For a lot of people 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 bakery counter into a full cafe and deli, so the same stop that sells you a birthday cake will also put a sandwich, a quiche, or a plate lunch in front of you. The petit fours and the European-style pastries are the pieces that carry the old Konditor training forward, and after nearly eighty years they are still made by hand the same way.