Cupcake snack counter opens at the Monument


Rebeca Oliveira

MONUMENT SQ—Monumental Cupcakes, a cupcake and snack counter addition to JP Art Market, located at 36 South Street, will have its grand opening with cupcake girls, music and snacks on Sept. 25, 11 am to 6 pm.

The new permanent addition will feature a variety of teas, coffees, cupcakes and pastries made fresh in house daily, as well as smoothies and many vegan and gluten-free snack options, like vegan hot dogs.

Patti Hudson, owner of the JP Art Market gallery, opened the snack counter in July, according to the Art Market’s website. Since then, she told the Gazette in an e-mail, the reception has been great.

“It was always the intention of the gallery to have a coffee counter, from day one. We finally got around to it,” Hudson said. “Foodie friends have been after me for years to do this final phase of the art gallery,” she said.

Hudson is aiming for an afternoon tea-time or after dinner dessert destination instead of a bread- or cake-based bakery or “early morning croissant/scone place,” like Fiore’s, Canto 6 or Blue Frog, she said, singing their praises in those areas.

The expected coffee selection will be especially varied due to the Cup-At-A-Time system Hudson is importing from the west coast- a stand that can brew up to four different single-serving cups at a time.

“Most coffee places are restricted in which kind of coffee bean they can sell you because they are beholden to whomever leases or lends them a brewer,” Hudson said. She got her own system because she wanted to offer different roasts, from San Francisco and Chicago to local roasts like Jessica’s Biscuit.

Teas will be just as varied: Hudson attended the Tea Import Expo a few years ago, she said, and she hopes to feature Native American Teas from South Dakota as well as Florapharm Tea, a Germany-based distributor.

Monumental Cupcakes also hopes to have a top-notch smoothie machine and a carrot juice machine.

Hudson has a professional background as a pastry chef and in food service that stretches back to the early 1980s.

“You’ll find many pastry chefs have artist backgrounds,” Hudson said. “Sculptors in particular seem to gravitate towards dessert making,” she said.

JP Art Market is a community art gallery and Hudson’s working studio.

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