Cake News

Sweet California bakery SusieCakes to open location in East Dallas

Their signature is their Vanilla Celebration Cake, flecked with colorful confetti-like speckles.

Photo courtesy of SusieCakes

Let the cake baking begin: SusieCakes, the home-style bakery concept from California, will open a location in the East Dallas/Lakewood area at 6441 E. Mockingbird Ln., at the northeast corner of Abrams Road, right next to Olivella Pizza.

According to a release, the bakery will open on June 11.

SusieCakes makes cakes from scratch using high-end ingredients such as European-style butter and premium chocolate.

Their signature is their Vanilla Celebration Cake, flecked with colorful confetti-like speckles, plus cupcakes and frosted layer cakes in flavors such as Southern Red Velvet, 6-Layer Chocolate, and Tropical Coconut.

Their portfolio of traditional cookies and bars includes soft, chewy snickerdoodles, brownies, seven-layer bars and whoopie pies. They also feature rotating seasonal items include fruit pies and holiday treats such as pumpkin cupcakes with maple frosting.

The first SusieCakes debuted in 2006 in Los Angeles' Brentwood neighborhood from Susan Sarich, with her partner Houston Striggow. They've since expanded to include more than 20 locations throughout California.

Their only foray outside of the Golden State has been to Texas, yay us, where they debuted with a location in Dallas' Preston Center in March 2016.

They also have a location in Fort Worth which opened in 2017 at WestBend. (They had a stand at Legacy Hall, the food hall in Plano, which has since closed.)

The company closed its retail shops during the pandemic, but began reopening stores in early spring 2021.

The bakery will go into what was previously an Ebby Halliday real estate office, a space that's being broken into more than one storefront; Ebby Halliday relocated to another spot at Hillside Village.

They also recently launched national shipping for their two best-selling cakes, the Celebration Cake and Old-Fashioned Chocolate Cake; order at susiecakes.com/national-menu/.

The bakery joins what is becoming an increasingly long list of food places at the East Dallas/Lakewood center including Olivella, Dream Cafe, Hillside Tavern, and Haystack Burgers, along with a Sprouts supermarket slated to open in the old Stein Mart space in 2022.

Striggow says they're extremely enthusiastic about the location.

"We wanted to open something in East Dallas, and we love that center - it was built in '50s, and is being upgraded, but they've kept the retro feel," he says. "There's so many young families with kids in the area, and great schools. We're in he celebration business, and that's our bedrock."

A grand opening party will take place on Saturday, June 11 from 12-3 pm, and will include children's activities such as a balloon artist, face painter, and coloring contest. A raffle for a year of cakes, a grab bag, and many samples will also be offered.

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Coffee News

Dallas' award-winning Ascension Coffee has new cafe brewing in the 'burbs

Photo courtesy of Ascension Coffee

Coffee, matcha, martini at Ascension Coffee.

Dallas-based Ascension Coffee, which just won Coffee Shop of the Year in the 2026 CultureMap Dallas Tastemaker Awards, will open its first location in Southlake.

According to a spokesperson, the shop will open in late summer or early fall at Southlake Town Square, at 100 State St., in a 4,223-square-foot space previously occupied by Corner Bakery. This will be their seventh location and their second in Tarrant County, following a shop that opened in Fort Worth at West Bend in 2020.

The Southlake café will feature Ascension’s specialty coffee program, rooted in small-batch roasting and partnerships with producers around the world. This includes their commitment to supporting women-led farms, and investing in producer relationships that prioritize livable wages and economic resilience.

It will feature a full espresso bar, seasonal coffee flights, and a lineup of rotating single-origin coffees from global producers. They roast their beans at their in-house roastery in Dallas' Design District, and sell the beans in the cafés and online.

They also offer a serious tea and beverage selection with unique offerings like iced nitro Earl Grey tea topped with salted rose cold foam, and fresh lemonade with violet syrup. Plus a full bar with wine, beer, and cocktails including three kinds of espresso martinis, which can be ordered separately or in a flight.

They serve breakfast and brunch with dishes such as migas, steak hash, pancakes, overnight oats, and pastries. Lunch options include the Latin chicken & grain bowl, Mediterranean chicken naan, and an Asian noodle bowl with chicken, soba noodles, kale, roasted peppers, cucumber, and avocado in a red pepper-miso vinaigrette.

Ascension has always served food in addition to coffee, dating back to its early days when it first debuted in Dallas' Design District in 2012. But they've stepped up the café component in recent years, both in breadth and quality. That includes partnerships with top-quality purveyors such as croissants from Fort Worth's Black Rooster Bakery, and bagels from award-winning Starship Bagel.

Ascension was originally founded by Russell Hayward, a native of Australia, a country well-known for its coffee obsessiveness. The current CEO and president is Jessica Keenan, a certified Q Arabica Coffee Grader who oversees green coffee purchases for Ascension as well as managing quality assurance.

Keenan joined Ascension in 2021, as did culinary director Jason Connelly, who oversees food and drink. He was previously executive chef at the Adolphus and before that, worked at numerous Marriott properties.

In a statement, Keenan says that their goal is "to bring a thoughtful coffee experience that complements the energy of Town Square and offers neighbors another place to gather and connect.”

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