Cupcake Allie coming to Lions Gate Centre

After five years of establishing her cupcake business out of her mother’s kitchen, Allison Offner is ready to open a brick-and-mortar store for her primarily delivery bakery. In fact, the corporate flight attendant for Dow Chemical Co. says she is quitting her day job in the skies to bake full-time at Cupcake Allie on Lobdell Boulevard. “I’m jumping in,” Offner says. However, Offner’s application for a parking waiver for her storefront at Lions Gate Centre hit a snag Monday night at the city-parish Planning Commission board meeting. Dennis Vidrine, president of the Goodwood Property Owners Association, complained to the board that prior to the meeting no notice for the parking waiver had been posted on the building by the Planning Commission. Vidrine requested a 30-day deferral. Offner said she was ready to open and can’t wait 30 days. The board approved the waiver on condition that Offner meets with the Goodwood Property Owners Association before opening. Phillip Hutches, who co-owns the building that Cupcake Allie will lease, says the business will be located in the former site of Bush Photography and won’t actually use but a few parking spaces in a “largely underutilized” parking lot. “Often it’s only at 30% to 35%” capacity, Hutches says. Both Offner and Hutches joked that she can introduce her cupcakes to new potential customers when she meets with the neighborhood association. Cupcake Allie will open as soon as kitchen renovations are made, Hutches says. —Adam Pearson