Kudzu Bakery and Market, the coastal South Carolina staple known for its chess pies and cheese biscuits, is bringing its Southern-grandma-style baking to Greenville. The bakery will open at 1536 Laurens Road, taking over the spot currently occupied by Master's Mark Cleaners, with a projected opening date of summer 2027.
Upstate Business Journal reported the news and quoted a post from the Instagram account @kudzubakerygvl, which said the company was excited to bring its favorite treats and gifts to the 864, according to Upstate Business Journal. The Greenville location will join existing Kudzu stores in Mount Pleasant, Columbia, and north of Pawleys Island, as well as a Charlotte, North Carolina outpost, the Upstate Business Journal reports.
Once open, the Laurens Road shop is expected to sell baked goods including cookies, pies, and cakes, along with kitchen items and themed gifts, the same report notes. That mix tracks with the brand's broader identity: Kudzu operates under the trademarked slogan “Simply Divine” and uses what it calls a “Total Kudzu” concept, functioning as a one-stop market that pairs quiches, prepared entrees, wine, and host gifts with its daily baked goods, according to Kudzu Bakery.
A Coastal Brand With Deep Carolina Roots
Kudzu Bakery traces back to 1989, when Joey and Stacy Rabon founded it in a 600-square-foot storefront on Front Street in downtown Georgetown, South Carolina, with Joey serving as pastry chef, according to SouthPark Magazine. The menu has stayed true to that small-town origin ever since, emphasizing unpretentious, scratch-made recipes like key lime and chess pies, cheese biscuits, cinnamon rolls, and rum cakes rather than fancy, modern pastry presentation, per the Charlotte Business Journal.
In Columbia, a licensing deal involved Kristi Gibbs and Kim McMurry, who owned four Pelican's SnoBalls locations and planned to open a Kudzu store in late 2020, according to Kudzu Bakery Columbia. The Charlotte store followed a decade later, opening over Labor Day weekend in 2025 under licensee owners Andrew and Shelley Verhagen. SouthPark Magazine reports that about 80 percent of the Charlotte store's first-six-month customers were fans of the original.
From Dry Cleaner to Bakery on Laurens Road
The building Kudzu will inherit has a long service history of its own. Master's Mark Cleaners was incorporated as CLY, Inc. in November 1994 and operated as a Better Business Bureau-accredited dry cleaning and garment restoration business in Upstate South Carolina for 31 years, according to the Better Business Bureau.
Another Bakery Planned for Greenville
Korean bakery-cafe chain Paris Baguette announced a new spot at Magnolia Park on Woodruff Road last month.
For now, the key unanswered question is who will actually run the Greenville store day to day. Unlike the Charlotte location, whose licensees had personal ties to the brand, it remains unclear whether Joey and Stacy Rabon will operate the Laurens Road shop directly or hand it off to Upstate partners.
