Let me start by saying that we're a huge fans of small businesses and want to see them succeed…read more I've also worked in plenty of restaurants and coffee shops in my day. Definitely not trying to be a hater.
My friend and I were on our way home from Chicago, looked up some bakeries along our route. We stopped here to get some goodies to take home to family, and to snack and have a coffee while we drove 6 hours.
My friend ordered: white chocolate coconut latte, 2 donut holes, a strawberry, a salted caramel, and a pink velvet cupcake.
I ordered: chocolate pretzel iced latte, a big chocolate chip cookie, tropical fruit (?) danish, coconut, pink velvet, and French silk cupcakes. I'd say between the two of us we probably spent $60+?
Walking in the shop is adorable and colorful, an employee had a brightly colored tie dye shirt on and we said hello to them first, commented on how much we liked their shirt, and barely got a response back, let alone a greeting. The employee at the counter wasn't rude but definitely not overly eager to greet or offer up information. Questions were answered when we asked, that was it. When I received my iced latte I asked if they had any straws and just got a head shake in response. Totally fine with no straw, but my friend found a stir stick for me, which was honestly the main reason I wanted a straw so I could stir up what was clearly sitting on the bottom of the cup.
Lattes were fine. We tried the chocolate chip cookie in the car and the texture was good, crispier on the edges and the middle was chewy enough. But it tasted very bland, so we didn't finish it. A little while later we decided to try the donut holes, they had good flavor but they were so dry and crumbly, presumably because they were sitting out in the open air, who knows for how long. Also didn't finish those. Even later we decided to try the salted caramel cupcake because I'd read on the case that they had Swiss meringue buttercream so I was really excited about that, and thought for sure this would be where they would excel. While the flavor of the cake was fine, I wouldn't say it tasted like salted caramel, there was some kind of cream in the middle that was good, again not salty or caramely. But that was the heaviest, most dense cupcake I've ever had, and not in a good way. The buttercream was good, and the caramel drizzle on top did taste salty. My husband was so excited that I was bringing home that tropical fruit danish and the coconut cupcake. We tried the coconut cupcake together and again, it had a lot of actual coconut in the batter, it was dense but also dry. We abandoned the cake and ate buttercream, which was good but not coconutty. So we moved onto the French silk cupcake. This cake had a great texture, light and soft, good flavor, some kind of chocolate mousse in the middle was good too. Again, good buttercream, but the top had a bunch of dry, flavorless pie crust chunks all over it. I understand that it was supposed to mimic a French silk pie, but it was such a good cake without the crust chunks. My husband had his pastry today (next day) and though dry he said the middle was good, other than the pineapple in the middle he couldn't taste any other flavor. We tried the pink velvet after dinner tonight and again with the super heavy and dense cake texture, no real flavor, but the cream cheese frosting was yummy. I cannot say how the other cupcakes were, as my friend was so disappointed in the one we shared and the report we gave her about the ones we tried, that she hasn't eaten them.
Ultimately the French silk one was the only item that was eaten completely.
Keep making that buttercream, it was the best part of everything we bought.
I sincerely hope your employees weren't having a hard day, I try to be understanding that you never know what someone is going through, but that's the only reason I can think of for them to be so completely disinterested in helping or talking to paying/tipping/polite customers.
