My last review from my trip out west is, by no means least. First, let me say that I was very much looking forward to meeting Kari Haskell of Retro Bakery due to her reputation as a cupcake cheerleader. She's adorable, no joke, and her family members are all wonderful (including a cameo by Grandma!). I immediately feel in love with her kids...took me all of a minute and I was sunk.
But let's start at the beginning. I was staying at the Bellagio and Brian (Kari's husband and partner) offered to come down to the strip and pick me up -- in a Hummer. And H3, which I'd never been in before. Sweet ride! This was important to me because Retro Bakery is not very close to the Vegas strip and I didn't have a car. I estimated it took about 35 minutes to get there, although Brian kept me entertained the entire trip. Retro Bakery is up north, higher elevations, near the mountains and snowboarding paradise. But it is very much worth the trip -- you'd be hard pressed to find a sweeter, more accommodating and delicious cupcakery anywhere else in Nevada.
When you first get to the bakery, in a darling wee strip mall (I suspect the bakery keeps that mall afloat) the scent of baked goodness permeates the windy cold air. I swear I saw swirly snowflakes in the air! Brr...but Retro Bakery was warm and inviting and so very stylish! The bakery definitely carries its brand across all parts of its business. Same colors, font, and decorations all based on the retro theme.
Check out Kari's tat!
Kari's a bubbly and happy woman who clearly cares about everything that she creates and incorporates her family in the business, which must be difficult. I can only hope you get to meet the kids when you are there:
(Abbi and Lucy -- hi guys!!)
I do have to say that I'd not seen cupcakes that looked like some of the ones Retro sells. They look to have a full dip in their coatings, paper/cups/liners and all!
The best-selling Hop-Scotch.
And bisected. Delicious!
Doesn't that chocolaty goodness of the Chocolate Fountain look wonderful??
And check out this egg nog cupcake (my first!):
With nutmeg and egg nog buttercream. All of Retro's flavors are made with buttercream because Kari's motto is "It's all about the buttercream!" Who can argue with that?
Full disclosure, Kari and her family comped me my cupcakes, so I can't quote you the price I would have paid. I believe the cupcakes are a very reasonable $2.50, or $27 for a dozen. Sweet!
Kari readily admits that she prefers to eat cookies, but her cookie and cupcake combo was scrumptious. Best of both worlds, I would say.
Do not think for a minute that I wasn't crushed not to have tasted the Coffee & Donuts and Glazed Donut cupcakes. I actually made my seriously unhappy face that I missed these yummy flavors, especially after I heard a fellow Vegas cupcaker praise the donut flavors to the sky. If/when Retro starts to ship cupcakes, I expect/demand/beg for one of each, at my door. I drool just thinking about them...and of course they sold out early in the day. Can you imagine how tasty they must have been for breakfast??
Impressively, Kari also baked gluten-free cookies for her customers:
I brought one of these back to my hotel and would never have imagined it was gluten (wheat) free! Nom nom nom...
While Retro has daily flavors, it also experiments with oodles of new flavors weekly. I had the chance to try many of the holiday flavors and there wasn't a loser among them.
The back of the bakery was immaculately clean and organized (even though -- I swear -- they apologized for not being clean enough!).
And the bakery also had an intern, Margeaux, who was a doll, and very fast with her baking work.
I don't think she's there anymore, but maybe Kari and family have recruited someone else to help them in the interim. If I were an intern, I would kill (well, maybe not literally) to work at this cupcakery.
Here's the last cupcake, back at the Bellagio.
It was a fight over who got the bigger bites. Heh. I had to concede to Michael because he hadn't spent the day pigging out on Retro deliciousness. It's the least I could do.
You can keep up with them on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, their new YouTube channel, and on the building a better bakery blog.
You can see the entire set of Retro Bakery images here; all shot by Stacie Joy for CTTC.
[ed Note: Begin Rant -- And now, a personal note having nothing to do with Retro Bakery or cupcakes (except tangentially).
My last night in Vegas I was booked in a high-dollar suite in the MGM Grand. I was all excited because it's was such a huge and purportedly luxurious suite, and I lugged a bunch of cupcakes with me, ones I couldn't finish earlier in the day. This hotel was the single worst hotel experience I've ever had in my life. (And that includes the cloth shack I stayed in in Egypt that had no indoor plumbing.)
The stench, the overwhelming stench!! It ruined the cupcakes and I had to toss them (soo sad). We were promised a smoke-free room and when we signed in we were given a room that still had a smoldering cigarette in it! Nuts! The MGM Grand also pumped the room full of a chemical (a perfume-y chemical that was created to cover the smoke smell) that ruined the flavor and taste of the cupcakes, not to mention everything else: clothes, hair, even water was off.
Discussion with the front desk manager Dan was fruitless, and the man could not have been more rude. Normally, I stay away from reviewing noncupcakes places/issues, but this horrid location ruined all my yummy cupcakes and the last night of my vacation. I tried to get a partial refund and was hung up on, but not before being told that "no one cared what I though."
I decided to let people know what my experiences were like and to beg you to look elsewhere (unless you like rude staff, smoke-filled nonsmoking rooms, chemical-filled air, and a complete lack of interest in customer service, not to mention staff that couldn't care less).
I know you get what you pay for, but we paid for a nice room (using a Twitter code from the MGM Grand) and were given a rundown smelly dump. Yick.
