You may not have heard of The Statesboro Sweets Cafe.  In fact, it has locally gained the moniker “Statesboro’s best kept secret.” But if you’re willing to venture to a little tiny corner of Statesboro on 107 Parish St. you may find the place well worth your time. If that’s too much for you of course, there’s always DoorDash, but why deprive yourself of the adventure? When you open those doors after that long trek, you may find yourself transported to another world of simple feels and comfort. A nice laid back vibe creeps in as you finally settle into your surroundings. 

At this point, you’re probably wondering “What is the Statesboro Sweets Cafe?”

In short, it’s a cafe establishment, but with home made cooking. It doesn’t just cater sweets despite its namesake. They actually serve a variety of options for lunch, dinner, and yes, dessert. Recently, they’ve added breakfast options to the menu. A gamble that has apparently really taken off for the establishment. At this point, the menu has become so vast, that inside the cafe there are two different menus posted on the wall—which makes choosing your options a lot easier by knowing what menu to look at while you’re surfing through options in store. They also serve coffee and they have seating areas for customers that want to sit back and relax while eating should they choose too. 

As stated before, they cook meals from scratch. All you need to do is go up to the counter, ring the bell, order your food, and wait for that nice home made cooking. Despite having a couple of different chefs, whatever you order tends to taste consistent regardless of who’s cooking it. So there’s no worry in that department. 

 The cakes seen in the shop really are top quality. As soon as you walk in the store, they’re one of the first things to grab your attention, completely stealing the show at first sight.  They also come in a wide variety of flavors to choose from. Typically, if the cake is not pre-made and put up on display, you’ll have to order it ahead of time. Which could take roughly two to three days before it’s complete. 

Despite its young age, the cafe actually possesses some deep roots in the community. The owner of the establishment, Grace Vangille, and her family owns a chain of restaurants in the local area. From the floor & furniture store to the fish market right beside it. 

Statesboro Sweets Cafe itself will soon be two years old as of this December. It’s apparently made a lot of headway with sales and popularity recently. A common trait amongst all customers interviewed was how much they enjoyed the service. Customers who know about this place commonly attempt to visit the store as frequently as once a week. “One thing I’ve been hearing lately is everybody in town has been referring to it as the best kept secret in Statesboro,” said Meredith Helpling, the manager at Statesboro Sweets Cafe. “That’s kind of become our tagline, which is interesting because it’s just kind of funny. This is, we’re going into our second year now and business is really just now really picking up.” 

The manager wasn’t kidding. Customers really responded well to this place. Not a single customer interviewed had anything negative to say about their experience. Some customers would have a favorite dish, such as the crab soup or the pimento cheese burgers. While customers may or may not have a favorite, there wasn’t a single customer interviewed who had a dish they didn’t enjoy. Some customers even found great value in rotating through the menu and trying different items every time they visited. 

With this new momentum they’re experiencing, the Statesboro Sweets Cafe has been trying to branch out and get their business more attention in the more populated areas of Statesboro. “We’re hoping we can get a second location in the busier part of town, and that would really help us out….We would really love to get involved with the (Georgia Southern) campus, and we’ve started to kind of make some connections there just doing some catering for certain events there and that’s really been huge for us,” said Helpling.

In every sense of the phrase, the Statesboro Sweets Cafe can be called a “pleasant surprise.” It has a unique home made cooking style that anyone can enjoy. It may be considered “Statesboro’s best kept secret”, but at the pace it’s moving these days, in time it may be Statesboro’s best restaurant.