Twice as Sweet

A familiar face just took over the Southern Pines location of C.Cups Cupcakery. Lauren Bonner and her husband, Brandon, have been running the Pinehurst location for three years and now they are officially taking over the flagship location on Broad Street, too. Founder Janell Canino says, “It’s bittersweet but it’s in great hands. They’ve really grown in the Pinehurst community and I’m excited to see them do the same in Southern Pines.” Janell founded C.Cups in 2011 before opening a second location in Pinehurst in 2019.

You may not know that Janell has already been living in Montana for the last five years, bouncing back and forth. But now that Lauren is running the Southern Pines shop, she can focus more on other franchise opportunities for C.Cups. Right now, the brand has three brick and mortars and a mobile operation that will soon be in Alabama. But Janell is always getting requests for more locations.

Lauren says going from one to two locations was easier than she expected, thanks to her team. “They’re more like family. The customers too, you start building relationships with them and feel like you’re working for something that’s really worth it.” 

Lauren doesn’t plan to make any major changes, but she has sweetened the shop by adding chocolate chip cookies to both locations, plus an espresso machine for specialty coffees to Southern Pines. C. Cups also now has online ordering, which Lauren says can be convenient during their busy season (which is basically all of autumn). Hours are:

• C.Cups Southern Pines is open 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday.
• C.Cups Pinehurst is open 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday.