Penny Karas took care with names as she prepared to open Hello Cupcake in Dupont Circle in August 2008. At her shop, customers can find cupcakes like Raspberry Beret, Velvet Elvis and Prima Donna.
The fun flavors required a shop that exhibited a similar style. Karas considered playful colors and motifs when working with a designer for the interior of her new shop.
“I think there is an element of the sort of fun and frivolous, along with the slick and modern, here in the shop,” Karas said.
She left her career in public relations and marketing a year into the planning of the cupcakery.
“I had been looking for some time for something that inspired me in a different way, the way that I originally been inspired since I started that career. I’m inspired here everyday,” Karas said.
In addition to inspiration, she attributes some of Hello Cupcake's success to its location.
“Dupont seemed to be the perfect confluence of the neighborhoods where people live and neighborhoods where people work. We’re right where people are walking. And it’s really a walk-in business,” Karas said.