On the opposite side of the coin, the Bellagio and Wynn were both wonderful. And scent-free with staff who cared about the customer's happiness. MGM Grand -- you suck. /end rant]
But let's start at the beginning. I was staying at the Bellagio and Brian (Kari's husband and partner) offered to come down to the strip and pick me up -- in a Hummer. And H3, which I'd never been in before. Sweet ride! This was important to me because Retro Bakery is not very close to the Vegas strip and I didn't have a car. I estimated it took about 35 minutes to get there, although Brian kept me entertained the entire trip. Retro Bakery is up north, higher elevations, near the mountains and snowboarding paradise. But it is very much worth the trip -- you'd be hard pressed to find a sweeter, more accommodating and delicious cupcakery anywhere else in Nevada.
When you first get to the bakery, in a darling wee strip mall (I suspect the bakery keeps that mall afloat) the scent of baked goodness permeates the windy cold air. I swear I saw swirly snowflakes in the air! Brr...but Retro Bakery was warm and inviting and so very stylish! The bakery definitely carries its brand across all parts of its business. Same colors, font, and decorations all based on the retro theme.
Check out Kari's tat!
Kari's a bubbly and happy woman who clearly cares about everything that she creates and incorporates her family in the business, which must be difficult. I can only hope you get to meet the kids when you are there:
(Abbi and Lucy -- hi guys!!)
I do have to say that I'd not seen cupcakes that looked like some of the ones Retro sells. They look to have a full dip in their coatings, paper/cups/liners and all!
The best-selling Hop-Scotch.
And bisected. Delicious!
Doesn't that chocolaty goodness of the Chocolate Fountain look wonderful??
And check out this egg nog cupcake (my first!):
With nutmeg and egg nog buttercream. All of Retro's flavors are made with buttercream because Kari's motto is "It's all about the buttercream!" Who can argue with that?
Full disclosure, Kari and her family comped me my cupcakes, so I can't quote you the price I would have paid. I believe the cupcakes are a very reasonable $2.50, or $27 for a dozen. Sweet!
Kari readily admits that she prefers to eat cookies, but her cookie and cupcake combo was scrumptious. Best of both worlds, I would say.
Do not think for a minute that I wasn't crushed not to have tasted the Coffee & Donuts and Glazed Donut cupcakes. I actually made my seriously unhappy face that I missed these yummy flavors, especially after I heard a fellow Vegas cupcaker praise the donut flavors to the sky. If/when Retro starts to ship cupcakes, I expect/demand/beg for one of each, at my door. I drool just thinking about them...and of course they sold out early in the day. Can you imagine how tasty they must have been for breakfast??
Impressively, Kari also baked gluten-free cookies for her customers:
I brought one of these back to my hotel and would never have imagined it was gluten (wheat) free! Nom nom nom...
While Retro has daily flavors, it also experiments with oodles of new flavors weekly. I had the chance to try many of the holiday flavors and there wasn't a loser among them.
The back of the bakery was immaculately clean and organized (even though -- I swear -- they apologized for not being clean enough!).
And the bakery also had an intern, Margeaux, who was a doll, and very fast with her baking work.
I don't think she's there anymore, but maybe Kari and family have recruited someone else to help them in the interim. If I were an intern, I would kill (well, maybe not literally) to work at this cupcakery.
Here's the last cupcake, back at the Bellagio.
It was a fight over who got the bigger bites. Heh. I had to concede to Michael because he hadn't spent the day pigging out on Retro deliciousness. It's the least I could do.
7785 N. Durango Dr. #130
Las Vegas, NV 89131
702-586-3740
Monday-Thursday: 8AM to 6PM
Friday: 8AM to 7PM
Saturday: 10AM to 6PM
Sunday: CLOSED
You can keep up with them on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, their new YouTube channel, and on the building a better bakery blog.
You can see the entire set of Retro Bakery images here; all shot by Stacie Joy for CTTC.
[ed Note: Begin Rant -- And now, a personal note having nothing to do with Retro Bakery or cupcakes (except tangentially).
My last night in Vegas I was booked in a high-dollar suite in the MGM Grand. I was all excited because it's was such a huge and purportedly luxurious suite, and I lugged a bunch of cupcakes with me, ones I couldn't finish earlier in the day. This hotel was the single worst hotel experience I've ever had in my life. (And that includes the cloth shack I stayed in in Egypt that had no indoor plumbing.)
The stench, the overwhelming stench!! It ruined the cupcakes and I had to toss them (soo sad). We were promised a smoke-free room and when we signed in we were given a room that still had a smoldering cigarette in it! Nuts! The MGM Grand also pumped the room full of a chemical (a perfume-y chemical that was created to cover the smoke smell) that ruined the flavor and taste of the cupcakes, not to mention everything else: clothes, hair, even water was off.
Discussion with the front desk manager Dan was fruitless, and the man could not have been more rude. Normally, I stay away from reviewing noncupcakes places/issues, but this horrid location ruined all my yummy cupcakes and the last night of my vacation. I tried to get a partial refund and was hung up on, but not before being told that "no one cared what I though."
I decided to let people know what my experiences were like and to beg you to look elsewhere (unless you like rude staff, smoke-filled nonsmoking rooms, chemical-filled air, and a complete lack of interest in customer service, not to mention staff that couldn't care less).
I know you get what you pay for, but we paid for a nice room (using a Twitter code from the MGM Grand) and were given a rundown smelly dump. Yick.
On the opposite side of the coin, the Bellagio and Wynn were both wonderful. And scent-free with staff who cared about the customer's happiness. MGM Grand -- you suck. /end rant]
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