CHESTER, Va. — After years of selling her crème brûlée donuts and other treats from home and at farmers markets, Jasmine Bartley is opening Honey Bee Bakery’s first storefront on W. Hundred Road in Chester on Father's Day Weekend.
Bartley is self-taught and chose baking as her profession so she could home school her son, who has a disability. She started her business from her home in summer 2022.
“It started off as like, one or two orders a month, and it just gradually got bigger, started taking over multiple rooms in the house, and now we are here,” Bartley told CBS 6 ahead of the shop’s grand opening. “It was taking over my house, I kind of had to make that leap.”
With more than 5,000 followers on Facebook, Bartley accredits much of Honey Bee Bakery's success to social media.
“Social media is probably the most powerful form of advertising at this moment,” she said.
Bartley told CBS 6 she hopes that her storefront will open the door for even more people.
“I’m hoping that it gets more people to be able to taste the quality of my products,” she said. “I was doing farmers markets, but that’s only one day a week and Saturdays are busy for everyone, so I didn’t get much traction.”
Bartley isn't just hoping to share her treats with paying customers, either. She also plans to share her leftovers with a nearby church.
“What I plan on doing is, taking the excess leftover and donating it, so even people who come in and they’re like, ‘Oh your prices, I can’t afford them,’ They’ll still be able to go over there and grab some stuff if they need it,” she said.
Honey Bee Bakery’s menu will also be expanding when the storefront opens.
“I will have a special monthly flavor that’ll be like a super gourmet, super exquisite flavor, like I have a honey cake with freshly sliced strawberries and ricotta inside for one of the months,” Bartley shared. “I will also have a bunch of weekly flavors, so another cake will be a weekly flavor.”
The grand opening event will run from 2 to 6 p.m. on June 13, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on June 14 and 15. Since the grand opening falls on Father’s Day Weekend, all dads will get a free cupcake on a first come, first serve basis.
Following opening weekend and a break on Monday, June 16, Honey Bee Bakery will be open Thursday through Monday, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each week.
Honey Bee Bakery is located at 17 W Hundred Road.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky | Facebook | Instagram | X | Threads | TikTok | YouTube
