Looking for the best breakfast towns in Greenville, South Carolina? You’ve come to the right place. Whether you call Greenville home or are visiting for work or vacation, our upstate city has plenty of great places to eat. Here are five of the top breakfast destinations in the Greenville area.
Sully’s Steamers
Pictured: Sully’s Steamers is a popular downtown spot for quick eats, morning, noon and (late) night.
Sully’s Steamers is a local restaurant with a funny name, and it’s worth a visit if you find yourself downtown anywhere near breakfast hours. Or lunch hours, or dinner hours. Or until 3am on the weekends!
This quirky shop serves up “steamers,” which, being interpreted, means “piping hot steamed bagel sandwiches.” It’s a unique concept that’s served up in something like a hundred different configurations. Seriously, their menu is so dense that they have a shorter “beginner’s menu” and a “top favorites menu” to help with decision fatigue.
Sully’s also keeps something like six to eight bagel varieties on hand at all times, including a millet/flax sourdough bagel for the gluten free crowd.
As far as breakfast goes, you can choose from sweet or savory topped bagels. Everything from the Tiger Paw (yes, that’s a Clemson reference) to the classic Lox bagel is represented here.
You can order your steamer alone or with chips and a drink, or swap in a cookie if you like. The coffee on hand is locally roasted (they’re serving up coffee from one of the roasters in my Best Coffee in Greenville article, if memory serves), and cold brew is usually available. If you’re visiting for lunch or dinner, you may feel like an adult beverage with your meal. You can choose from a selection of canned beers like an IPA from Westbrook.
Sully’s started in downtown Greenville and has since spread to Brevard, North Carolina, as well as Clemson, South Carolina, so you have plenty of chances to check it out no matter where you go in the region.
Top picks: For breakfast, it’s hard to go wrong with the Smoked Salmon Sandwich. A fish-free option is The Elf, featuring simply pastrami, egg and swiss. If you’re looking for something lighter, the Banana Royale is the perfect blend of cream cheese, cinnamon sugar and banana.
Tandem Creperie and Coffee House
Pictured: Tandem sees lines out the door most days thanks to its lineup of phenomenal crepes and coffees.
Tandem Creperie and Coffeehouse is located in Travelers Rest, just a short drive north from downtown Greenville. It’s another recent local success story. Tandem’s tagline, Together Is Best, has multiple layers of meaning. It starts with the vintage tandem bicycle out front and extends to the menu, where of course crepes and coffee are a match made in heaven.
But the motto goes still further, as Tandem has been a “togetherness” destination for so many here, fostering friendships, camaraderie and — yes — even love. Crepes are just inherently a little romantic, right?
Tandem is a true breakfast-and-lunch joint, open 7 am until 3 pm daily. And it doesn’t really seem to matter when you visit; plan for a line nearly out the door. Seriously, I’ve tried to go at the most “people don’t eat at this time” times, and the place is still humming.
Crepes and coffee are certainly the focus, but the menu extends beyond those. You can also order waffles, salads, granola bowls, fresh squeezed juices, tea, kombucha on tap and house-made sodas.
Tandem serves up both sweet and savory crepes, and they have three crepe batter options: regular wheat flour, corn and almond. For me, the savory crepes are the star of the show. They are generously portioned and are truly entrée-sized. Paired with meticulously brewed (using third wave methods) Counter Culture coffee, it’s true: together is best.
Top picks: For the heartiest breakfast you can stuff in a crepe, try the Lumberjack or the Sausage Potato. (Gluten-free guests, ditch the béchamel and go for the corn crepe.) If your “breakfast stop” is pushing brunch or lunch, the Fiesta or Green Club are solid picks. If you’re n the mood for sweet, indulge in the Cinnamon Roll crepe or the Tiramisu crepe.
Tommy’s Country Ham House
If your idea of an ideal breakfast is a bit more traditional, then Tommy’s Country Ham House should do the trick. This local institution has served countless politicians and is practically a required campaign stop for presidential candidates. It’s much loved by locals, too.
Tommy Stevenson started this restaurant in 1985, and he’s about as dedicated a restaurant owner as you can imagine. He still grinds the meat, makes the sausage, and cuts the pork chops every morning. By the time the customers roll in, he’s usually found conversing with them.
Tommy’s has a very casual diner-style environment. Make no mistake: if your breakfast goal is ambiance, you’re in the wrong place. But if you’re looking for out-of-this-world traditional southern cooking, you’re very much where you want to be.
Tommy’s Country Ham House is open Tuesday through Sunday for breakfast and lunch (breakfast only on Saturdays.
Top picks: The Country Ham & Egg Biscuit is a must-try. You can’t go to a place with “country ham house” in the name and not try the country ham. Northerners, be warned: it’s salty. If country ham isn’t your jam, you can turn Tommy’s homemade biscuits into just about any kind of breakfast sandwich imaginable.
Biscuit Head
Biscuit Head started in nearby Asheville, North Carolina, but the Greenville outpost is an experience you don’t want to miss. Imagine the best biscuit you’ve ever tasted. Now imagine a buffet-style bar full of jams, butters, and honeys — some 25 of them. If that’s your idea of a breakfast fever dream, you need to try Biscuit Head immediately.
(Thanks to COVID-19 the jam bar is likely closed for now, but hopefully we’ll get back to normal again soon.)
But wait, there’s more. The mad scientists at Biscuit Head have managed to turn their cathead biscuits (as in “the size of a cat’s head) into entrée sandwiches. We’re talking complex meals, too, with poached eggs, deep-fried bacon, buffalo hollandaise and so forth. The coffee’s fantastic here, too.
Top picks: The Greenvillian for the name alone. The Pulled Pork Biscuit for the jalapeño pimento cheese/poached egg combo. The Country Ham Biscuit to see what a fancified “New South” take tastes like.
Stax’s Original/Stax’s Omega
Stax’s Original and Stax’s Omega are sister restaurants from a family of local restaurateurs. Stax’s Original has been operating in Cherrydale since the 1970s, when the area that’s now a large retail center was a textile manufacturing plant. For 50 years now the original has been serving up classic southern-style cuisine to its devoted customer base. The menu here is simpler and more traditional
Stax’s Omega opened in 1988 in the Haywood Road area with a much more expansive diner-style menu with heavy Greek influences. Here you can get skillet plates, omelets and much more, paired with old-school espresso beverages or fresh-squeezed OJ.
Top picks: At Stax’s Original, go for the Deuces Wild for a polished traditional breakfast or the Country Eggs Benedict for something unique. At Stax’s Omega, the Greek omelet with fresh-squeezed orange juice is top notch.
Wrapping Up
Whatever brings you to our unique little city, one thing’s for sure: you can eat well! Let us know which restaurant is your top pick for breakfast in Greenville!
