Our story . . .

     We originally opened in Greensboro in August of 1985 as an independently-owned franchise of I Can’t Believe It’s Yogurt. For the first 16 years, we primarily sold frozen yogurt (and a little ice cream, coffee, and home décor). We had a loyal customer base who seemed to particularly enjoy the “environment” of the shop. As an avid home décor person, I enjoyed making the shop feel as much like a cozy home as possible ... both for staff and customers! Each time we remodeled, we would hear customers say, “This is not a normal yogurt shop!” Further, no one could remember our name (which was too long, and very similar to another yogurt chain!) ... so we decided to give our name a makeover, too!

The story of our name comes from our dogs. My husband, Lewis, gave me a pug puppy named Max as a wedding present in 1986. Shortly thereafter, we got Max a playmate (another pug named Bitterman) to keep him company since we were both frequently at the shops! In 2011 we were privileged to briefly welcome a precious girl pug named Maxine into our family. Though we lost her too soon, you will see many happy pictures of her on our website and in the shop. We now have the honor and pleasure of living with our first “grumble” of pugs … Henrie Baker, Ping, and Stella! Our shop name is a lasting tribute to the amazing role that animals play in our lives. We’ll never forget them and we hope their story will help you remember us!

    Our venture into baking began very innocently ... an accident, really. It was just my personal quest for the perfect chocolate cake.  I was expecting my son, Jaxon, and I was craving chocolate cake. Not just any kind of chocolate cake ... but the kind I remembered eating on Sundays when our extended family would gather for a meal. I tested recipe after recipe (my Mother was a cookbook collector, fortunately!) and decided that Devil’s Food Cake with chocolate icing was my favorite—the kind of cake I like to sit down and enjoy with an ice-cold glass of milk. After that first cake made its way into the yogurt shops, customers began asking if we would make other kinds of cakes ... and so we did! Later on came wedding cakes, birthday cakes, and more! It took us about 15 years to finally get around to making pies. It’s been very satisfying to add those onto our menu because they are truly made the old-fashioned way with hand-rolled butter crust and freshly-made scratch fillings. No artificial ingredients or preservatives are in anything that we make. Just pure goodness!

    The most special part of Maxie B’s is our team of wonderful family both in the kitchen and in the dessert café. The team we have assembled works countless hours each week to orchestrate the “dance” that happens here each and every day. We all have a lot of Maxie B’s memories and stories to tell! We love to interact with our regular customers as well as the treat of introducing a first-time visitor to our bakery. If you have ordered a custom cake from us, the chances are good that we will remember it! Whether it was for a child’s birthday, parent’s anniversary, graduation or a wedding, we often recall much about the creation of the cake, even down to the experience of delivering and setting up at weddings as well! Our staff takes such pride in what they do each day! Whether they are baking and icing cakes, making pies, icings and fillings, or slicing cakes for cafe customers ... no detail is overlooked. We enjoy taking care of business in every way as a team at Maxie B’s! Add in our fantastic customers and it is truly a great place to be! We love to hear the stories that customers share from their experiences in our shop. Some have even been known to treat the folks in line behind them ... Southern grace at its finest!

  The experience of serving old-fashioned cakes (and now pies!) to folks has led us to realize what an emotional connection that we all have with food ... especially cake! Our bakery is devoted to honoring the time-tested recipes of our Southern heritage and celebrating fond, family memories. Thank you for all of your support over the years.

 OUR COMPANY ETHICS: We place the highest priority on a daily basis of making the best choices for our planet, customers, and staff. To that end, we carefully choose pure, fresh, local, and many, many organic ingredients. We select “green” packaging that is often made from corn, rather than plastic, and is made here in the USA. We use safe, non-toxic cleaning products. We are avid recyclers and we compost our paper, food and floral waste rather than putting it in the landfill. We support a long list of conservation nonprofits which can be found here on our website. Doing things the right way is the only way we know how!

stay tuned as our story continues ...

Meet the grumble!

Stella, Henrie Baker, and Ping