There’s everything from the chicken salad sandwich that’s gone viral to a divine carrot cake at Annie Mae’s Bakeshop at 185 St. Phillip Street. Since husband-and-wife duo Jason and Annie Vieira opened the bakery in March, its biscuits, pies, cake by the slice, extensive coffee menu and hand-blended tea continue to attract legions of fans.
The Vieiras have indisputable cooking chops. Jason, the son of Portuguese immigrants, grew up in Massachusetts where his parents ran a small café that served breakfast and lunch. He eventually made his way to the Culinary Institute of America before moving to New York City. Annie, a Louisiana native, grew up baking. Both worked in top restaurants in the Big Apple.
Following a quick stint in New England, the couple moved to Charleston in 2020 and dove right into the culinary scene. Jason worked with Basic Projects at the group’s restaurants Basic Kitchen, Sullivan’s Fish Camp and Post House. According to a 2023 Eater Carolinas piece, the “company wanted to hire him as a corporate pastry chef for all its properties but didn’t have a proper commercial kitchen to service all the establishments — Jason suggested that he set one up, and they could contract with him to make desserts, custom lobster rolls and other baked goods for the menus. It was such a successful partnership that other restaurants started asking for Jason’s items. Spots like Husk and Tippling House use his buns for their burgers.”
Meanwhile, Annie was working as the general manager at The Obstinate Daughter while also doing the administrative side of the burgeoning baking business.
“One reason we’re in business is because we deeply value serving our Charleston community,” Annie said. “Over the past few years, we’ve worked to build successful business relationships and even friendships with Charleston chefs. Opening a brick-and-mortar bakeshop allows us to serve the broader Charleston community and provide a physical space for our community to enjoy and congregate.”
The bakeshop’s offerings
The rotating menu serves the classics with an Annie Mae’s twist. Some of the biscuits offerings are country ham with fig-Dijon butter, a maple sausage, egg and cheese and a blueberry sausage. You can get key lime, banana caramel and sweet potato praline pie by the slice. Cakes by the slice might include coconut cream, cherry matcha red velvet, strawberry lemon almond and coconut passion fruit cake. Caramel shows up in the carrot cake in two ways: as a spiced caramel cream cheese mousse inside of the cake and as a caramel glaze on top.
Cookies like spiced pear chocolate chai and almond lemon-lime thumbprint are found alongside pastries like almond coffee cake, a cinnamon raisin sticky bun and a cornbread bacon muffin.
Tea is also an integral part of the menu. Rotating sweet tea flavors are blueberry Earl Grey, strawberry matcha, coconut chai and Earl Grey milk chocolate, and hot flavors are pecan breakfast, vanilla-coconut-chai and peppermint-lavender-chamomile, to name a few.
“Tea is such a Southern staple,” Jason said. “We wanted to provide our guests with thoughtful loose-leaf blends that we source and hand-blend right here in Charleston.”
The team uses the hand-blended teas in sweet tea cakes like chocolate Earl Grey, coconut vanilla chai and strawberry matcha. As of now, the sweet tea cakes are only available whole as a special order. There are also plans to offer tea tins for sale in the shop.
But tea isn’t the only beverage found at Annie Mae’s Bakeshop. The extensive coffee program offers drinks like cherry almond mocha, pistachio cream latte and iced espresso with coconut cold foam.
“Our best-selling lattes are the vanilla date and the banana toffee,” Jason said. “All of our caramels, syrups and cold foams are made in-house by our pastry team. When we developed our latte program, we wanted to create well-balanced, pastry-driven flavors that mirrored our baked goods.”
The wholesale business has grown since the retail location opened and the bakery now sells milk bread — in the form of buns, lobster rolls, Pullman loaves and dinner rolls — to Lewis BBQ, 167 Raw, Husk and about 30 other restaurants around town.
Looking ahead
In the coming months, Annie Mae’s Bakeshop will open at night as an espresso martini dessert bar featuring wine, beer and low-ABV dessert-inspired cocktails. Currently in recipe testing, the couple noted the tiramisu espresso martini is a favorite thanks to a balanced level of sweetness paired with dark cocoa and creamy mascarpone.
Also, look for more sandwiches in the future as there are plans to serve egg salad, egg salad with smoked salmon, shrimp salad and country ham on the milk bread they bake daily.
“We always said there is nothing more Southern than a tea sandwich, slice of pie and iced tea for lunch,” Annie shared.
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