RALEIGH, N.C. — There aren’t many coffee shops that have it all — scratch-made cupcakes, ice cream, cookies, macarons, you name it.

But the Little Blue Bakehouse comes pretty close to that. 

What You Need To Know

  • Little Blue Bakehouse opened in 2020

  • The Raleigh bakery houses several small businesses

  • Owner Allison Vick started Little Blue Bakehouse after success with Little Blue Macron

On the other side of the large glass window inside the bakery is a kitchen like you may have never seen before in Raleigh. It's a place where multiple businesses work together.

“I want to be able to see people enjoying the stuff they purchased," said Allison Vick, owner of Little Blue Bakehouse. “We try to feature as many small businesses as possible.”

From ice cream to cupcakes, there’s a dessert for everyone at Little Blue Bakehouse.

Vick and her husband opened the Raleigh bakery in 2020.

After doing a little research, they found it was more cost effective to open a larger shop that brings different businesses together.

“It's very expensive the smaller the space you're looking at — the cost of square foot is very very high. My husband's idea was why don't we make a smaller kitchen so that it's a lot easier to collaborate between a bunch of businesses and they can have their own retail space, which is something that doesn't really exist in commercial kitchens," Vick said.

It all started with Little Blue Macron.

“I used to be an executive pastry chef in Austin — born in Raleigh, moved to Austin after college," Vick said.

Vick sold her special macrons at farmers markets across North Carolina for a couple of years using ingredients straight from the Tar Heel State.

“Personally for what I do — make everything from scratch — we made a ton of jam. Strawberry season, farmers market, get herbs from there as well try to get as much local as we can and I know other bakers as well do that," Vick said.

About half a dozen businesses are working in the same kitchen at the same time.

“We are often all here working at the same time so we listen to music, joke around, it's a cool working environment," Vick said.

She says the businesses at Little Blue Bakehouse sometimes combine their products to make something extra special for their customers. Sometimes that means adding a macron to a cupcake, or mixing a fresh batch of crumbled cookies with ice cream.