A shout comes from the front of the line at Dot & Pearl’s Bakery inside The Market in High Point: “First-timer at the market!” Co-owner Amie Richards and her staff cheer. A man with a polka dot apron and a big smile — David Richards, Amie’s brother-in-law — emerges from the kitchen with a warm cookie to welcome the newcomer. Although he made the cookie, the recipes used for nearly everything in the bakery were passed down to Amie and her sister, Christy Richards — a baker at the shop — by their grandmother Dot and great-grandmother Pearl.

From left: David and Christy Richards, Amie Richards and her son, Ty. photograph by Maria West Photography

Pearl was a homemaker on her farm in High Point during the 1950s and ’60s. She collected recipes from neighbors and members of her church, and eventually amassed a cookbook of sweets. In 2015, when Amie first opened the bakery at Vintage Thrift and Antiques in the historic Sherrod House down the street, she didn’t change the recipes — and hasn’t since. Customers come from around the Piedmont and even South Carolina for cookies, pies, muffins, and especially scratch-made cake. “Everything’s [made] like how you would do it at home,” Amie says. “We’ll run out of cake before we change the way we make ’em.”

It’s hard to imagine the shop running out, though. Thirty or so cake stands, each holding a different flavor, stretch across a white counter. Why so many flavors? For those who make the drive — whether it be two minutes or two hours — for one of Dot’s or Pearl’s cakes, Amie wants every one to leave with a slice of their favorite.

Dot & Pearl’s Coffee and Bakery
141 West Lexington Avenue
High Point, NC 27262
(336) 781-3083
facebook.com/dotandpearlscoffeeandpastries