TACOMA, Wash. — Even on the greyest days of the year, you can still find a slice of sunshine on Tacoma's Sixth Avenue.
"We kind of joke when it's raining that it's Cat and Rabbitt weather," laughed Julia Brown who teamed up with Terryn Abbitt to sell slices of cake from a walk-up window.
Brown explains the name of their cake shop like this: "My middle name is Catherine with a C so I'm the cat and Terryn's last name is Abbitt with two T's so she is the rabbit."
When COVID-19 hit and restaurants closed, Brown and Abbitt found themselves out of work.
"Tarryn kind of jokingly, I thought, said we should start a cake shop and I said, 'Ok,'" Brown laughed.
"But I was serious," Abbitt laughed.
"She was serious."
"I was very serious."
"Yes and now here we are."
"Here we are!"
Side by side, they make as many as 20 cakes a day. And at least that many times a day, they make each other laugh.
"Julia always says you can't be grumpy if you're talking about sprinkles and cookies all day so we like to have fun, listen to music, and be silly," Abbitt said.
"They are killing it and they working so hard and they are here every day," said Abbitt's sister Tory Moser who works the walk-up window with so much joy you'd guess she'd been eating baked goods all day.
On some days customers wait in lines down the block.
A lot of customers offer up excuses for buying themselves a slice of cake but Moser says the best excuse is "just because."
Brown and Abbitt get all kinds of customer reactions.
"We love you," Abbitt said.
"Those slices are huge," Brown added.
"I need to stop coming here."
"My doctor told me to stop coming."
"I give you all my money."
"I don't come here all that often but when I do it's like a day for me," Amanda Rae said. "I'm like I'm gonna get a slice of cake!"
Who couldn't use a slice of sunshine?
"It's crazy to me," Abbitt said. "I never thought this would happen and we are just so so thankful. We talk about it all the time."
Here's the big change!
The Cat and Rabbitt Cakeshop is located at 2811 Sixth Ave. in Tacoma through Sunday April 28. Then the Tacoma location closes. On June 1st the bakers plan to open a Puyallup location. Brown and Abbit hope to find a new Tacoma location soon. See their Facebook page for updates.
KING 5's Evening celebrates the Northwest. Contact us: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Email.