Innovative Bakery Owner Pitches Faux Cakes for Photos, Real Deals for Tastes, and A New Co-op Dream for Home Bakers

The Goodie Bar is a dessert shop and, in my opinion, is another hidden gem in the Toledo area. It’s not only because this place looks adorable, or that it offers so many delectable looking cakes, bars, cobblers, cupcakes and more…

But the owner, Glory Perdue, is as sweet as sugar and as smart as a whip. She’s probably one of the most interesting people I’ve had the pleasure to speak with.

The Goodie Bar is located on S. Detroit Street I’ve passed by this place often and because it’s a dessert shop, and I know myself and how dangerous it is for me to go into a dessert shop, I’ve avoided it for the longest time. However, David had gone in there once before on his own, and he said that I should check it out. Wanting only to keep David happy and my relationship on good terms, I obliged.

Pulling up to the front of the building, I saw the scrawling letters, The Goodie Bar Dessert Shop and Boutique on top of the doors.

The front window panes were covered in the names of all the goodies that were waiting inside. The entire building was pink like bubblegum.

Walking in, I thought the shop was adorable, and it was bigger than what I had expected given the outside appearance. For you Doctor Who fans, I’m literally saying, that this shop does appear to be bigger on the inside!

It’s very feminine with pink walls and a cotton candy blue floor. There were lots of colorful items strewn about.

If anything, though, the aesthetic might have been a little too cutesy for my taste. It would probably be more appealing to a little girl with the colorful chandeliers on the ceiling, the tulle tutus on the bottoms of the chairs, and the polka-dotted table cloths that draped over various displays around the shop.

Right in front, directly across from the doors, was the dessert case, which I was very eager to check out.

I was greeted warmly by Glory, who came out promptly from bustling around in the kitchen. Her hat nestled snugly over her auburn hair.

Glory is the only employee. That means this woman does EVERYTHING.

I told her that I was a local blogger, and she didn’t hesitate to have a conversation with me.

Glory has been baking for over 20 years, but her path didn’t always lead to having her own dessert shop.

As a young girl from Vermont, she worked incredibly hard in school and was able to attend college at age 15 for Biomedical Engineering and Medicine. While studying for that, she knew she needed to become savvy in financial management and business.

She started attending classes on both of those subjects in addition to her classes for her degree. Keep in mind, she was 15! Men would look down their noses at her. Not only was she young, but she was a female, and a woman of color. I think it’s fair to say she gave those men a complex.

One day, an older gentleman in his 70s took her under his wing and taught her all the ins and outs of financial business and management.

When Glory asked him one day, “why are you willing to teach me all this”, the man answered, “I have all this knowledge and no one to pass it on to until I met you. You’re eager to learn, and I know you’re going to do great things.”

To this day, Glory pays it forward by teaching her own financial management classes to anyone seeking guidance right there in her dessert shop.

Now armed with all this knowledge, Glory strayed from biomedical engineering to pursue opening up her own business. She was the owner of a couple franchise businesses in Dayton, OH, opening a Blimpie’s Subs and a Smoothie King.

After running two successful franchise locations, Glory made her way here to Toledo and opened The Goodie Bar. Baking was her first love, and she wanted to get back to her roots.

She chose the location carefully. After all, there isn’t another specialty bakery/dessert shop on this side of town. Your options for baked goods is to go to the nearby Kroger or Walmart. So, she doesn’t have much in the way of competition.

Glory is conscious about whom a lot of her walk in clientele are. She’s in an area that’s surrounded by a VA clinic, a retirement home, and an Assisted Living Community.

Glory sells everything in her shop by the slice and makes sure she has gluten-free and sugar-free options available because so many of her walk-in customers have dietary restrictions. If you want to order a whole cake, be sure to call in advance.

Remember Glory’s strong interest in financial management? Well, she extends that to her customers as well.

The Goodie Bar is extremely budget friendly. Glory isn’t looking to milk you for every penny like many other business owners.

When a customer calls wanting a custom cake for their child’s birthday party but isn’t looking to pay a fortune, Glory guides them to a more affordable option.

This is the only dessert shop in the area that offers Faux cakes!

Her advice?

Buy a faux cake for aesthetic purposes and order a regular sheet cake from her or Costco or Sam’s.

Furthermore, she explains, if it’s just for a kid’s party, the majority of kids are just going to eat the icing and leave most of the cake go to waste. A specialty children’s cake at her shop runs about $65. A faux children’s cake will cost you just $25. A 4 tier wedding cake will cost you upwards of $650. If you buy a faux 4 tiered cake and just have 2 layers of that be real cake, it will cost around $420.

Buy the faux cake and save the difference! You’ll get some great Instagram photos while saving yourself some money. And since the faux cake lasts for several years, you can reuse it as a statement piece for holidays, anniversaries, and weddings. Think of it as a memento that saves you serious cash each time you trot it out!

When I asked her why she’s risking her profits by recommending such a cheaper option, she said that she isn’t looking to get rich off of one person. She gets plenty of orders and has many loyal customers that she isn’t hurting. If she has the opportunity to help someone, she will.

Glory is also very generous when it comes to her space. She allows local vendors to sell their works in her shop at no cost to them. When I was in there, I saw works from local crocheters, jewelry makers, shirt designers, authors and more.

All one has to do is come in and tell her about their work. If she has the space, she’ll create a display for you. She loves to support fellow local entrepreneurs.

Glory’s goal with her dessert shop is to share it... co-op style!

She thinks the local community would benefit from a co-op and wants to find a home baker to come and bake and sell his or her items. If the home baker specializes in cookies and that’s all they want to bake, they can use the industrial kitchen and bake cookies!

Glory would stop making her own cookies.

Ideally, she’d love someone who specializes in baking bread. She longs for a good artisan bread shop in the area. And what a great way to help a local baker who’s just getting started. She would train them and the business would become multifaceted. All they would have to do is share overhead costs.

Yes, I know I’ve been raving about the owner (and justifiably so) but how are the desserts??

The sugary delights peered at me through the glass and practically begged me to take all of them home. There were cakes and cupcakes with interesting flavors like Vienna Mocha, and Tropical Blitz, cheesecakes, and cobblers, pies, puddings, and parfaits’ Oh My!

I brought David home a brookie ($3.25) which is a brownie and chocolate chip cookie in one. And I settled on a small red velvet bundt cake ($3.75). The bundt cake had pure white icing that trickled down the sides and into the crevices. Every bite melted in my mouth like sugary sand.

David’s brookie was even better, with the fudgy chocolate brownie and the gooey cookie melding together in one dreamy dessert. I’m just itching for when I have another get together with my friends, so I can bring them some sweet treats from this amazing place.

If you’re looking to buy a specialty cake, you need to call 48 hours in advance. Cheesecakes require a 24-hour notice. Keep in mind this time of year is the start of a very busy holiday season, so get your orders in early.

Yes, The Goodie Bar offers delicious desserts, but what makes this shop so special and unique is Glory. She’s warm, welcoming, supportive, smart, fair, and lovely. If you’re looking for something sweet, you can find it here. Not only in just the desserts but also in Glory Perdue.