Pearl's Bake Shoppe

going to have to transport it ourselves. We ordered a one tier cake with one of their designs on the basic cake catalogue and a matching sheet cake, and both were beautiful and as amazingly delicious as I always remember Pearl's to be!

rs and staff. However, we are also human beings running a small business during a time where tension and upheaval run rampant. Emotions are running high. That being said, Laurie has really set an example for compassionate leadership. She's made sure since the pandemic started that our staff would have no financial struggle. She's worked tirelessly in the Shoppe, from production to human resources to simple deep cleaning. And she truly cares about making all our customers events as special as they can be. To use her words, no matter what we ARE going to "make it right". I am honored to continue to work under and support the Pearl's name under her management. I work directly with wedding clients and decorating cakes, and my team is more excited than ever to get into the 2022 season!

her berating employees IN FRONT OF OTHER EMPLOYEES AND CUSTOMERS. Personally I can't feel good about supporting a business like that. The product is good- let me make that clear. But the treatment you get,and the negativity you can feel immediatly upon entering, just isnt worth it. There are so many struggling small businesses out there-- i'd much rather support one where im treated with respect and kindness, and where i don't have to watch the staff be abused and mistreated.

they could not be delivered. When trying to pay balance had to call 6 different times and stay on hold for about 30 minutes each time. Finally had to go up to store to pay balance. They have an excellent product but customer service could be improved.

thday cake for my mom‘s birthday, well in advance. We shared the photo and asked if the bakery would be able to recreate the cake. We were assured that the bakery could easily re-create the photo attached. The cake we received was two layers shorter than expected, very poorly decorated and underbaked. In fact, when we arrived, we were asked to come back in 30 minutes because our cake wasn't done cooling. Cooling/decorating was obviously rushed because the crumb coating is completely wrong, and the decoration wasn't even close and the top layer of the cake was sliding off the bottom layer. The baker used straws (cut in half) to hold up the cake. My sister and I had to immediately get another cake for my mom on her birthday because we could not present her with this. Both the admin and the owners were unhelpful, confrontational, and evasive. Even though we pick the cake up on a Sunday and of course my mom‘s birthday was on a Sunday, they informed us that they could not get back to us until Wednesday. Obviously, that would not be acceptable, so we insisted on speaking to a manager. The first manager took our information and promised to call us in thirty minutes. He didn’t. We called back and that same manager promised to have the owner of the bakery call. The owner did not call. We had to call back again, and after being offered $10, they eventually agreed to refund the money, However they insisted that the managers were busy in the kitchen. That is obviously untrue and a tactic to avoid speaking to a customer when a business makes a mistake. All they had to do, was acknowledge the mistake, acknowledge that the cake presented in the cake requested or nothing alike, and offer to fix their mistake. Instead, we got the runaround, had to completely regroup on the day of my mothers birthday, and we will never ever be ordering from this bakery again. We would suggest no one else put themselves through the same headache.

te much better. It was a blessing that we found another vender.

n we could both be in VA (Dec '20), I stayed committed: Pearl's was still the only shop for us! I scheduled a curbside tasting order for the next time I could do the 6hr drive to VA, February 12, 2021. There was a freezing rain storm in VA that day, and the shop opened late. I called to verify they'd be open and my tasting would be ready: yep, come by at 3. Arrived at my scheduled time, waited outside 20min in the freezing rain, and was asked to come back in an hour -_- Fine. Called a few days later, still in February, excited to start my wedding cake order! Someone took down my info and a couple of very basic details and told me their wedding person would be in touch with me shortly. A week goes by and no word. I fill out the online form, crickets. Couple more days, I call again and leave a VM. One month from my initial "let's get started" call, I fill out the online form again, on March 18. NOT UNTIL MARCH 24 DO I HEAR BACK FROM PEARL'S --at all!--over a month after I started asking them to be my vendor. Was I in a state of perpetual madness from then until now? I guess cake, wedding planning, and a pandemic can have pretty f***ed up effects on the brain, because I decided to keep pursuing. All they said is "we're available for your date, we'll be in touch." April 1 (now 1.5 months out from my first contact with them), they email *some* details about my request, but don't respond to all of my questions. I'm still gonna roll with it, because I am thrilled to be hearing from them at all! April 21 (now 2 full months from my first contact), I receive my emailed contract from Pearl's! ONLY two months to create a contract for a single flavor, single tier, ~40 serving "naked style" cake. But wait, what's this? There are two fairly significant details on the contract that are wrong, that were *instantly* noticed and I *immediately* asked to be correctly... ...but that was 3 weeks ago, and with less than six months until my wedding, their failure to fix two simple details on this contract has been the straw to break the camel's back--and that's on top of a pretty heaping pile of straws. I've shot myself in the foot waiting on Pearl's to get their act together, but this doesn't have to be you. Spare yourself the trouble and go elsewhere, this place is sadly not what it used to be.

