Charlotte Bakery Tour

I work in one of the best bakeries in Charlotte one day a week, but I like to stray from Amelie's once in awhile to taste the other sweet treats the city has to offer. I recently took my mom on a Charlotte bakery tour to show her some of my favorite spots, because really, show me a woman who doesn't love a baked good. So if you're looking for something to do this Valentine's Day, here's a delicious itinerary to share with anybody you're a little sweet on!

Sunflour Baking Company 2001 E. 7th St.

This is my favorite breakfast bakery, with from-scratch sweet and savory pastries made from local ingredients. Sunflour uses organic flour from Lindley Mills in Graham, and their eggs and buttermilk are sourced from Cackleberry Farm in Concord. Start your day with a blueberry "pop tart" like I did, and you'll get to savor jam from Hazel's Jams just down the road. My favorites, though, are the hazelnut orange roll and their morning glory muffin. Also not to be missed: homemade croissants, quiche, and fresh-churned ice cream. Sunflour also offers sandwiches for breakfast and lunch and features a few local craft beers.

Suarez Bakery 4245 Park Rd. 

Suarez Bakery serves up the kind of breakfast pastries I grew up with: doughnuts, bear claws, and danishes. They also make the completely homemade version of one of my childhood favorites: the cream horn. But this time, my mom and I both went home with their elephant ear, a crispy round of puff pastry topped with cinnamon and sugar. So good with coffee - yum! Note: Tizzerts shares the same bakery space and offers homemade (and quite lovely) cakes and cupcakes.

Polka Dot Bake Shop 1730 E. Woodlawn Rd., Ste. H 

Charlotte's first cupcake bakery is still one of my all-time favorites for single serving cake. Their cupcake menu rotates during the week, with special flavors featured every day. I have to say that I used to not be a cake fan, but this bake shop is one of the places that has officially turned me into a cake lover. Some of my favorite flavors: key lime pie, cookies and cream, and strawberry shortcake.

Davidson Chocolates 123A East Blvd. 

I am so happy to have a neighborhood chocolate shop! Though it's more a confection than a true baked-good, how could I leave chocolate off the tour? Davidson Chocolates has a case of traditional and creative truffle flavors, as well as other chocolate candy creations. I am sad that the garlic truffle was out when I visited, but I am certainly curious about that one! For Valentine's Day, they have a special pomegranate truffle that sounds amazing: half milk and half dark chocolate ganache with a hint of pear and honey. Yes, please!

Great Harvest Bread Company 901 S. Kings Dr. / 6420 Rea Rd.

Before Paul and I started making our own bread for sandwiches, we'd make our weekly trip to Great Harvest for one of their delicious loaves. But we still stop in regularly for their scuffins, a muffin-scone hybrid which combines the best of both baked goods: a little sweet, a little savory. Their focaccia is also amazing and, really, anything is that comes of out of this well-known national bakery chain. Their menu changes every month, with the selections rotating daily. Both Charlotte locations now offer sandwiches on their slices, so this is a great place to grab lunch (and one of their Savannah Bars for dessert) and end your tour!

Urban Adventure: Thrifting, BBQ & Line Dancing

When possible, I think it's best to turn errands into an adventure, tacking on stops for fun. Especially when you're already traveling to a different neighborhood, why not use that gallon of gas and make your time more worthwhile?

Here's my itinerary for a thrifty trip to West Charlotte, made for a Wednesday evening that includes dinner and dancing!

The perfect outfit for your outing...

Dance Hall Dress by Verabelle

Pony Necklace by Archives Chicago

Cowgirl Cuff made from a vintage belt by Lucky Junk 

Boots from Goodwill, photo by macdon512, 

from the Goodwill Hunting Flickr pool

STOP 1: Thrift Store Corner

Goodwill Outlet        Value Village        Community Thrift

2901a Freedom Dr.      2917 Freedom Dr.     3016 Freedom Dr.

                       Charlotte, NC 28208          

There's a certain area on Freedom Drive that I like to call "Thrift Store Corner," where you can hit a string of secondhand shops all at once. Goodwill Outlet and Value Village sit right next to one another, and Community Thrift is directly across the street. And the best part: you know that each store is going to have something completely different!

Start your excursion at Goodwill's outlet store, where clothes are sold by the pound. This is the ultimate stop for the thrifty scavenger; you'll get to dig through heaping bins for vintage and designer treasures, all at a low cost of $1.39 per pound. This shop also offers housewares and furniture, where most are priced at 50% off. 

