1 of 5
Sugar & Twine owner Beth Orcutt
2 of 5
After closing its indoor cafe four years ago and installing a walk-up window, Sugar & Twine has reopened the cafe next door at 2930 W. Cary St.
3 of 5
A large communal table inside Sugar & Twine
4 of 5
Local artist Emily Herr completed a mural showcasing birds that are either endangered or extinct.
5 of 5
Many of the framed and decorative pieces inside the cafe have personal significance for Orcutt.
After four years of operating as a walk-up and passing pastries through a tiny storefront window, Sugar & Twine is welcoming guests back inside its Carytown space. The neighborhood bakery at 2928 W. Cary St. has converted the former video game shop next door at 2930 into the new home of its bright and airy sit-down cafe.
Passing by the Carytown bake shop most mornings, chances are you’d spot a line of patrons stretching down the sidewalk, dog leashes in hand and balancing boxes of pastries. Orcutt originally opened the business in 2015 and introduced the walk-up window to her bakery in 2020; the successful pandemic pivot became a semipermanent fixture.
While the shift felt natural, over time certain elements of the bakery experience began slipping through the cracks. Although the swoosh of a bag through the window is convenient, Orcutt says both employees and customers were feeling the “drive-thru fatigue.” She also began to read reviews online with comments like, “They won’t even let you inside,” “It’s torrential downpour” or “sweltering hot.”
Orcutt, who describes herself as a people pleaser, says, “I knew we had to bring people back in.”
When neighboring storefront Bits and Pixels closed in 2022, she saw her chance. For the last two years, Orcutt has been plotting Sugar & Twine’s reintroduction and her own reinvestment in the business.
“We love the walkup window; it has been such an efficient means of communication for our team and kind of fun to create a little inside culture. It’s felt safe, but we’ve lost some of that community time, and our customers are feeling disconnected from each other,” she says.“They’re very excited to have a little hub again that isn’t on [the sidewalk of] Cary Street.”
For fans of the on-the-go lifestyle, Orcutt supports you — the walk-up window will stay.
“It is convenient, and I don’t want to lose the convenience or our dog customers and that minimal investment or commitment. We like the ability to keep it; we’re just creating a little more intention in the space,” she explains.
Designed by local branding agency Campfire & Co., the newly opened cafe is quiet, comfortable and, Orcutt says, a “little bit of a blank slate for how people want to utilize it.”
A large, communal wooden table is the centerpiece, surrounded by stools with a canopy of wispy hanging plants. Two-top tables and a long bench line one wall, while stools in the front windows offer views of Cary Street. Exposed brick and an original tin ceiling paired with warm moss-toned walls complete the picture.
“We put so much into our products, and we don’t need an elaborate space, just for them to shine,” Orcutt says. “My background is in pastry; I want to feed people as many pastries as I possibly can, so making that easier for people is definitely a goal in this next chapter and making a better system for that.”
Inside, the space is a mini scrapbook, infused with personal touches that recall moments in Orcutt’s life. A picture of Mount Hood hangs, a nod to her time spent in Oregon, along with a story about bread baking penned by her grandmother. Orcutt’s husband is a birder, and adorning one wall is a mural completed by local artist Emily Herr depicting an assortment of endangered or extinct birds, including the California condor, passenger pigeon and ivory woodpecker.
In-house drinks will be served in handmade mugs from Richmond-based East Clay Ceramics.
“My mom got really into pottery when I was younger, so we always had mugs at our house,” she says. “They’re so foundational to me.”
Offering everything from jam biscuits and hand pies to croissants, cookies and breakfast sandwiches, Sugar & Twine’s menu will be mostly the same at the cafe and the walk-up window. Danishes and cinnamon rolls, previously weekend-only items, have graduated to everyday status. Orcutt adds that, with the new space, her team will have the ability to play a bit more in terms of “sit-down desserts,” and the cafe serves beer and wine by the glass.
“We are going to try and coach customers that if you’re ordering bulk pastries for pickup, they’ll be wrapped up next door at the carryout window,” Orcutt says, adding that they are launching a new and more streamlined website.
“It kind of feels like giving back a little bit. We’re doing it because we want to, but also our customers have shown up for us in every version of weather, in the midst of a pandemic, and it’s kind of like OK, let’s take it to the next chapter for you guys so that we can check back in,” Orcutt says. “I don’t get to have nearly as many conversations with my customers as I did before, so it will be really nice to have that back.”
Sugar & Twine’s cafe is currently open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. The walk-up window is open daily from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
