“Well, I have loved to bake since I was a child,” Hoffmaster said. “My grandmother and my mother were both excellent bakers. I had a couple of ladies on the street where I lived - well, of course, then, little kids, we ran the streets, ran the neighborhood - And they were excellent bakers, had fresh fruit trees and all this stuff in their yard, and we were in the kitchen all the time, under their feet most of the time. I just gathered a love of it from there.
“We had a lot of good times in the kitchen with my mom, my sisters, my grandmother,” she reminisced.
So when she had the chance to get a shop downtown to share her baked goods with everyone, she raised the dough she needed to provide Fairmont with tasty homemade desserts, seasonal lunches, and bread, made fresh daily. “The first time that we had the rice pudding, someone came in and said, 'Is that real rice pudding?' And I said, 'Yes.' Because that's what people are looking for,” she noted. “Comfort food, things that make people feel better.”
Hoffmaster opened Noteworthy Sweets last July, and makes desserts like chocolate bombs, scones, and a variety of “mini” pies and cakes.
She makes sure everything in her delicacies are chemical free - and made from fresh ingredients.
“Toward the summertime, we have our own peaches, so we have peaches, pears, apricots, apples, and gooseberries,” she said of her seasonal menu items. “Then I have a friend who has a blueberry farm. So we try as much as we can to get things as fresh as possible because it makes quality product.”
The pies you see in the display case are all mini versions of the same mouthwatering favorites, which are all available in full pie sizes.
Hoffmaster says this try-a-taste, order-a-whole-pie approach is much more economical in a time when food prices are going up.
“When we first opened, we were making whole desserts and cutting them into individual pieces, and I think the pieces were more of a commitment than people were willing to make, price-wise and size-wise,” she noticed. “So, we decided that we'd make individual desserts, which not only cuts down on price, it gives us the availability of a different variety of desserts.
“Berries, dairy, right now, it's all going way up, so you kinda hafta go with the flow,” she laughed.
There's a chalkboard outside Noteworthy sweets noting what's in store for the day, but you won't find a menu inside this restaurant.
Hoffmaster has taken a 21st century approach to the idea of a menu by posting the week's specials on Facebook.
“Just to keep in contact with people and let them know what's going on,” she reasoned. “It gives us the availability to be able to keep things new and fresh every day and still publicize.”
Click on the video to watch more on Noteworthy Sweets. You can visit their Facebook page by clicking on the link below.
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