An award-winning bakery is bringing the sweets back to Southington after closing its Factory Square location in October.
Hardcore Sweet Bakery owners Jeremy and Nicole Braddock are moving into a new location at 90B Center St. and are hoping to be open by Valentine’s Day.
Jeremy Braddock said the new store will has “better visibility” for customers that come to downtown Southington and also has the potential for a patio and some outdoor tables, an option that wasn’t available at the previous location.
“It looked awesome, so we jumped on it. It’s smaller, but I think it’s going to be really cool,” Braddock said. “It’s right where that commuter lot is. Where everyone parks and go to the bars and restaurants. It’s where the Southington Apple Harvest Festival is, it’s going to be a home run for us. We can also have cupcake trucks there as well at night. It will be cool.”
Braddock said he was excited about being close to The Fireplace and Anthony Jacks on Center Street.
“We are going to be out in more people’s faces and have coffee,” Braddock said. “We didn’t have coffee services at Factory Square because of our neighbor’s Perkatory right there. We didn’t add other things because we were competing with other businesses. I will be able add more hot drinks and more of an outdoor vibe with a patio. It will be nice to enjoy out there with some picnic tables. It’s smaller, almost like a cupcake cave.”
The Braddocks plan to employ about 10 people, with much of the staff who worked at the Factory Square bakery returning to work at the new location.
A pistachio chocolate chip cupcake at Hardcore Sweet Bakery. (Courtesy of Hardcore Sweet Bakery)
“We will have our custom cupcakes. Stuffed cookies are really big right now. We’ve been doing a lot of different brownie bars and different types of cookies that are really popular right now. We do a lot of cinnamon rolls with rolls like red velvet glazed rolls as well as apple, pumpkin, gingerbread and white chocolate gingerbread,” Braddock said.
Southington will be Hardcore Sweet’s second retail location. The business’ other location is at 619 Main St. in Watertown and its headquarters are located at 76 Westbury Park Road in Watertown. The company’s two food trucks and wholesale partners are serviced from the headquarters.
The Braddock’s culinary journey began in 2012 with humble beginnings. The Braddocks, along with another couple, launched Hardcore Sweet Bakery at the Main Street Market in Torrington. The two couples collected a temporary food permit and made cupcakes in their kitchens.
“That was our first appearance, and it was a big hit,” Braddock said. “Our tent was so popular, it was too busy for the other couple. They knew it was going to get out of control. Nicole took it over. Then we partnered with a coffee house in Waterbury.”
The red velvet Oreo cookie at Hardcore Sweet Bakery. The Southington location will include custom cupcakes, stuffed cookies, brownie bars and cinnamon rolls. (Courtesy of Hardcore Sweet Bakery)
According to Braddock, they didn’t even know the couple who owned the coffee house.
“They just thought it was a cool idea,” he said. “We had said we want to do a cupcake truck. We want to bake cupcakes. We have no money and they were like ‘This is a brilliant idea. Let’s partner up. Here’s $20,000. Go buy your cupcake truck. We’ll be partners. You can bake out of our kitchen.’ We just thought, ‘Did that just happen?’ That’s how the doors opened for our bakery.”
Braddock said the couple who owned the coffee house bought an old ice cream truck, ripped out the freezer and put in some baking racks. The Braddocks the attended farmers markets and food truck festivals in 2013 to sell the cupcakes.
“The business exploded.” Braddock said. “Then we went on ‘Cupcake Wars‘ on the Food Network and won. That’s one of the reasons we started in this business. I hated my job, and we were watching ‘Cupcake Wars’ and ‘Diners, Drive-ins and Dives’ and all of those shows. Within a few months, we had a business, a cupcake truck with new partners that we didn’t even know, and they we were about to fly out to L.A. to go on ‘Cupcake Wars.’”
Before the ‘Cupcake Wars’ episodes aired, the Braddocks bought out their partners and moved into a storefront in their hometown of Watertown at 619 Main St. The couple has also been featured on Netflix’s “Sugar Rush” among other shows.
Jeremy Braddock, co-owner of Hardcore Sweet Bakery, said they are still involved in the food truck circuit and a lot of backyard parties as well as wholesale partnerships to provide sweets to restaurants around Connecticut. (Courtesy of Hardcore Sweet Bakery)
Hardcore Sweet trucks are seen at mobile events throughout Connecticut as well as in New York and Massachusetts. They also have wholesale partnerships to provide sweets for Maggie McFly’s locations in Connecticut as well as Viron Rondo in Cheshire, as well as accounts with J. Rego’s Gathering Place in Ellington, Old Wethersfield Country Store in Wethersfield and various stores and markets in and around Watertown.
The couple also owns Bubba’s Biscuit Bar in Hudson, New York, which recently opened this past October. He said a Hardcore Sweet Bakery will “probably end up there soon as well.”
“The restaurant evolved out of Hardcore Sweet where we started baking everything out of biscuit. Hudson can expect a Hardcore Sweet location there soon. It’s a very big wedding destination spot,” Braddock said. “Weddings, parties and catering is a good 30 percent of our business. On the food truck side, it’s big in the spring, summer and fall. We do a lot of weddings, bachelorette parties and baby showers. When people want custom cupcakes or cakes. We are the ones that do that that not too many people do.”
Braddock noted that he and his wife complement each other while playing very different roles in the bakery. “We are like yin and yang, he said. “She is the one on the computer doing all the marketing, promoting, the emails, the constant contact with people. I’m the artist. I’m going out there and driving the trucks delivering the wedding cakes. I’m the cake decorator. I do all the custom work and all the art, so we make a good balance.
“It’s just been a wild cupcake ride that has not slowed down,” Braddock added. “It’s been 15 years. We are still going. We do tons of weddings and custom cakes. We are still involved in the food truck circuit and a lot of backyard parties.”