Carolina Café Honors Kelly Hunnewell as They Expand to New Location in West Columbia
June 26, 2014
COLUMBIA, SC – Carolina Cafe is growing. Columbia’s favorite place for bagels and other tasty treats has expanded with a new café, bakery and commercial kitchen in the Food Lion shopping center at 2250 Sunset Blvd. West Columbia. The new kitchen will be dedicated to Kelly Hunnewell, who was unfortunately murdered last July and would have been managing the new baking facility.
“It has been a bitter sweet experience as we open our new shop while remembering and missing Kelly,” says Max and Lauren Schlueter, the owners and operators of Carolina Café.
Hunnewell worked as a baker at Carolina Cafe for 3 years and was murdered during a robbery attempt at the Tommy Circle bakery last year. It’s particularly poignant because it’s the one year anniversary of her death and this new place would have been her kitchen — she was really looking forward to working here.”
The Carolina Café has become an institution among USC students, faculty, politicians, and downtown employees since opening in 1998. Carolina Cafe specializes in authentic New York-style water bagels, muffins, cookies, pastries and serves up a slate of signature sandwiches, freshly made soups, and classic, made from scratch salads like tuna, chicken, egg and pimento cheese.
The new facility has a high production oven that can bake 50 dozen bagels per hour. Both locations are open seven days a week.
