LEWISBURG, W.Va. (AP) - Amy Mills says she wasn’t sure just what she wanted to do with her life 30 years ago as a student at what was then Hinton High School.
Long-term plans aren’t always easy for teenagers, after all.
She did know what she enjoyed though.
“I cooked when I was a teenager,” she recalls of a job at Pipestem State Park, “and my mother and my grandmother always cooked and were very crafty, so I loved to paint and do things like that.”
Mills says it was those influences that came into play when it was time to decide her future.
“It was either cooking school or interior design,” she says. “It got down to the wire and I picked cooking school and I’m glad I did.”
Decisions have come a bit easier for Mills in the years since.
After high school, she attended Johnson & Wales University in Charleston, S.C., for a general culinary degree and quickly discovered a love of pastry.
So, after she graduated with her first degree in 1992, she received a second degree in baking and pastry one year later.
“I just kind of fell in love with it,” she says.
She had a plan, too, as she returned to West Virginia and took a job at the old Court Street Bakery in Lewisburg.
“I wanted to work at The Greenbrier,” she says. “That’s the place to go when you live close by and you have a desire to cook. That’s a lot of people’s goals. That’s the crème de la crème.”
And it wasn’t long before she was doing just that, starting as a pastry helper, working her way up to pies and cakes and finally as a cake decorator when she left after 10 years to take the job as the executive pastry chef at The Greenbrier Sporting Club.
It was in that position, she says, where she really worked on her craft.
Instead of cooking for 1,000 guests, Mills explains she cooked for crowds of 300 at the most.
“You got to refine what you learned all those years and kind of hone in on it even tighter,” she says.
But as much as she says she enjoyed that experience, she always had another plan in the back of her mind.
“They always ask you when you’re in school, ‘what’s your 10-year plan?’ she says. “Mine was to open a bakery.”
Her 10-year plan was more like a 24-year plan, but when the opportunity to own her own bakery presented itself in 2016, she took it.
“I had always talked about doing it and I never did,” she says. “And finally, I said, ‘You know what, if I’m going to do this, I might as well do it now. I’m 40-something years old and I just need to do it or quit thinking about it.”
Mills didn’t dive headfirst into her new business, Amy’s Cakes and Cones, now known as Amy’s Market. She purchased the downtown Lewisburg bakery and ice cream shop when the previous owner decided to sell.
Although she wasn’t the first owner, she quickly made it her own, and with the recent move to nearby non-profit space Montwell Commons, there’s no indication whatsoever that the business ever belonged to anyone other than Mills.
She says she decided to make the move in the spring when she heard the building, previously leased by The Local Café and Grocer, which has since moved to White Sulphur Springs, was vacant.
“We needed a bigger space,” she says. “We wanted to start making more bread and we were having to turn cake orders down because we didn’t have room. It was hard for me and my employees to function. When you’re cooking breakfast and lunch off of a campfire stovetop burner with butane because you don’t have a proper stove to cook with, it’s torture.”
That’s not the case now, as the new location is more than double the size of the previous spot.
“It’s a gorgeous building,” Mills says of the large wooden two-story building beside Hill & Holler Pizza in downtown Lewisburg. “It has an open kitchen with a nice oven in it, a stove and a griddle, a huge walk-in (refrigerator) downstairs. It’s accommodating to our growing needs.”
So big is the new location that Mills now offers an indoor farmers’ market - a requirement for anyone who leases the spot.
Mills says Covid-19 has limited some of the early offerings of the market, but since the opening in July customers have purchased items including melons, new potatoes, cantaloupes, lettuce and cabbage.
“We’re getting more and more items, but it’s been hard on the farmers,” she says of both Covid and a late spring freeze.
The market also offers West Virginia jellies, jams, honey and maple syrup.
Mills says that’s not only a convenience for customers who wish to take those products home with them, but it’s also nice for her as she can use them in her kitchen creations.
“We are able to utilize all the fresh fruits and vegetables for our café menu and we use local syrup for our waffles,” she says.
Lunch and breakfast items - homemade biscuits, salads, pimento cheese, chicken salad, farm fresh egg salad and croissants - are all popular, but Mills says pastries are the main attraction.
“Our biggest sellers are our custom cakes,” she says.
Beyond cakes, Mills and her staff serve up cupcakes in all flavors, all varieties of cookies, lemon bars and various brownies.
“We try to cover everything,” she says. “We also do some French desserts, pies, cobblers, crisps and things like that. We try to be your one-stop-shop for everything sweet.”
But because everything is made in small batches, Mills says ordering ahead for large trays of cookies and custom cakes is important.
“For the really intricate custom cakes, like the Chinese noodle boxes or the Leaning Tower of Pisa or fish jumping out of water, we ask for two weeks,” she says. “But if somebody comes in at the last minute and I’ve got an extra chocolate cake, I’ll ice it for them real quick. We try to accommodate or offer alternatives.”
Mills says she’s excited by where her life’s adventures have taken her and says she knows she made the right decision with her career path.
“With baking it’s like you’re a part of people’s celebrations,” she says. “I’m helping them get married. I’m helping them have a birthday party. It’s a customer service. I feel like I’m trying to do nice for somebody.
“Then there’s the creative aspect,” she continues. “I always like to learn and grow and try new things and new techniques. It’s just a passion that I’ve had for more than 20 years now. I’m glad I made this choice.”
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