Keke’s Breakfast Cafe Opens First Upstate SC Location in Spartanburg, With Four More Planned

SPARTANBURG, S.C. — Keke’s Breakfast Cafe has opened its first Upstate South Carolina location in a 4,500-square-foot storefront at Hillcrest Shopping Center, the leading edge of a five-restaurant buildout that marks the Florida-based chain’s debut in the region.

The restaurant, next to J. Crew Factory on East Main Street, is operated by local restaurateur Jeff Rigsby, who signed a development agreement to become South Carolina’s first Keke’s franchisee. Rigsby, who also owns Rigsby’s Smoked Burgers, Wings and Grill and is preparing to open Rigsby’s Classic Rock Cafe, spent nearly three decades as a Bojangles franchisee before selling those locations this year to focus on his growing restaurant portfolio.

“They really are franchisee-friendly because they want all of us to win together,” Rigsby said of Keke’s ownership. “We’re feeling really good about where we’re going.”

Keke’s, known for all-day breakfast and lunch staples like pancakes, omelets and paninis, was founded in 2006 and acquired in 2022 by Spartanburg-based Denny’s Corp. Denny’s recently agreed to be taken private in a $620 million sale, but Keke’s has continued to expand under the parent company, growing to roughly 78 locations and posting a 4% same-store sales increase even as its sister brand has closed dozens of restaurants nationally.

For commercial real estate professionals, the opening underscores continued demand for restaurant space in established Upstate retail corridors. Hillcrest Shopping Center, a long-standing East Main Street retail hub anchored by national tenants, gave Rigsby a built-in customer base and visibility along one of Spartanburg’s busiest commercial arteries.

Rigsby said he has not finalized sites for the remaining four Upstate locations but is evaluating Boiling Springs, Easley, Greer, Simpsonville, Greenville and the Clemson area, a spread that suggests brokers and landlords across multiple Upstate submarkets could see leasing interest from the brand over the next three years. He expects all five restaurants to be operational within that window.

The expansion adds to a wave of national and regional restaurant brands entering Upstate shopping centers as population growth continues to outpace much of the Southeast. Retail landlords in Greenville and Spartanburg counties have reported steady demand for small-format restaurant space, particularly from breakfast- and lunch-focused concepts that require less square footage and lower buildout costs than full-service dinner houses.

Rigsby said the daytime-only hours and streamlined operations were part of what attracted him to the brand, along with what he described as strong corporate training support.

“Every time we’d go in there, the service was impeccable,” Rigsby said, recalling visits to Florida Keke’s locations that first drew him to the concept. “It was just always very consistent.”