Jim Fair
Greer Station Diner closed Wednesday. New restaurant occupants are being sought.
Jim Fair
Rhythms on Trade closed its doors two weeks ago. It was the second go-around for the bar/nightclub theme.
Jim Fair
Cupcake Castle was a hard sell with its location steps away from E. Poinsett Street and virtually no customer parking.
The Greer Station Diner, previously Southern Thymes Cafe, Rhythms on Trade and the Cupcake Castle have gone out of business. All three have signs on their doors indicating their closings.
Greer Station Diner was open 16 months under Scott and Maria Marsh, owner-operators under the original Greer Station Café. They later changed the name – the third name change with a year – to Diner.
“We knew they (owners) were closing last week and we were hoping they would change their mind,” said James Mitchell, who with his wife, Wendy, are former Southern Thymes Café owners.
Mitchell put up the handwritten for lease sign today on the restaurant’s door.
The restaurant at 219 Trade Street has frequently changed its days open and serving hours to accommodate the niche customers who were loyal to Southern Thymes Café. The Marches returned to the breakfast menu and the meat-and-three that was popular in the past.
Former Southern Thymes staff also worked at the Greer Station Diner trying to maintain the former service and menu.
“People think when you open a restaurant you will get rich quick,” James Mitchell said. “But it takes a lot of work and hours.”
Rhythms on Trade, at 213 Trade Street, was rebranded under new owner Curtis Hanvey in January.
He built the former bar/nightclub into a music café, a cross between the Brown Street Jazz and Smiley’s Acoustic Café of Greenville, Hanvey said. It formerly was named Rhythms & Brews.
Cupcake Castle owners had an inauspicious start at 208 East Poinsett Street in the summer of 2013 when the City of Greer Board of Architectural Review nixed the Pink Breeze color that Tim Robinson and Shiloh Robinson, unrelated, had selected.
The cup cake and ice cream shop, located across the street from City Park, was themed toward a children-friendly environment.