Summer sips: Three new local coffee shops to check out in and around Spartanburg County

The local coffee shop is often a home away from home: a place to catch up with friends, grab a quick bite before work or enjoy a new book.

Spartanburg has more than 20 coffee shops, several recently opened.

Whether you’re looking for a new favorite spot or want to explore, plenty of nearby options offer something unique.

Here are three new area coffee shops to cool off in this summer:

Habit Beverage Lounge

Open in Drayton Mill Marketplace (1800 Drayton Road, Suite 125) since June 4, this new coffee shop, bar, and spa hybrid has offerings for everyone, including those who aren’t looking for coffee-based or alcoholic drinks.

The vibrant, art-filled cafe and Flow State, the accompanying spa in the back of the shop offering cold plunges, a sauna, and breathwork sessions, reflect the interest in alternative health approaches and love of surf and skate culture shared by its owners, Reid Johnson and Ashley Rushing. Rushing also owns Bareknuckle Barbershop & Hair Company, located a few doors down in Suite 305.

“I’ve had experience from the age of 21 to early thirties bartending, but I don’t drink myself, so now I get to do mocktails and experiment,” said Rushing, who can often be found behind the bar at Habit Beverage Lounge. “It’s just another way to be creative other than hair.”

The cafe features artworks by Frankie Zombie, Johni Bleu, and Gage Coleman and a mural by Lean Wilkie, also known as Leon 4 Evr.

“I grew up in Surf Skate culture, and my partner (Rushing) came up in a very similar way so we both shared in the aesthetic of kind of the jungle meets concrete. We love graffiti art and we love local art,” Johnson said.

The cafe is geared toward creating community and offers a variety of seating options indoors, from cafe tables to couches and an astroturf-covered stage for lounging, and tables outside that overlook the Dan trail segment that runs through the former mill site. The cafe is also ideal for working or studying, offering free WiFi and phone and laptop chargers.

“We've got some folks in today that brought some arts and crafts and they've been hanging out for a couple hours just catching up with friends,” Johnson said. “That's exactly what this space was meant to be: a homey space with a touch of vibe that you know allows people to come in and hopefully lose time altogether and enjoy each other and the camaraderie of your friends.”

In addition to cocktails and mocktails, the cafe also offers craft beer, smoothies, hot and iced coffee drinks, and health-focused drink options like MUD\WTR, a mushroom-based coffee alternative, and Little Saints, a non-alcoholic cocktail and spirit brand.

Habit Beverage Lounge is open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

Valhalla Cakes and Cafe

This small but elegant cafe and bakery opened at 90 Pacolet St. in Tryon on June 8 and will hold a grand opening on June 28.

Owner Sam Slade had a Colorado bakery with the same name and reopened her shop in Tryon when she relocated to North Carolina from Denver.

Slade’s artistic sensibilities can be seen in every aspect of the shop, from the shop’s specialty, Morris the Horse cookies, to the folk art-inspired illustrations on the walls and cups, which Slade painted herself.

The remodel of the shop, which features bench and cafe table seating indoors and outdoor patio seating, took 10 months, and work continues behind the building where she plans to add a second patio.

“There's options to tuck away if you want, but then you can also push tables together and socialize toward the front,” Slade said.

The cafe offers cold and iced coffee drinks made with beans from Chicago’s Hexe Coffee Co., owned by Slade’s brother. It also has cold brew on tap and a variety of teas. Alcoholic drinks will be added to the menu soon.

Scones in flavors like pimento cheese and orange cream, everything bagel focaccia, cookies, and cupcakes are in the bakery's display case. If you like this cafe’s cupcakes, you can order a full cake at the shop. Slade offers custom designs and has created cakes featuring fondant mermaids, heart-shaped cakes, and even a cake featuring a three-dimensional Gizmo from the movie "Gremlins."

“I went to art school and grew up in bakeries and kind of found a way to combine the two,” Slide said.

Valhalla Cakes and Cafe is open 7 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday and Wednesday-Friday and from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. The cafe is closed on Tuesdays.

Third Space Coffee & Bakery

This coffee and bake shop, with seating for more than 40 people, opened in the new shopping strip at 803 E. Rutherford St. in Landrum on June 8. Third Space Coffee & Bakery is an expansion of the baking business that Bailey Morris started as a teen.

“I started my baking business when I was 15. The Landrum Farmers Market is where it took off a little bit. I made baked goods and sold them on Saturdays and realized, ‘Ok, people actually like this,’” said Morris, now 21. “I was a barista for three years and I loved working in coffee shops. I still had my baking business all throughout that so I was trying to bake, and I was working full-time as a barista. I was like, I can't keep trying to do half here, half there. I need my own business.”

Morris wants her shop to be a place for people to relax and connect outside of home, work and school. Part of her way of making the space as welcoming as possible is by going the extra mile in every aspect of the experience. Everything from the cinnamon rolls, scones, and focaccia to the flavored syrups are made in-house, and what she can’t make in-house, she buys locally.

For summer, the cafe is offering two specials: the “Strawberry Blonde” latte, an espresso or matcha latte with house-made strawberry syrup that can be ordered hot or iced, and the “Island in the Sun,” a lavender limeade soda.

“I think the Strawberry Blonde latte without strawberry almond coffee cake is really good,” Morris said. “Or, I’m a big sucker for the savory stuff, so coming in the afternoon and getting an Island in the Sun, which is a fruity, fizzy drink, and a piece of the pizza focaccia, to me that’s such an elite afternoon savory snack. Those are my two favorite combos.”

Third Space Coffee and Bakery is open from 7 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.

Samantha Swann covers city news, development and culture in Spartanburg. She is a University of South Carolina Upstate and Greenville Technical College alumna. Contact her at sswann@shj.com or on Instagram at @sam_on_spartanburg.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Summer sips: Three new local coffee shops to check out in and around Spartanburg County