want a small treat for yourself or a little something sweet to bring along. It sits among the storefronts on one of Greer's busier commercial stretches, an easy detour for anyone in this corner of the Upstate with a sweet tooth to satisfy close to home.