ke and we had plenty leftover to bring home. Pearls truly made our day with the beautiful cake and I would highly recommend using them for your special day!

t. Other than that it was great!

hey were easily accommodating to make some of our cupcakes gluten-free, and made sure each of those boxes were well-labeled. They even set aside a small box of cupcakes to be put in the bride and groom’s suite on our wedding night, such a wonderful touch! And of course, our guests raved about how amazing all of the cupcakes were! Thanks to Pearl’s for making our big day so sweet!

he guests raves about the cupcakes. I love that they give you a coupon to get a one-year anniversary cake so you don’t have to freeze part of your cake for a year! They were very organized and professional, and I feel like you can’t go wrong with Pearl’s!

might be hard to pull off? You wouldn't know it from working with the amazing ladies at Pearl's! They took on our requests and were great to collaborate with -- not a moment of stress or worry working with the event team and designer. We got lots of compliments on how delicious the cakes were and how amazing it looked. The tasting was very personalized and lots of fun. Thanks, Elizabeth, for hooking us up!!

und this little, but important, detail very knowledgeable and much appreciated! The cakes were delivered right in time and everything tasted amazing of course! Will definitely recommend and use Pearl’s again.

they did a tasting for us. We were so impressed that we didn't even go to another bakery. We locked them down more or less on the spot. They were accommodating and flexible regarding decorations as well, and they turned out beautifully! Our guests raved about the taste and appearance of the cupcakes, concluding that they were all great, but the apple pie cupcakes were the star of the show! Thank you Pearl's for a job well done!

the grapevine that the Charlottesville branch closed without notifying us. I called the Pearl’s in Richmond and they were kind enough to honor the contract and even deliver to our venue in Charlottesville. On top of that, the cake itself was so beautiful (see pics), exactly what we had hoped, and delicious on top of that! Thank you, Pearl’s!

the cupcakes were still delicious.

ng who we had gotten it through. We can not rave enough about how much we loved working with them through the process, and how easy they made it for us during the panning process-(especially being we lived out of town and were planning from afar.). We can't wait to get our first year anniversary cake from them next year! (And a cupcake or two the next time we are in town! ;)

was easy we were able to try numerous flavors for no charge before we booked them. 2) The process to make changes to our contract was easy. Sophia was a pleasure to work with during the planning process. 3) The price was very reasonable for the service and quality of goods that we received. 4) We also purchased a small cutting cake and the bakers made helpful suggestions as we were determining the design. 5) Pearl’s included a free “first anniversary” cutting cake as a “thank you” for booking them as a vendor. 6) The cupcakes were extremely fresh and delicious. Our guests could not stop raving about them! The cutting cake was equally as good and was decorated exactly as we had specified. Cons: 1) There’s only one. The delivery service forgot the cupcake display stands that we had rented for our wedding day. Fortunately, we caught them before they departed and they were able to rectify the issue shortly after by making a return trip back to our venue with the stands. This all occurred well before the reception, however, so ultimately this never became a big issue.

on-time day of delivery. Thanks Pearl's! We can't wait to get our 1 year anniversary cake too!