Florence-based bakery brings homemade treats to second location in Village at Sandhill
Light shines through the sleek glass windows — illuminating a “Keep Calm Have A Cupcake” stencil — onto unfinished wooden tables and speckled marble countertops. Mason jar chandeliers twinkle above displays of red velvet cupcakes and rows of macaroons, which all sit ready-to-order in grand cupboards along the back wall.
Owner Kyja Lee covers a bright Tiffany turquoise top with a brown embroidered apron, as she sprays down the cupcakery’s tables and takes phone orders from customers, or, as she calls them, “friends.”
Sweet, a family-owned cupcake shop from Florence, opened its second location in Columbia’s Village at Sandhill Nov. 16. Lee, her daughter Kelsey Wood, and Kelsey’s husband Greg opened the store’s first stop a year ago in Florence and after its success, expanded to Columbia.
The cupcake cafe, nestled at the corner of the Towncentre’s roundabout, is cozy and the staff is sweet, just as the name promises. Customers sit along the long marble counters on high-top chairs overlooking the espresso machine and rows of baked cakes — it’s like sitting at your kitchen counter, watching Mom whip up a cup of hot chocolate or serve a single afternoon treat.
“I wanted it to feel very homey — it’s very comfortable, with a European flair,” Lee said. “It’s a whole experience when you come in.”
Plush arm chairs sit side by side with a small table lamp under Sweet’s logo, a circle of multi-colored, vintage hand mixers. The old-fashioned beaters pay homage to Lee’s grandma, Nonie, who taught her how to bake.
Christmas music circles through the small, but open, space and a human-size nutcracker, topped with a bright blue bow, is the first sign of holiday decor. There’s more to come, Lee assured.
“I tell everyone to treat the customers like they’re walking into your living room,” Lee said.
Sweet’s staple cupcakes are simple: vanilla (“The White House”), chocolate (“Night and Day”), combinations of the two and “Paint the Town Red Velvet.” There’s then a bake schedule of specialties like Wake Me Up Before you Go-Go, only available Mondays. It’s delicious — brown sugar cake and caramel filling topped with fresh whipped cream and caramel drizzle. It was Lee’s recommendation, and it was, simply, sweet.
All of the cupcakes are baked fresh, in-house each day and have found the perfect flavor between professional and homemade comfort. Lee loved to bake, and before launching Sweet, started baking for-order on a smaller scale. But when she decided to open her own store, the former interior designer hired Johnson & Wales pastry chef Brandon Taylor to take her talents to the commercial level.
“I brought him in so I wouldn’t have to use my little measuring cups — I could move it up to the gallon-size,” Lee said.
Each cupcake flavor is a combined effort between Lee, Taylor and Kelsey. A lot of times, Kelsey will have an idea and Taylor will bring it to life, Lee said. The mother of the Sweet family gushed about a cranberry mousse cupcake, the most recent creation from the chefs at the Florence location — just for the holidays.
The ingredients create a certain flair, built with European butter, Belgian chocolate, Madagascar bourbon vanilla and homemade sweet sauces. The caramel is made by the four Columbia Sweet chefs, and if a cupcake has raspberry filling (like the PB&J), the raspberries have been cooked down that day. It’s an expensive mix, but each cupcake is just $3, or $33 for a dozen.
It’s not just about the cupcakes either. There’s coffee, too. A full coffee bar sits at the front of the shop, steaming cups of spiced chai and, a Sweet favorite, the frozen hot chocolate. The Columbia store’s coffee setup is much larger than Florence’s, and to fill the menu with the best drinks, Lee brought in the owner of Lula’s Coffee Co. in Florence to train the Sweet staff.
And, brace yourself for this last bit. Sweet serves up buckshots for, you guessed it, a dollar. What is a buckshot, you ask? A single shot of cupcake icing.
The Sweet team has also dreamt up a new style of marketing: sweeting. To re-sweet, by the store’s definition, is “to show favor or thanks in the form of cupcakes.” Lee will box up a half-dozen of the fresh-baked cakes — in the signature brown box and turquoise bow — and deliver them to a local business or elementary school.
The cycle continues from there, like paying it forward. She has regulars who order boxes to be re-sweeted and delivered to a friend or family member.
“I want that brown box to be known like the Tiffany blue box,” Lee said.
The cupcakery’s other big pull is the daily list of NODs, or names of the day. Each day, the staff will pick three first names of Facebook fans and anyone who has that name gets a free cupcake.
“In Florence one day, we had a line to the door. We said, ‘If your name is Sherry, raise your hand.’ Twelve Sherrys raised their hands!” Lee said.
The hospitality, and the cupcake sweetness, seeps through every inch of the bakery. The staff is doting, and every order turns into a greater conversation on family and future careers. On a Monday afternoon, a woman came into Sweet on her husband’s recommendation. He had been there earlier that afternoon and she just had to pick up a Snickers cupcake.
“Cupcakes bring people together. It’s not just about the cupcakes, it’s about the relationships,” Lee said.
The year-to-present journey of Sweet is a swift one, with the idea and intricacies of the brand falling perfectly into place as a brown-and-turquoise-packaged success. The Columbia locale hasn’t been open two weeks, but it already has regulars, Lee said. And although the imported ingredients and brown sugar cake batters sound scrumptious on paper, Lee said to understand Sweet, you have to sample:
“Tasting is believing.”
To place custom cupcake, cake, macaroon or cheesecake orders, visit sweetacupcakecompany.com or call (803) 728-0657. Sweet is at 480-6 Promenade Place in Village at Sandhill.