Nine of Cups started as a series of pop-ups. Owner Nate Warner ran his classic European café idea at spots like Hone and Community Tap around the Upstate before taking over the former Cosmic Rabbits Tea space on East McBee, a short walk from Main Street downtown, and making it permanent. He brought on Bake Room alum Skyler Cook to lead the baking, and that in-house program is much of the draw.
The pastry case leans inventive: a gochujang-glazed croissant, and cardamom buns the owner has called the underdog of the whole menu, sitting alongside pop-up staples that made the move indoors like focaccia, buttermilk biscuits, and chocolate chip cookies. The coffee side pours Rowan Coffee out of Asheville, and the drink list runs to things like an orange and five-spice latte called the Hermit's Cup and a ginger beer matcha that has caught reviewers' attention.
The name comes from the tarot card, carried into a deliberate light-and-dark look built on burgundy and malted-milk tones. With a daytime, breakfast-and-lunch schedule, it lands as a fit for a slow weekend morning, a mid-week coffee-and-pastry break, or taking an out-of-town visitor somewhere with more imagination than the usual coffee counter.