Strossner's Bakery, Cafe & Deli Claim this business

About

For a lot of us around Greenville, the sweet tooth got its start behind these glass cases. Richard Strossner, a German immigrant who trained as a Konditor and baked at the old Poinsett Hotel, opened the family bakery in 1947, and three generations later his grandson Tapley runs it. It's the oldest family-owned bakery in town, and the cases up front, rows of cakes, pies, cookies, petit fours and pastries, are still what hits you first when the door swings open. Over the decades it grew well past the pastry counter. A cafe side turns out breakfast, quiches, and sandwiches on bread baked in-house, eaten in or out on the patio. The deli counter handles the weeknight rescue: lasagna, casseroles, pot pies, chicken salad and pimento cheese to carry home. Regulars come back for the chicken salad and the German chocolate cake, and the counter still puts out free samples while you make up your mind. Custom cakes are their own operation, with in-house designers on weddings and holidays and a featured cake that rotates through the year. You'll leave with the blue-and-white striped bag Greenville has known for generations. Southern Living ranked it fourth among all bakeries in the South in 2022, the year it turned seventy-five, and the locals who keep the line moving tell the same story. Which recipes have run unchanged since 1947 is the part only the family can really tell you.