January 4, 2019
Fried croissant shop and bakery Burney’s opens Monday in NoDa
The Charlotte location is the eighth to open
Kimberly Johnson, one of the owners of Burney’s. Kristen Wile/UP
Burney’s Sweets and More, a bakery based out of Elizabethtown, N.C., will open its first location in Charlotte on Monday on North Davidson Street. Part of a small franchise, this Burney’s will be the eighth location. Burney’s is known for its filled and fried croissants, and those croissants are what convinced owners Kimberly and Dwayne Johnson to bring the franchise to Charlotte. They own the store with Shante Vines, Dwayne’s sister.
A glazed croissant from Burney’s. Photo courtesy.
Kimberly and Dwayne were visiting Kimberly’s family in Clinton, North Carolina, when Dwayne and Kimberly’s stepfather were running errands. They stopped at the local Burney’s for a chocolate croissant on the way home.
“They went by there, and from that day on, it changed our lives basically,” Kimberly says with a laugh.
The couple has been training with the Burneys themselves for the last several months, learning their recipes. The bakery will serve more than a dozen kinds of croissants (mostly filled and fried, but some baked, too), cookies, cinnamon rolls, donuts, pies, and a 15-layer cake. The croissant options include chocolate, lemon, strawberry, cream cheese, and more. There will also be a coffee bar. Dwayne will oversee the kitchen.
“My husband likes to cook and I like to eat sweets, so it was like a match made in heaven,” Kimberly says.
The Johnsons are familiar with franchising; they have opened five locations of Pelican’s SnoBalls in Charlotte, including one in the same building as Burney’s. They have sold several, but maintain ownership of the NoDa location and one in Waxhaw. They plan to shift their focus to Burney’s now, eyeing expansions in Charlotte and in Waxhaw. They plan to open additional locations in the next two to three years.
Burney’s Sweets & More will open its doors on Monday, Jan. 7 at 9 a.m. near the intersection of North Davidson Street and Parkwood Avenue to start introducing Charlotte to those croissants that changed the Johnsons’ lives.
“If you are a sweets person, if you like pastries and things of that nature,” Kimberly says, “once you taste it with you favorite filling, you’ll never go back to eating just a regular croissant.” —Kristen Wile