Next door is Value Village, a grocery-store-sized thrift shop and one of my favorite of the thrifting chains. Scan the endless shelves of shoes and pick through the racks to see if you can uncover a Western shirt or a old cowboy hat to wear later for dancing. I've picked up many a vintage treasure at this spot!

Across the street at Community Thrift, you'll find a thrift store as organized as a department store. With sections for sports equipment, hand-picked vintage finds, and even a craft section, I never walk away from here empty-handed. My favorite finds from this store: a pair of vintage sunglasses and a brand new Bodin french press.

STOP 2: Barbeque King

2900 Wilkinson Boulevard Charlotte, NC 28208

After thrifting, make a dinner stop at Babeque King, a drive-in barbeque joint that has been serving Charlotte since 1959. This second-generation family establishment smokes their pulled and sliced pork in-house and smothers it with their homemade secret barbeque sauce. They're also known for their barbeque chicken, which Guy Fieri of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives describes as a cross between fried and barbeque chicken and buffalo wings. If you need to, stop by the ATM, because this stop is cash only.

STOP 3: Coyote Joe's

4621 Wilkinson Blvd. Charlotte NC 28208

Gear up in any Western wear you uncovered on your thrifting marathon to get ready for a night of line-dancing at Coyote Joe's. Plan to arrive on Wednesday by 7:00 pm for the free line dancing lessons. Instructors will give you the moves to strut along the giant dance floor so that you'll be ready for the live band at 9:00 pm. On Wednesdays, ladies get in free and guys pay $3, with half-price drinks.


This entry has been adapted from my past post for the Wow! Goodwill blog... Be sure to read my other posts for Goodwill!

Waste Not, Want Not: Urban Foraging

My friend, Melissa, has a fig tree behind her home that is bursting with ripened fruit for the taking. Melissa lives in a series of a quadraplexes, and the tree is in back of the property. She had so many of the figs that she was ready to pop, and since none of her neighbors seemed to be enjoying the fruit, she invited me to pick as much as I wanted. I gathered a basketful of delicious figs from a huge tree that had more than I could ever need, want, or reach. I was so happy that I could take some so that they wouldn't all go to waste. Now to figure out what to make with all these figs... I'm thinking some canning and drying might be in order.

If you'd like to fill up your own basket of city fruit, here are a few rules of urban foraging, taken from The Urban Homestead, by Kelly Coyne & Erik Knutzen.


"It goes against homestead principles to let food go to waste - whether it be on your land or someone else's... The law states that any fruit growing in a parkway strip, or branches hanging over a sidewalk or alley is in public space and therefore fair game for you to pick. Of course it is better to ask permission when you can, and of course we don't need to tell you not to break branches, climb on fences, or otherwise behave like a hooligan when you are picking fruit.


"If you spot an overloaded tree in someone's yard on your wanderings, and if your surreptitious sampling proves it to be tasty, inquire with the owner and see if they'll let you harvest the whole thing. Odds are they will be grateful to you if you would relieve them of this burden, and will just tell you to take what you want."


I'd love to hear about any successful urban foraging adventures you've had. Please share your story in a comment. And happy picking!

Urban Adventure: Coffee & Roses

I had been reading and hearing a lot about the pour-over method of coffee brewing, and as a lover of all things tasty, I knew it was something I had to try. 

I recently discovered Not Just Coffee, a coffee bar in Charlotte that crafts cups of pour-over coffee using freshly roasted Counter Culture beans. This tiny little shop was nestled only a few minutes down the road from me, and just happened to be right across the street from one of my favorite Charlotte landmarks - McGill Rose Garden. 

This was easily shaping up to the be the perfect Saturday morning excursion...

Photos from the Not Just Coffee Facebook page

The idea for this morning out was filed away into memory, and last Saturday, Paul and I decided to roll out of bed early and see what the pour-over hype was all about. We were pleasantly greeted by some of the best cups of coffee we've ever sipped.

Pour-over is a method of brewing that is meant to get the absolute best out of the bean. "The difference is that instead of flooding the cone with water and letting the coffee seep and drip, you pour hot water in a thin, continuous steam for one to four minutes," explains Oliver Strand in a New York Times post. "When you control the flow of the water, you control the extraction."

Paul and I each picked our coffee from the menu, settling on the Gemelos from Guatemala and the Konga from Ethiopia. Then we watched the intricate process as our barista ground our selected beans (roasted only a few days before); poured a bit of water into the cone-shaped filter; placed the ground beans in the wet filter to let them "bloom"; and then poured a slow and steady stream of water through the beans, where coffee dripped into our individual cups below.

