Craving something sweet? If cookies or brownies are your guilty pleasure, grab a napkin. Honeybear Bake Shop is baking up sweet treats for online orders every week.
The Charlotte-based cookie boutique expanded its new headquarters + strictly operates online only, serving up weekly orders and specialty cookie boxes to coffee shops and markets across the Queen City.
Fun fact: You can find Honeybear cookies at businesses like The Wandering Cup, Green Brothers Juice, and Rhino Market in Uptown.
“When I started this business, I always told myself, I wanted to make sure everybody knows me,” Honeybear’s owner Hannah Neville explained to CLTtoday. “I’m very fortunate that I’ve built a business that works without being a storefront.”
Honeybear has had quite the glow-up since its inception in 2020. After working as a pastry chef at the Ritz-Carlton, Neville began sending out cookie boxes from her South End apartment before eventually moving to a ghost kitchen, allowing her creativity to shine.
For example, there have been boxes inspired by “Gossip Girl” and other television shows, Girl Scout Cookies, and Super Bowl LIX.
“I think people get excited for the constant “newness” or the nostalgia,” explained Neville. “When I started, it was just fun. And now I think it’s a good way to get people to keep coming back.”
So how does it work? Shoppers and cookie monsters, aka loyalty members, can place an order until Thursday weekly, then pick it up on Friday or Saturday.
However, not all ideas are winners...
“The one that I tried making and it was a big flop was a Southern box,” recalled Neville. “I did chicken and waffles, and I wanted to do it without incorporating actual chicken. It just tasted like bullion. I did what I could, but that one was not it!”
