Bottom Line Bakery & Cafe of Aiken

10/14/2026

📣 This is our LAST WEEK of service! Please come out and support us as we finish up our cafe service in Aiken. We close for good Saturday at 5pm.

Thank you Aiken! It's been a wonderful few years 🥲❤️‍🩹

10/08/2026

We've been sharing a lot of big things lately ❤️‍🩹 Unfortunately because of our sudden closing deadline, that news had to be shared first. Now we need you to rally around one of our own. We will be dedicating our Scarecrow to Grace and Breast Cancer Awareness month.

Help Grace Fight Breast Cancer 💗

If you've visited Bottom Line Bakery over the last two years, there's a good chance you've enjoyed something made by Grace.

Grace is our incredible Kitchen Manager at our Aiken location, but to us, she's so much more than an employee. She's creative, hardworking, dependable, and a huge part of the little family we've built at Bottom Line Bakery.

At just 30 years old, Grace was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. While her initial diagnosis indicated Stage 3, after meeting with her oncologist, there is hope that her cancer may actually be less advanced, potentially Stage 2. What we do know is that she is facing an aggressive form of breast cancer, which is why her medical team moved quickly to begin treatment.

Grace began chemotherapy on September 30th and is now officially in the fight.

Outside of the bakery, Grace is in her senior year at USC Aiken, working toward finishing her degree while also working and supporting herself. She lives independently and is a very loved aunt to two nieces and a nephew who mean the world to her.

If you know Grace, you know there are a few things that are unmistakably her. She's a huge Hello Kitty fan, loves Nintendo and Animal Crossing, speaks Spanish, loves Bad Bunny, is a big Breaking Bad fan, and has a soft spot for the moon and stars. And, of course, she's our resident expert on making delicious nut-free desserts. 🌙✨

Unfortunately, Grace is now facing another unexpected challenge. Bottom Line Bakery's Aiken location will be closing at the end of October due to circumstances outside of our control. After two years of being such an important part of our kitchen, Grace will now have to navigate searching for a new job at the same time she is undergoing chemotherapy.

Cancer treatment alone is an enormous disruption to someone's life. Having to worry about finding new employment and maintaining an income while going through treatment adds a burden we desperately wish she didn't have to carry.

Because Grace lives on her own and supports herself, time away from work means lost income on top of medical expenses, transportation, groceries, rent, utilities, and all of the everyday bills that don't stop just because you're fighting cancer.

Every donation will go directly toward helping Grace stay financially supported throughout treatment and this unexpected employment transition, giving her some breathing room to focus on her health, recovery, and finishing her senior year.

Whether you can give $5, $25, $100, or simply share this fundraiser, it matters. Our goal is to surround Grace with a community that reminds her she doesn't have to carry all of this alone.

Grace has spent the last two years helping us take care of our bakery, our customers, and our community.

Now it's our turn to help take care of Grace. 💗🌙

Thank you for donating, sharing, praying, encouraging, and supporting her through the months ahead.

— Grace's Bottom Line Bakery Family
https://gofund.me/131be2d54

10/03/2026

Hey friends ❤️‍🩹 while our announcement yesterday was a shock we wanted to add some details:

As of now, unless an agreement is found with the landlords and a new operating entity comes into the space, our last day of business will be 10/17/26 - weeks from today to allow me time to clean and empty the space before the end of the month.

Please come out and support while we are still here. My team has been with me for years and they are all staying through the end. It would mean so much to leave on a high note surrounded by encouragement and support for our pastry, coffee, and food.

Thank you so much for your support over the years. We hope to have fostered a wonderful place to celebrate, to chat, to process the hard times, to study, to meet, or even just to enjoy a beautiful day with some good coffee and a sweet treat.

My deepest gratitude,
~ Kelsey Lucius

10/02/2026

This is a post I never expected to be making, and truthfully, it's a difficult one to write.

I've spent years building Bottom Line Bakery Café in downtown Aiken. This isn't a decision I made because I wanted to close the café or because I simply decided it was time to walk away.

I asked for a new lease and was not offered one. The only extension available to me was an additional two months.

Normally, two months might sound like extra time. But I'm currently 32 weeks pregnant. Extending through December would mean facing this exact same situation — finding a new tenant, selling and moving an entire café, or dismantling everything we've built — potentially three weeks postpartum with a newborn.

That simply isn't a realistic position for me or my family.

So I'm trying to make the best of a really difficult situation: exit as cleanly as I can, protect my family and my other business, take care of the responsibilities in front of me, and hopefully find someone who sees an opportunity in what we've already built.

