Customers Arrive At 6:00am

By Marla Ballard

Reporter

SCOTTSBORO, ALA – For 18 years Sherrell Frederick has been getting to work at

midnight to prepare for opening her shop at 6:00 a.m. Frederick owns Variety

Bake Shop on “the square” in downtown Scottsboro.

The bake shop has been in the same location since the 1940s. When former

owner Fred Casteel passed away and Frederick found out the shop was

available, she decided to try her hand at it. “I’ve loved baking since I was

just eight years old,” said Frederick. “I had never owned my own business

prior to this, but I was determined to make it work.”

Most days the bake shop runs out of edibles by 10:00 a.m. “I put a big sign

in the window as soon a we run out of food so customers don’t have to get

out of their cars and come in to find out we’ve ran out,” said Frederick.

Frederick says her number one seller are the sausage rolls. Casteel sold

them as well, but not nearly as many as Frederick sells. “Casteel sold about

three dozen sausage rolls daily,” said Frederick. “I sell anywhere from 60

to 100 dozen per day.”

Another popular item is Frederick’s Southern Pecan Praline Cake. The cake is

a single layer with pecan glaze poured into handmade holes to create a

moistness that’s worth writing home about.

Getting to work at midnight is a must when there are 60 dozen doughnuts to

be made. Frederick has the typical glazed doughnuts, but also sells

doughnuts filled with cream cheese, white butter cream, custard, and more.

“I don’t skimp on my filling for my doughnuts,” said Frederick.

On a weekly basis Frederick and her team crank out three to four hundred

dozen cookies. During holidays that number increases to five to six hundred

dozen. Other items typical of any bakery include breakfast biscuits with

meat, coffee, pastries, candy, and cakes.

Breakfast plates are also served and the shop has a dining room. “We call it

the gathering room,” said Frederick. “We have customers who have been coming

here for breakfast all 18 years that I have been here. We know them on a

first name basis, they are just like family to us.” One customer got a plate

named after him, the Jim Ed plate comes with biscuits, gravy, eggs, meat,

and tomato slices.

The business is a family operation with Frederick’s daughter, grandson,

niece, cousin, and sister-in-law all working there. Frederick’s mother also

helped before her passing in 2020.

Variety Bake Shop is located at 108 E. Peachtree St. Scottsboro. Hours;

Tuesday – Saturday 6:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Phone: 256-574-2424. Frederick

thanks her loyal customers, but is preparing to hang up her apron and retire

from her commercial endeavor, contact Redstone Family Realty if interested

in purchasing an established business and building.