At first glance, Fuquay Varina looks like any bedroom community in the Carolina piedmont. What the casual drive through, on the way to somewhere else, doesn't show you, however, are the stories behind each ordinary looking storefront.
As a child, my father and I made frequent visits to Stick Boy; coffee and scones for him and cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting for me. While the bakery was a staple of our small town in our eyes, Katie and Josh’s establishment had only graced Main Street for maybe three months before we started making our weekly/monthly pilgrimages.
Katie and Josh met at Appalachian State in the early 2000's, Katie worked at Stick Boy Boone when it first opened in 2001. Following their graduation, Katie and Josh got married and moved to Fuquay, where Josh had grown up. Katie worked retail and Josh at an engineering firm. They never thought that they'd own a small business.
Katie told me that, while they were doing fine in Fuquay, the two of them missed the family-like community that they'd found in Boone and at Stick Boy. Having remained friends with Mindy and Carson Coatney, the owners of Stick Boy Boone, Katie and Josh reached out to them with the wild idea of opening a similar place. After some discussion, the four went in on Stick Boy Fuquay as equal partners- Mindy and Carson own half and Katie and Josh own the other half. The Coatneys taught Katie about the business and Josh about the baking and with that, Stick Boy Fuquay was well on its way.
Full of laughs, their kitchen is filled with not career bakers, but reliable, enthusiastic people who they have molded into the perfect team. When I came to interview Katie and get the grand tour I was so pleasently surprised by how friendly and rambunctious everyone I talked to was- everyone wanted to greet you and try to make you laugh or get to know you.
Almost every ingredient that Stick Boy uses is sourced locally, from local roasters for coffee, to local farmers for produce. For the staples, however, Katie and Josh have turned to high quality nation wide suppliers, such as King Arthur Flour.
From past experience, I knew what Stick Boy pastries were my favorites but I wanted to know what the overall favorites were. Katie told me that her personal favorite Stick Boy specialties were lattes and different breads, and that the best sellers are sticky buns, cinnamon rolls, scones and nearly any type of bread.
The first year that Stick Boy Fuquay was open was its hardest. In December of 2007, the American econcomy was plunged into what is now known as "the great recession". Millions lost their jobs, their homes and their life savings.
Needless to say, in an area where unemployment was up to 7.9%, people weren't apt to spend their spare dollars on scones and coffee. As a brand new business, Stick Boy was struggling. Katie said to me that she remembered writing a newsletter to the bakery's email list that said something along the lines of "if you want us to stay here, we need you to come buy a coffee".
Around the end of our interview, Katie told me a story that was really moving to me, and I know it meant a lot to her, too. She told me that whenever the bakery had leftover bread or pasteries, they made a point of donating it to a few of the local elementary schools in Fuquay. She asked that the school counselors give the leftovers to children at these schools who were in need. This was just something that they'd always done and they didn't think much of it, it was just what they did with what was left instead of throwing it out.
When Katie was in the hospital, having just given birth to her older son Jonah, a nurse came into her room and asked to speak to her because she knew that Katie was one of the owners of Stick Boy. The nurse explained to Katie that she and her husband were in the midst of a harsh divorce which was hard on them financially, and it was nearly impossible for them to put food on the table. The nurse told Katie that sometimes one of the only reasons that her sons had anything to eat was because Katie'd brought bread to the school. Katie teared up at the thought of this touching moment from almost 10 years ago.
Having just hit the eleven year mark, Katie says that the outlook for Stick Boy is bright; modernizing and selling products at other local retailers is their goal for the near future. Stick Boy is truly a hub for those in Fuquay Varina- I've spent countless hours there, eating cinnamon buns and drinking coffee with my dad, my friends, or a good book.