The last day Dolce Darlin’ Bakery opened at the Pink House on 404 Telfair St. was Saturday, May 12.
Stock sold out quickly the two previous days, and as soon as customers arrived when the shop opened at 9 a.m., Saturday was well on its way.
MORE: How much is an Augusta Commission seat worth?
Cat Musgrove and her family announced April 28 that they would be selling the Pink House, closing the doors of the bakery in May and completing orders ending in June.
She assures her regulars, many from her Olde Town neighborhood, this will not be the end of Dolce Darlin’ Bakery.
“We were Dolce Darlin’ long before the Pink House,” she said.
The business started as a Grovetown home bakery in 2013 selling cupcakes alongside other sweets, such as macarons and cake pops.
The unmistakable house at the corner of Fourth and Telfair streets downtown proved Musgrove’s means to rebuild after a family trauma pressed her and her children to start over in 2019. With what she had left of her savings and community support, she managed to buy the home, then spent weeks refurbishing it, to reopen as a brick-and-mortar shop in 2021.
“They showed up in droves,” she said. “We had literally hundreds of people. I would venture to say most of them people I didn’t even know. They had just followed our story, or had been following our page for a long time.”
The Pink House has served as the bake shop, the family home and a kind of community hub. Musgrove refers to her customers—who know to her as “Ms. Darlin’”—as “guests.” Several people jumped out of the long line in front of the counter to offer letters, farewell (or rather, “see you later,” Musgrove notes) cards and hugs.
“I’m going to miss, more than anything, watching people kind of go through their next stages,” she said. “For some of these people, I did their graduation cake for high school. And then a few years later, I did their bridal shower, and then I made their wedding cake and now I’m starting to make their baby shower and first birthday cakes. And so I feel like I’m part of their family.”
While Musgrove acknowledged in the Facebook announcement that her decision to sell the house is partly due to issues with her health, she also notes a host of other reasons, including the graduation of her daughter Danee from college, and her son Dylin, a firefighter, leaving the nest, and her partner, Patrick Winter, working in Hawaii for the next couple of years.
But the beloved bakery will continue in other forms, she said, including online. While Musgrove works on her recovery, the sweet treat eatery will continue to take orders and ship boxes of baked goods with Danee at the helm. Those who want to stay linked while she’s recovering in Hawaii will be able to write to a post office box, receiving letters, postcards and stickers in return—a plan she calls “Dear Miss Darlin’.”
The shop will also offer free cooking classes, and Musgrove also notes that she has a new cookbook in the works.
“We are keeping everything really open for whatever God has planned for us,” she said. “We’re still going to be on social media. We’re still going to see our friends and family. There is a future for Dulce Darlin. It’s not going anywhere.”
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
