(Photo: Daniel Maurer)
If you’re wondering whether we’ll ever see the end of the poke bowl trend, here’s food for thought. RAW MKT, the poke spot on East 8th Street, closed just a year after opening in the NYU area. Its replacement? A cupcake shop.
Wait, wasn’t the cupcake trend declared dead after Crumbs crumbled?
Don’t tell that to Buttercup Bake Shop. Signage for the mini chain has gone up in the window of the narrow storefront at 61 East 8th St., near Broadway. It declares the bake shop is “opening soon…like, real soon,” and an employee at the shop’s 2nd Avenue location tells us it should be doling out sweet treats in about two weeks.
Buttercup’s first location was opened in 1999 by Jennifer Appel, a founder of Magnolia Bakery who struck out on her own after a falling out with co-owner Allysa Torey. When New York magazine wrote about the cupcake wars, Buttercup was pulling in a cool $2 million a year and New York City was in the grips of the cupcake mania (this was before fro-yo mania… and rainbow food mania…) It now has two outposts in midtown Manhattan and one in Fulton Center.
In addition to cupcakes, Buttercup sells cakes, cookies, puddings, breakfast pastries, and pies. According to the company bio. the desserts have been “enjoyed by” celebs like Hillary Clinton. It’s unclear whether she actually ate them or pulled a Junior’s Cheesecake.