Closed: The Cupcake Ladi at Lake Anne

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by Karen Goff — August 26, 2014 at 9:30 am 1,257 31 Comments

The Cupcake Ladi bakery at Lake Anne Plaza has closed its doors.

The shop opened at 11412 Washington Plaza West in 2010, when the national cupcake trend was on the rise.

The Cupcake Ladi featured cupcakes made with organic ingredients and a portion of receipts were donated to groups that helped animals, the owner said.

No word on whether The Cupcake Ladi will continue as a bakery service without a shop or what else will go in there.

Earlier this month, New Family Naturals, a locally owned health food store and juice bar located two doors down at 11414 Washington Plaza, closed after a little more that two years in business.

john

Nnnnnnnnnoooooooooo I liked her
- Alas
  
  Not enough to buy her stuff and keep her in business, apparently.
  - Kali
    
    She has been working on a build out location in Midtown NY Guess you don’t have the scoop, too bad! It has been in the works for quite some time. Lake Anne has no traffic and is a dead-end location.
    - Billy Smith
      
      Kali- what a giant load of crap! Midtown my ass…she was all talk and ZERO ability!
DisqStew

Many a great shop have closed after a few years at Lake Anne Plaza. I remember the deli run by Ming with Donna inventing new sandwiches. Back in the late 80s.
- Phil Lilienthal
  
  It takes a great shop to survive on the Heron House side of the Lake Anne Plaza. Nicely designed as townhouses, the steps and space separating what are now shops from the pedestrian flow on the plaza are the difference (in my opinion) between stopping in and passing by. I look at my own actions in walking along that side of the plaza. I will always go to the Lake Anne Florist and the Thai Restaurant, but the others are a bit more removed. It’s amazing how little it takes to dissuade a customer from dropping in.
FULL TIME BOJANGLER

Nefertiti was really nice and her cupcakes were delicious. Low income housing residents and those loitering at the Plaza generally don’t buy expensive cupcakes or the natural, holistic crap that was sold in the other store. Jasmine is also still closed. The drug store and pharmacy is also on the way out. Maybe RA and the libtards at the County level should rethink the demands for low income housing in the area.
- Mike M
  
  But Bo! Low income housing residents can be herded to the polls to reward their representatives for the low income housing and other free stuff at your expense and mine. You see, our world is symbiotic. There is a reason for everything and the reason for one thing is usually related to reason for nearby things. (Psst! Last I got briefed it was “Workforce housing.”) Take a deep breath Bo! Breathe it all in. There is some serious smug self-righteousness out there. Some people are saving the world. Might as well enjoy it, cuz they might just destroy the world to save it. (I wonder who will pay for the free stuff then?)
  - FULL TIME BOJANGLER
    
    Mike, I like you. If we built market rate housing (i.e. condos for 500K plus and townhomes starting at 750K,) the shops and restaurants would thrive. But no, we need shitty housing full of poor people who don’t pay taxes or Reston fees, and do nothing but litter and loiter. Drive by and check it out. From Lake Anne school towards the plaza….full of trash. And the loitering at the newly named ‘Lake Anne Market and Deli” is disturbing. I blame libs.
    - Mike M
      
      But, but, Bo! Maybe we can get a Federal grant to pay their way! Then we’ll feel good about ourselves, won’t we? If the residents commit crimes in the area and drag it down, well, then I guess it was like their own little “uprising” to cast off the oppression they feel.
  - Alas
    
    Symbiosis means both entities get something good out of it.
    
    I get no benefit from the proximity of low-income housing. Just the opposite, in fact.
    
    The proper word for the phenomenon of people getting housing, money, and free stuff at my expense, and providing nothing in return… is parasitism.
    - Mike M
      
      I am sold!
  - Chuck Morningwood
    
    “But Bo! Low income housing residents can be herded to the polls to reward their representatives”
    That’s because the Right Wingers, apparently, aren’t smart enough to get their constituents to the polls to vote their interests.
    Isn’t it funny how that works?
    - Mike M
      
      Well, it’s a lot easier when you are promising free stuff. Let’s just say that anyone can lead a squad of cub scouts into a candy store. But that doesn’t make them a leader.
      