Each of our cups of coffee was pleasant with annunciated and distinguishable flavors. Mine was lemony and light and Paul's was sweeter with the taste of caramelized sugar and dark fruit. It was some of the best coffee either of us have ever had - truly "not just coffee," but a drink experience.

To really savor the morning, we took our cups of hand-crafted coffee on a stroll through McGill Rose Garden, where we enjoyed the lovely colors of late spring and the distinct aroma of each type of rose. Popping in just after a pruning, we walked through rose-strewn paths, and we were able to collect enough clipped blooms to fill vases around our home with reminders of our morning.

Take some time to stop and smell the roses and savor a sip...

Not Just Coffee

510 E. 15th St., inside Area 15

Wednesday-Friday 7am-4pm / 7pm-10pm

Saturday 8am-3pm

McGill Rose Garden

940 N. Davidson St.

Tuesday-Wednesday 10am-4pm

Thursday-Friday 10am-6pm

Saturday 10am-3pm

free, but donations are accepted

Slice 3: A Picture Show

The last detail of last weekend's party: the picture show. Who doesn't love a movie in the backyard? We tracked down a projector from a friend of a friend, hung a sheet, and... showtime! Everyone brought blankets and beer, and we made popcorn and poured samples of our latest home-brews, a curry IPA and coconut porter. Our fellow home-brewing friend, Dustin, even passed around tastes of his latest, a cherry vanilla stout. And our pre-show entertainment: sweet, haunting tunes by Veda Woolf. On the big screen: Hitchcock's North by Northwest. It's amazing how much of a good time $4.95 at VisArt can get you.

Slice 2: Pedals (a bike scavenger hunt)

Part two of our "Pies, Pedals, & Picture Show" party this weekend: a scavenger hunt! After sampling nearly 20 flavors of pie, getting a little exercise around the neighborhood seemed like a good idea. We split into five teams, with each team having one person on a bike; the rest went at it on foot. Equipped with cameras and smart phones, we all documented our findings for reporting and voting later. We had 45 minutes to explore the neighborhood to see what we could come up with. Here's the list of findings my friend, Sarah, put together along with the associated points, if you'd like to do your own Spring scavenging.

1. an intersection that is odd, confusing, or changes names (2)

2. most springlike yard (1)

3. highest street number (1)

4. coolest car (1)

5. person walking a dog / the most dogs / strangest combo (1/2/3)

6. someone on a bike (not in the hunt) (3)

7. highest / lowest priced home for sale (1/1)

8. street with the most porch ceiling fans (2)

9. squirrel on a wire (5)

10. happenin' hangout (1)

11. Charlotte skyline (3)

12. most colorful (3)

13. typical Plaza-Midwood moment (2)

14. 2 Volvos together (2, 3 bonus points for 3 Volvos)

#5 a couple walking a dog / #13 typical Plaza-Midwood moment

#12 My interpretation of most colorful: This yard was filled with garden gnomes and tiny houses for them to live in.

Holiday Highlights

I feel like it has been forever since I have been a part of the online world. And, in fact, it has! The holidays really snatched me up this year. Between my own getting and giving, my little part-time job at Amelie's, and trying to get some new Verabelle things made, I feel a little like I fell off the face of the online earth. But I am back and ready for a new year! I am getting started on new designs (even an animal or two), and I have some exciting things planned for 2010. Here's a little photo recap of how it all ended in '99.

Fourth Ward
Above left: Picking out our first tree together! Above: Paul and I had a nice afternoon walk through historic Fourth Ward and then grabbed a beer and a board game at the neighborhood bar, Alexander Michael's.

Like the old days

This past Friday Paul, Robert, and I enjoyed the offerings of Charlotte's SouthEnd. We indulged in a free wine tasting at Common Market, browsed the booths at the Charlotte Art League during their gallery crawl (while also saying hello to three owls from the Carolina Raptor Center!), then hopped aboard the historic Charlotte Trolley for a ride through downtown.

It was really interesting to see our city in an entirely new way and to be a part of something that played such a huge role in the early development of so many of Charlotte's neighborhoods. According to Charlotte Trolley's webpage, the first streetcar came to Charlotte in 1891 and continued to operate until 1938, when the city became so large that buses had to take over. Only fairly recently has the streetcar made is modern debut in Charlotte, and for $3 each, we were able to experience our city the way it was experienced so many years ago.

The trolley operates Saturdays and Sundays and during special events.