RIDGEWAY – Ridgeway’s newest boutique, SueChef Kitchen, opened on Palmer St. last week where it shares a building with Over The Top dress boutique. A ribbon cutting on Sept. 12 brought a throng of customers eager to check out the shop’s charming style and browse the delicious variety of meals and treats it offers for sale.
A shopper sampling SueChef’s signature caramel cake declared, “That’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted!”
“It’s been nonstop,” co-owner Anne Reynolds said with a laugh. “Everybody’s just been wonderful. We probably had a hundred people here on opening day.”
Reynolds – who owns the shop with her mother, Sue Hodges, of Columbia – moved to Ridgeway with her husband and four children five years ago. Reynolds and Hodges previously owned The Happy Café on Forest Drive for 18 years. After closing the restaurant in 2021, they reimagined the business to focus on their fan-favorite caramel cakes and established a commercial kitchen and wholesale business in a former service station on Dogwood Ave., where they baked in bulk. They were soon wholesaling across the state, from Lexington to Greenville to the coast.
But as the new business took off, Reynolds says they missed having a direct connection with customers.
“The wholesale kitchen just wasn’t conducive for visitors,” Reynolds said. “People would stop in and see cakes stacked up, but it didn’t have that community feel. We wanted a space where people could come lean on the counter, sample cake, and feel welcome.”
The new shop is designed to be exactly that, with delightful home décor items, rare South Carolina books, specialty candles and homemade delights available either frozen or refrigerated. Caramel cake is the headliner, but the menu is full of family classics and café favorites, including barbecue chicken, baked lasagna, chicken broccoli orzo, an heirloom creamy dill salad dressing, and wildly popular ginger molasses cookies.
Reynolds said all the food is thoughtfully homemade.
“We’re making our roux from butter, flour and milk,” she said. “The spaghetti sauce is made fresh. We layer ravioli for lasagna, doing it the way we’ve always enjoyed food ourselves.”
Hodges, who has a culinary degree from the University of South Carolina and decades of kitchen experience, focuses on food and recipes. Reynolds handles the retail space and wholesaling. With the help of a small, supportive staff, they juggle everything from baking to stocking shelves to running deliveries.
“It’s like any small business,” Reynolds said with a laugh. “You wear all the hats – and sometimes not all the hats fit.”
Reynolds said they were delighted to find a home for their new business in Ridgeway.
“For years, Tina Johnson – who owns Over the Top boutique – would stop by The Happy Café for lunch, and we’d get to chatting,” Reynolds said. “When we decided to change directions with the business, I asked if she knew of a good space for our future shop. It turned out that the other half of her building was available. It was the perfect fit.
“We want a symbiotic relationship with other small businesses here,” she continued. “If people come to Laura’s Tea Room or Ruff Furniture, we hope they stop in here, too. And if they come here for cake, maybe they’ll explore the rest of the town.”
SueChef Kitchen is located at 115 S. Palmer St. in Ridgeway. The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information about the shop, call 803-337-2811.
