Tiffany’s Bakery to celebrate 40 years with lots of bakery giveaways

Last year, Tiffany’s Bakery & Eatery owners Jim and Kay McMillan estimate that their bakery made and sold over 250,000 petit fours from the kitchen of their family-owned business at 8502 Two Notch Rd.

“The petit fours have always kind of been our claim to fame,” Kay told The State on Wednesday. “It’s just like a small, delicious sugar injection and you can’t stop at just one.”

On Thursday, Tiffany’s is expected to make and sell a record number of those little sugar injections as the bakery celebrates 40 years in business.

“We’ve already made over 1,000 and we’ll be making more today” Kay said Wednesday.

Tiffany’s began in 1977 when a young, 27-year-old Jim McMillan opened the bakery in an 1,100-square-foot space inside Columbia Mall. By 1990, Tiffany’s had far outgrown its small humble beginnings and was moved to its current 3,800-square-foot location on Two Notch Road. Now, 27 years after that move, Tiffany’s is already planning for another move just down the road to 9704 Two Notch where it will more than double its space once again when it opens there early next year. The new location will also include an expanded menu to include wings and tapas, alcohol sales including “adult milkshakes,” and double the seating of the current location with both indoor and outdoor seating for 124.

In the meantime, however, a grand celebration event is planned for Thursday, which coincidentally happens to be the first National Bakery Day, as well. All day long, Tiffany’s will be giving away bakery treats and prizes such as 12 gift certificates of a dozen petit fours each once a month for a year, 12 gift certificates for a dozen cinnamon rolls each once a month for a year, 12 gift certificates for one pound cake each once a month for a year and chances to win a free birthday and anniversary cakes and a grand prize of a 49-inch television. In addition, the McMillans will give away a $40 gift certificate 40 minutes after the hour each hour the shop is open on Thursday (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.). The bake shop will also sell those famous petit fours – now sold at $1.35 each – for only .40 cents all day.

In addition to those petit fours, Tiffany’s – a full-line bakery and deli – is known for its cakes, breads, salads and sandwiches.

“I would say probably our product consistency is our biggest customer draw,” Kay said. “We use nothing but quality ingredients – real butter, King Arthur flour, Boar’s Head meats. We do a lot of things the same way we did 40 years ago. And while we’ve of course had a lot of employees come and go in 40 years we have had the same sandwich person since 1997 and our cake decorator has been with us about 20 years.”

Local dignitaries will be among those dropping by the shop on Thursday, Kay said.

“There may be bakeries older than us but for us to still be a first-generation-owned business after 40 years is something,” Kay said, adding that son, Jamie, is now the bakery’s general manager. “We’re really proud of what we’ve done and one of our proudest moments is when people come in and tell us how excited they get when they get one of our signature white boxes with that red stretch band on it. We love to hear that.”

This story was originally published September 27, 2017 at 9:05 AM with the headline "Tiffany’s Bakery to celebrate 40 years with lots of bakery giveaways."