Following a season of changes, Southern Pines staple Thyme & Place is back in business, firing up the stove, and back to cooking for the community. Having shifted from café to catering, owner and self-proclaimed Chief Egg Breaker Leslie Philip announced, “We’ve received our health inspection and are ready to cook!”
The news came as a surprise in early December when the announcement was made that Thyme & Place would be relocating and seeing some changes. The café’s last day in its initial location was Christmas Eve, and the Thyme & Place crew quickly set up shop at their new location—only blocks away and still conveniently located in Southern Pines.
“We traveled well through the Covid mania due to our customer loyalty and the meals which we offered for pick-up,” explained Leslie. “Now in post-Covid, we’ve had so many catering requests that we decided to transition to all catering.”
With this change, renamed Thyme & Place Catering offers full-service catering (delivery, set up, service, and clean up) as well as kitchen pick-up for customers who wish to personally carry out their orders. In addition, Thyme & Place will continue providing grab-and-go items to local coffee shops, bars, and pop-up events around Moore County.
Thyme & Place now offers catering services for small, large, and corporate events, ready to tackle just about any occasion that needs catering with a personal touch. “In the past, we changed our Café menu seasonally, and now our menus will be tailored to the events we are helping to make a success,” Leslie noted. Potential clients are invited to speak with Leslie and her team to discuss the many dishes and treats available for their upcoming events.
Along with their new, exclusive catering services, the masterminds behind Thyme & Place have a few more tricks up their sleeves. Thyme & Place will be offering kitchen rentals to other entrepreneurs who want to try to start a business without all the startup costs. Plus, they continue to sell frozen meals from Ladyfingers of Raleigh, resulting in a wide array of services under one roof.
“Thyme & Place was started as a place to create community,” Leslie recalled. “After establishing ourselves as a Café and establishing a wonderful customer following, this next step will grow our community base even larger, keeping up with the growth of Moore County!”
Luckily, Thyme & Place didn’t have far to go. The catering service is still based out of Southern Pines, just three short blocks away from the first location. Prior to the big move, Thyme & Place called the original building home for seven and a half years. Originally serving as a contractor’s storage area and an office building, it had no windows and was at the end of a dirt road. The road was paved about three years after Thyme & Place settled in and turned the building into the beloved restaurant that would serve as a Southern Pines staple for nearly eight years.
Leslie is looking forward to the future, though. No matter the location, Thyme & Place will continue serving the Sandhills with only the best, and the future looks bright.
Thyme & Place Catering’s new address is 515 SE Broad Street, Southern Pines. The phone number has remained the same: (910) 684-8758.
Photo: Tyme & Place Catering sets out a spread at a catering event—contributed photo.
~Written by Sandhills Sentinel Reporter Abegail Murphy.