Before I begin dismantling the café and selling everything piece by piece, I'm putting this out publicly in hopes that the right person might see it.

The café is already extensively outfitted for food and beverage service. I am offering the complete turn-key equipment and fixture package — commercial refrigeration, espresso and coffee equipment, bakery display cases, kitchen and prep equipment, bar equipment, an existing CO₂ system with two soda guns, tables and chairs, storage, smallwares, and much more.

Much of this equipment was specifically selected to fit the dimensions and workflow of this space. For someone wanting to open a café, bakery, coffee shop, restaurant, or similar concept, purchasing everything in place could eliminate an enormous amount of the expense and work involved in starting with an empty commercial space.

The complete turn-key equipment and fixture package is being offered at $75,000. I have a detailed equipment and model list available for serious inquiries.

There is one very important piece of this opportunity: my lease ends October 31.

I cannot sell or guarantee the lease itself. Anyone interested in occupying the space would need to apply for and secure a new lease directly with the property owners - Shah & Williams Enterprises LLC. If the right person can come together with them before my lease ends, however, there is an opportunity for this entire café setup to remain exactly where it is.

Otherwise, I have to begin taking it apart.

And I think that's the hardest part.

There is already a café here. The equipment is here. The infrastructure is here. The tables and chairs are here. The coffee bar is here. The support and companionship is here. Years of work went into putting all of these pieces together.

I would much rather watch someone walk through these doors excited about what they could build next than watch everything we've built be dismantled and sold piece by piece.

So I'm asking our community to help me get this in front of the right person.

Maybe you've dreamed about opening your own place. Maybe you know someone who has. Maybe someone in your circle has been waiting for an opportunity where so much of the incredibly expensive and time-consuming setup has already been done.

Please share this.

I have a very short window to make this work, but I'm hopeful that the right person might see it at exactly the right time.

Thank you for all of your support over the last 3 years Aiken. We have loved the ride while it lasted. ❤️‍🩹

~ Kelsey Lucius, Owner

08/27/2026

We're Hiring!

Job description:

Kitchen Manager / Lead Cook Bottom Line Bakery Café — Aiken, SC

$15/hour + tips averaging an additional $4–$6/hour Typical total compensation: approximately $20–$22/hour.

30+ hours per week

Tuesday–Saturday | No Late Nights | Sundays & Mondays Off

Paid weekly every Friday

Kitchen Manager / Lead Cook

Bottom Line Bakery Café is looking for an experienced, dependable Kitchen Manager / Lead Cook to take ownership of our daily kitchen operations. This is an excellent opportunity for someone who loves working in food service but wants something that's hard to find in this industry: daytime café hours, no late nights, and every Sunday and Monday off.

Our ideal candidate is the kind of person who walks into a kitchen, sees what needs to be prepped, cleaned, stocked or handled — and handles it. We are not looking for someone who needs to be micromanaged. We need a reliable kitchen professional who takes pride in their food, their workspace and their team and is comfortable taking ownership of the kitchen during their shifts.

Schedule

Our café is open Tuesday–Saturday, 8:00 AM–5:00 PM. We are closed every Sunday and Monday. This position requires open availability Tuesday through Saturday. Kitchen shifts will vary based on staffing and business needs and may include: - Opening shifts beginning around 7:00 AM - Daytime/mid shifts - Closing shifts ending around 5:30 PM - Occasional open-to-close shifts (approximately 7:00 AM–5:30PM) when needed.

To Apply

Please submit your resume in a professional email to [email protected] and tell us briefly about:

- Your previous kitchen experience

- Any kitchen leadership or management experience

- Your current availability

- Whether you currently hold a ServSafe Manager certification

- Why you're interested in this position

Only applicants with previous food-service/line-cook experience and lead-cook or kitchen leadership experience will be considered.

This position will begin part-time for approximately the first month while you train alongside our current kitchen team, with the intention of transitioning into a full-time role. This training period gives you time to learn our menu and systems while allowing us time to to make sure the position is a great long-term fit for everyone. Reliability, initiative, food quality and teamwork during this period will be extremely important.

07/02/2026

It's America's 250th Birthday this weekend and we're open to celebrate! Swing through all weekend during our regular hours.

🇺🇸 Blueberry Ooey Gooey Bars
🦅 Assorted Sugar Cookies

Have a wonderful sweet and safe weekend!

06/26/2026

05/11/2026

We're adding a Part Time Barista to our team!

Great summer job option. Please email to apply.

04/17/2026

So sorry for the inconvenience of our machine being down! We are back up and brewing!

We hope to see you today and tomorrow for all your caffeine needs!