Sweet spot
Lloyd brings `Sex and the City's' Magnolia Bakery to Hub
An episode of HBO's “Sex and the City” first made Magnolia Bakery famous. But it's chief baking officer Bobbie Lloyd, not Carrie Bradshaw, who is responsible for the still-growing sweet success of a now international bakery brand.
And Magnolia's justopened Boston location at Faneuil Hall is a special one for Lloyd, marking a fullcircle moment for a baker who began her career here in the Hub.
“There's a peacefulness to cooking, and a mystery to baking: You don't really know how it will work out until you're done,” said Lloyd, a Chicago native whose love for food goes back to her first cooking class at a YWCA as an 8-year-old. Growing up, she pored over issues of Gourmet magazine and spent time helping her mom in the kitchen — even if, back in those days, “most things came out of a box.”
She didn't work up the courage to pursue a culinary career until her college years, when she moved to Boston “on a dime” for a rare opening at renowned French chef Madeleine Kamman's Modern Gourmet cooking school in Newton. But the early '80s were not inviting to women in culinary career paths, she says. Eventually she scored a prep cook gig at Boston's then-new Milk Street Cafe, passed through a number of popular area eateries and eventually opened as co-owner American Accent restaurant in Brookline, serving seasonal, fromscratch dishes — and, from the spot's small retail bakery, an array of treats that foreshadowed her finesse with exceptional but unfussy classic American baked goods, from muffins to sticky buns.
It was the gourmet cupcake craze, however, that catapulted the reputation of Magnolia's original West Village location, which was actually founded by high
school friends Jennifer Appel and Allysa Torey in 1996. After it was featured in a 2000 episode of “Sex and the City,” the spot went from cult sensation to a frosting-filled mecca for tour buses filled with fans. Lines of Manolos would stretch out the door as they waited to try the same bite-sized treats shared by the characters
Carrie and Miranda.
Ironically, actress Cynthia Nixon, who played Miranda, is a real-life friend of Lloyd, who became part of the Magnolia team in 2007, after restaurateur Steve Abrams purchased the bakery turned bona fide tourist attraction.
And though it's been nearly 20 years since its star-making episode aired, Lloyd says it has taken a long time for Magnolia to move beyond its original HBO programming-related associations.
“The thing I love most about visiting the original store is that it felt like the United Nations,” Lloyd said. “You see people taking pictures of themselves out front, talking in a million different languages. And then you'll hear in English, `Sex and the City'!”
Of course, the show's popularity can cause a bit of typecasting, too.
“Sometimes we still have to fight the idea that we're strictly a cupcake shop,” Lloyd said.
Visitors to the new Boston location will quickly understand otherwise. Its glass cases are stocked with Magnolia staples — including the signature “icebox cake” of sweet cream-layered chocolate wafers — and Boston exclusives, like a decadent Boston Cream Pie Banana Pudding and an upcoming item that will “nod” to the nearby North End, says Lloyd. (We're placing bets on a cannoli.) The shop offers personalized catering orders and will debut delivery service in a few weeks, she says. Meanwhile Magnolia continues to expand. There are now more than two dozen locations internationally, with up to 10 additional spots slated to open within the next 12 months, according to Lloyd. And wherever it goes, fans will follow.
Lloyd recalls the ribboncutting of Magnolia's first international location inside a new Bloomingdale's in Dubai. The small bakery managed to upstage its host department store at the grand opening.
“The first woman to walk through screamed, `It's Magnolia's Bakery!'” she said.
“The Bloomingdale's CEO looked at me and said, `OK, I get it now.'”
Ever wonder what kind of cupcake would best match each of the “Sex and the City” ladies? Head to our Fork Lift food blog to see what treats Bobbie Lloyd picked for Carrie, Charlotte, Miranda and Samantha.