Weekend Foodie Warriors – Take 33!

Hello hello, again, Foodie Friends 🙂 Hope you had a fantastic weekend! We have a short, sweet, and special edition of Foodie Adventures, with a review of the soft opening of First Watch in Simpsonville and a Paint & Sip night with my sister!

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My friends always say I’m the first to know about new restaurants and grand openings in the area. Whenever they want something to do on the weekend or need a new place to meet up for food, I’m your girl!💁🏻‍♀️🙌

I was really lucky on Friday when I got to speak to Patrick from WOM (Word of Mouth) Greenville’s Facebook, whom extended an invitation to me to attend this soft opening. Check out more of his thoughts from the post below:

We are assisting a friends local charity with soft opening and private event at First Watch. It’s limited availability and it’s for 4 or less people per open spot this Saturday. The restaurant is donating the food and we are asking those invited to donate to the local charity – Let There Be Mom ❤️🙏🏻 First Watch is a winner and will quickly become a local favorite and they crush it in any other market that they are in…Located in the old Panera Bread off of Fairview Rd across from Target in Simpsonville. Anyone who has been to one in another market, is excited and will go out of the way to enjoy it 🤘🏼

Patrick Van Every, WOM Greenville Facebook Page

My little sister was in town visiting so I thought it would be a great way to grab lunch and check out a new restaurant at the same time, all while supporting a great cause. Triple threat of goodness right there 💜😁

Patrick sent me some pictures of the restaurant on Friday before it opened. The decor was rustic farmhouse chic, with exposed iron, lots of gorgeous wood grain, cool antique windowpanes, and fun Upstate SC related decor on the walls.

The restaurant was absolutely packed when I got there but every server or person I interacted with was super sweet and gave me recommendations of what to eat, the stories behind certain menu items or food, etc.

I started out with coffee, sourced from Hulia, Columbia, through Project Sunrise – a women owned & operated coffee group called the “Mujeres en Café” (which was delicious and super smooth, not bitter like some darker roasts).

I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about one of my favorite things I ate that morning – a dish they call “Million Dollar Bacon” (check out the copycat recipe we created in honor of this visit here).

This was thicker sliced, hardwood smoked bacon baked in brown sugar and cracked black pepper, a dash of cayenne, and then drizzled with maple syrup.

If you ate nothing else at this restaurant but the bacon, I promise you would still leave happy. Ron Swanson would be proud of you for eating this gorgeous meat masterpiece on a plate. 🙌🥓 It was the best combination of sweet, savory, crunchy, spicy, and umami, and I can’t say I’ve had anything like it anywhere else.

Finally, it was onto the main dishes! I tried one of the specials, the Vanilla Chai Latte Pancakes, which had vanilla chai and bananas baked into the multi-grain pancakes, with an almond butter drizzle, “super-seed” crunch, and topped with fresh bananas and raspberries. 🥞

I could see us going back there and ordering this for lunch, super hearty and filling, yet light & bright at the same time.

All in all this place got 5 stars in our book! There was soo many other menu items I wanted to try, from the Lemon ricotta pancakes to the Baja chicken burrito bowl and the BLTE (Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, and Egg – best breakfast sammie ever!). We will absolutely be back!!

Its first official opening day is today, January 27th starting at 7 am, and normal hours moving forward will be Breakfast, Brunch, and Lunch from 7 am – 2:30 pm. They’re located at 375 Harrison Bridge Road, Simpsonville, SC.

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While I didn’t get to speak to Kipra Anderson, the Founder of Let There Be Mom at the event, I wanted to include a little more on what the proceeds were going to and how they help families in the Upstate in need.

Let There Be Mom is an organization dedicated to “preserving the legacies of local moms and dads who have been diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses” – LTBM website. The people of Let There Be Mom help create tangible keepsakes that capture the dreams, hopes, traditions, & life stories of the parents they serve; ensuring their children always have a way to remember their mom or dad, through scrapbooks, quilts, or books of letters for the future.

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This one will be a quickie, friends! My sister and I love being creative, painting especially, so for Christmas this year instead of a ton of gifts, I got her a paint night for the two of us.

She picked out this painting, called “Sunset on a Bridge”, and it took us about two hours to complete from scratch. Nothing but blank canvases when we started out, I’m always so amazed when we all get to the final results and they look amazing! See the slideshow below for pics of us painting throughout the class:

There was a class of six of us, and we all seemed to keep up with the teacher, Hannah, really well. Jen at one point started painting scales of gray on her arms, really cool looking too! It’s really awesome to see the progressions as we went along, the layering of color in this painting and the sunset were my favorite parts (and my hidden gingerbread man, see if you can find him 😋).

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So how was your weekend Foodie Friends? Are you excited to check out First Watch? What’s your favorite activity to do with your siblings? Sound out in the comments below or let me know your suggestions of what dishes or places we should visit next. As always, feel free to like, comment, & share 🤗