New cake shop coming to former Hot Diggity Donuts space in Manchester

The former Hot Diggity Donuts space has found a new user. (Courtesy Mindie Ballard)

A long-dormant doughnut shop on Hull Street has been snapped up and will soon be slinging different sorts of sweets. 

Scharolina’s Custom Cakes & Confections is preparing to open in the former Hot Diggity Donuts space at 1213 Hull St. in Manchester. 

The 1,100-square-foot storefront will be the first brick-and-mortar location for Scharolyn Hall, who started Scharolina’s in 2017. 

A New York native, Hall left a career in teaching to attend culinary school, where she said she studied pastry arts. The idea of getting into the confectionery business came when she’d visit her son at college and bring desserts to his dorm. 

Scharolyn Hall

“The parents (of other students) would say, ‘Well, where’s your bakery? We really want to support you.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t have a bakery. I’m just baking,’” she said. “So my light bulb went off, like maybe I could do it as a job and make some money.”

Scharolina’s offers custom cakes starting at $150, often for special occasions like weddings and birthdays. Hall said the goal was to buck a trend she sees in which intricate, custom cakes will “look good, but taste really bad.” 

In 2018, she worked out deals with a few local malls, including Chesterfield Towne Center and Southpark Mall in Colonial Heights, to run the RVA Small Business Market, a pop-up at which she and other vendors would sell a few items per week in vacant storefronts. 

After the pandemic put an end to that, Hall said she spent some time at a commissary kitchen and working out of her house before eventually resolving to find her own spot. 

“I just made the decision, ‘I’m going to do it.’ I saved up some money and started looking for a building,” she said. 

She eventually landed at 1213 Hull St., which has been vacant since Hot Diggity Donuts closed amid the pandemic. The doughnut business and the building had been owned by businessman Michael Hild but got swept up in the legal fallout from the collapse of Hild’s former reverse mortgage business, Live Well Financial. A court order last year put the building under the control of Virginia Credit Union, and last fall it was put back out for lease. 

Cakes, pies, cookies and more will be made at the 1,100-square-foot space. (Mindie Ballard)

Hall said in addition to being the headquarters for Scharolina’s custom business, it’ll also have a retail side with cake slices, cupcakes, cookies, pies and other confections available. The plan is for it to be open seven days a week and offer savory brunch baked items on weekends. 

She said she’s also planning to have a full espresso bar, fresh lemonade and mocktails, all of which can be custom-made for guests. 

“Our niche is the customization of things. We want people to have stuff the way that they want it,” Hall said. 

She hopes to open Scharolina’s in early June. 

The location at 1213 Hull St. is the second of three VACU-controlled former Hild properties that have been leased this spring. The former Butterbean Market & Café at 1200-1206 Hull St. is being converted into Sassy’s, a brunch spot that’s a spinoff of Montana eatery The Sassy Biscuit. Despite their similar last names, Scharolyn Hall said she and Sassy’s owner Jilan Hall-Johnson aren’t related. 

The final Hild building available is also the largest: the 4,800-square-foot former Dogtown Brewing space next door to Scharolina’s at 1209 Hull St. One South Commercial’s Chris Corrada and Ann Schweitzer Riley, who brokered the Sassy’s and Scharolina’s deals, have the listing. 

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