When Sugar Café has a birthday, everyone gets cake.

To celebrate what owner Kelly James said has been the scariest but most rewarding year of her life, Sugar Café will give a free cupcake to anyone who orders lunch there this week.

Sugar Café opened its doors on Potomac Avenue one year ago this week, and was welcomed by a waiting crowd. Those original customers decided to stick around, and James said she’s thrilled to be celebrating the restaurant’s first birthday with them.

“The regulars at Sugar Cafe have become our family and I so look forward to seeing them every day,” James said in an email Tuesday. “They have become a huge part of our lives.”

James said the first year wasn’t without a few stumbling blocks, but that the staff was able to learn from those hiccups and keep going. She’s looking forward to many more birthdays in Dormont.

“I can tell you that every bit of lost sleep was worth it and I would do it all again, exactly the way we have done it so far,” she said.

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