Fluff Bake Bar gets taste of sweet success

Pastry chef Rebecca Masson’s long-awaited Fluff Bake Bar is set to open on May 28 in a prime Midtown spot, a shop that puts its wares and work on display.

The pastry queen’s signature sweets will be sold from a building with two floor-to-ceiling windows facing Gray, giving passers-by a direct view into Masson’s glassed-in kitchen. Visitors will be able to see into the sugary guts of the operation as workers bake cookies, press out pie crusts, frost cakes and decorate tarts.

Inside, the space will offer sweets and savories, along with a coffee program from Katz Coffee, and wine selections curated by Houston oenophile Antonio Gianola. During the day, cakes, pies and tarts will be displayed to customers; at 6 p.m. that counter area will make way for plated desserts, cheese boards and charcuterie presentations that can be paired with wine flights.

The décor is a collaboration with Masson’s mother and business partner Dodie Wilson. Customers will see blackand-white photographs of baking implements from Ralph Smith; Willy Wonka-inspired paintings (in the bathrooms) by local graffiti artist Wiley Robertson; a hot-pink neon sign spelling “sugar”; and Masson’s framed awards and magazine features, including Food & Wine and Southern Living.

Masson has been planning this brick-andmortar store since she began her Fluff Bake Bar business out of her house in 2010 by making cakes and retro cookies such as fluffernutters and moon pies. A contestant on “Top Chef Just Desserts” in 2011, Masson soon was selling her cookies and desserts, first at Revival Market, then other accounts, including Inversion Coffee House, Siphon Coffee, Southside Espresso, Double Trouble, Fat Cat Creamery, Batanga and Max’s Wine Dive. She said she hopes to keep her wholesale business accounts “as long as I can” while Fluff Bake Bar is up and running.

Masson also intends to use her new store for special chef ’s dinners and a series of Saturday morning “bake sales” featuring noted pastry chefs. She has set her first bake sale for June 13 featuring Philip Speer, pastry chef and former director of

Gary Fountain photos culinary operations for Uchi restaurants.

Although Masson is still working on the menu, expect her to showcase the kind of desserts she’s known for: black-andwhite cookies, Hobnobs, macarons, Moonpies, carrot cake, Meyer lemon tarts, risotto zeppole, and chocolate beet cake with cream cheese ice cream.

Last summer, Masson successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign to raise $53,000 to get the bakery going.

(Fluff Bake Bar: 314 Gray; 9 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 9 a.m.-midnight Thursdays-Saturdays.)

Rebecca Masson says she’s been planning a brick-and-mortar store since beginning the business in her home in 2010.

Visitors to Fluff Bake Bar will be able to look through the windows of the store’s glassed-in kitchen as workers make and bake the treats.