      But you have a valid point. The Right struggles with effective communication. It’s harder when you aren’t promising free stuff and reminding people that they can’t escape that pesky personal responsibility stuff. But, you have a valid point and I have made the same observation.
- Billy Smith
  
  It’s very funny that someone who uses the image you do as your meme would think that the cup cake lady was “nice.” The women was a wack job with 2 inch long acrylic nails that I’m sure were transmitting feces and whatever else that got in them to her products. You couldn’t have paid me to eat anything she prepared.
Mike M

I might open a shop at Lake Anne. I’ll offer lessons in Economics 101 for a very reasonable price. The training aids are all around there. Short field trips.
Mike M

Somewhere out there are a mass of investment banker “geniuses” who were so pleased with every opportunity to give someone a loan for the next frozen yogurt shop, or the next cupcake store, or the next burger joint. After all, everybody was doing it! Pure market economics guaranteed some would fail sooner rather than later. The life cycle of fads pretty much ensures that almost all of them will lose in the next two or three years.
RestonDem

Democrats don’t herd low income people to the polls. They are not that organized.
- Mike M
  
  Actually, they do. They bus them in from churches in many districts.
  - RestonDem
    
    I’ve worked in Democratic politics and in politics in general for 20 years. Democrat organization, in general, is minimal compared to the machines that Republicans have engineered to bring out the base. I know there is this theory that lower income people get rounded up to the polls to vote for Democrats, but it is really not true. These folks are usually either apathetic and don’t vote or they are working the kinds of jobs that you can’t take off from in order to go and vote. If these people did vote, Democrats would win far more elections. Republicans spend much more time and money herding people to the polls, yet I don’t ever hear people complain about that. What’s good for one party is good for the other.
    - Mike M
      
      But you have worked for Dems. So what do you really know of Republican tactics? And what else would you possibly say? So, when did you ever hear of Republicans herding people to the polls. I know the Dems do it regularly in places like Chicago, Florida, and Philadelphia. It gets reported every election. It is done precisely because of the apathy. (I vote at six thirty, so spare me the routine sob story, Dem. I have never heard of Republicans doing that.
      
      I’m not a Republican, but it’s plain to me that the Democratic value proposition is that the gubmint will provide free stuff. It’s fundamental going back to the New Deal. It’s also unsustainable.
RestonDem

I think we need a real honest debate about housing in Reston and surrounding areas. In reality, we should be a society that can provide a safety net for our people and encourage and enable them to move up and off of that safety net. And we also need people who will work in the shops and stores for minimum or near minimum wage – and they need to live somewhere on those wages at a distance that is not an insurmountable commute. But I cannot disagree that I feel personally threatened in some places in Reston, especially at night (like the Hunters Woods shopping plaza near the 24 hour Rite Aid that sells beer) or the stretch of Glade between Reston Parkway and Sunrise Valley. And other places, like Lake Anne and the Southlakes center are somewhere on the spectrum of depressing to unsavory – and I therefore do not go there and do not spend money there to keep shops open. I grew up poor, but we were a well behaved family. I do not believe that poverty or being lower income has to be connected with loitering, littering, or crime. There need to be expectations and rules about how people behave and where activities are permitted and there should be more police and security presence to enforce those rules. And for the kids and teens, we should find other, better things for these kids to do with their time to put them on a better path than one that is loitering in shopping centers.
- Billy Smith
  
  What do your comments relate to? Clearly not the story about a nut who opened a shop selling a silly product that is now closed.
- cosmo
  
  The Hunters Woods RiteAid is not a 24-hour store, but I do agree that it is the source of at least some of the problems. However, I just recently learned from a reliable source that Hunters Woods has evicted a number of the people who have been loitering on the plaza (particularly by the Dairy Queen) and it has made a difference. They’ve also spruced up the area (new benches, landscaping, etc.) so I think they’re moving in the right direction.
- GingerR
  
  I sort of agree with you about Hunters Woods, I have felt a little on edge whenever I have gone to the Rite Aid there, but I have to wholeheartedly disagree with you about the South Lakes village center. I have shopped there nearly every day for nearly seven years, even walking to Safeway at midnight, and have never felt any uneasiness, seen any loitering at all, signs of crime, trash, etc. The rare graffiti is quickly painted over. There is only one vacant store that I know of and several well trafficked businesses – Cafe Sano, Flippin Pizza, Chipotle, Starbucks, etc. The parking lot is nearly always full and I feel lucky to live within walking distance. The Safeway is always busy and well stocked, even during snowstorms. There is nothing depressing or unsavory about the South Lakes village center. But, getting back to the article, overall, honestly I don’t feel like businesses such as the Cupcake Ladi’s really stand a chance in Reston – the tastes here seem to gravitate towards bland, chain store retail. Even the town center is chock full of big name brand stores you can find nearly everywhere else in the USA. This area is just not full of enough customers to support boutiquish, quirky businesses other than once a week at the farmers’ market.
RoadApples

The current site of the Reston National Golf Course is the perfect location to develop much needed low-income housing and accompanying services and facilities here in Fairfax County.
If planned and implemented correctly; this location can become a prime example as an exemplary low-income community; much as Reston became the prime example as a planned Community 50 years and counting.
This exciting opportunity needs our immediate support.
Erin

There’s a lot of righteousness here on this thread. Not sure I want to wade into the hyper-partisan fray, but one point I do want to make: those people that keep the economy moving – shopkeepers, service industry employees, teachers – the people who stock your grocery store shelves and provide daycare for your children, need a place to live too. I don’t know if you’ve looked around recently, but there aren’t many places for them to live in Fairfax County, given the “luxury” condo, townhome, and “villa” trend. “Affordable housing” doesn’t always equate to trashy people and loitering, and I’d make a wager that those hardworking people I just mentioned would appreciate a safe place to live same as you. Smart development can accommodate both IF it’s a priority for our leaders and us, the voters.
Kate Peterson

Ummm I don’t think this has anything to do with housing, low income or otherwise– they were $6 dollar cupcakes sold by a narcissistic crazy lady who was only there a few hours a week. I don’t care what you’re selling if you’re a retail operation, especially a “mom & pop” you have to be there full time. Oh, yeah and it helps to not scream profanities at your customers and throw stuff when things don’t go your way.
Pat

It is a shame about Lake Anne. It seems like the perfect spot to open up a dream small business…a funky little dress shop, hipster up the coffee house, breathe some new life into it. But the rent is too high for a small retail business, and there isn’t enough foot traffic six days a week to sustain anything. On any non-Saturday, the people milling about are not the type to patronize a pricy or hip little shop. Only a chain could afford to open up there, but there are so many better locations for a chain to go, with much less crime. The whole area just seems doomed, and it’s really unfortunate. I’d open a store there myself if I could find a way to make it sustainable and/or not get robbed on a regular basis.
Cathie Gorman Freeman

I’m joining this discussion late but I have to add my two cents. I don’t even recognize the neighborhoods you folks are talking about. I’m 71 years old and live near South Lakes Shopping Center. I have no qualms about going to the center as long as the store is open, if I’m awake. But usually I go earlier, say 10:00. Also I go to Hunter’s Woods without feeling unsafe. As long as the pet store is open.
Natasha

Good. She was awful and ran me and my family out of the shop. The whole place was disgusting and cramped. She had terrible, wanna-be shabby chic decor and ugly, Lisa Frank-esque paintings on the walls. I only hope she never opens another shop in this area, this country, again.

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