A few years ago, Allison Jeffords and Kimberly Futrell were both working as teachers’ aides in the high school special education department in Metropolis and looking for a different career path. They thought about opening a sandwich shop before ultimately deciding to buy a bakery on Market Street in a prime location near the Superman Statue where every visitor comes to snap a photo. Now owners of Sissy’s: A Sweet Shoppe since 2018, the duo has crafted a spot so enticing, it’s impossible to resist the bakery smells wafting out the door and onto the popular street.
Lead baker Jeffords (who also has a horticulture degree) says she loves to get creative in the kitchen and try new items, in addition to whipping up batches of sweet staples like cinnamon rolls, to draw people back. Crowd favorites include oatmeal cookie pies, blackberry Oreo cheesecake brownies, fruit pizzas, Nutter Butter lasagna, bread pudding with bourbon-pecan sauce and banana nut bread brownies with browned-butter frosting.
“Sometimes I see her creating something and ask, ‘Have you ever done that before?’ And she’ll say, ‘No, but we’re going to try it,’” says Futrell of her friend and business partner’s experimental approach.
In addition to sweets, Sissy’s also serves an alluring lunch menu. The hot and cold sandwiches change weekly (check Facebook for the current menu), but the buffalo chicken panini and chicken salad croissant are always on offer.
Because people eat with their eyes, a big part of Sissy’s success can be attributed to the tempting-looking photos that Jeffords takes with her iPhone and posts to Instagram and Facebook. “We get phone calls from people saying, ‘I saw that on Facebook – put me back two of those,’” she says.
When the supply of treats runs low, Jeffords simply turns the oven back on. “Our big motto is, ‘We don’t ever sell out,’” she explains. “We could sell out three days a week, but we don’t; we think it has a negative connotation.” Suffice it to say the community and visitors alike will never run out of sweets to enjoy at Sissy’s, where Jeffords and Futrell make it their mission to create something enjoyable and delicious for anyone who walks through their doors.
See more: Good Eats at E-Town River Restaurant
This is one of the jewels of Market Street in Metropolis! When traveling to the city my stops go in this order: Superman Statue photo, shop at Super Museum, Sixth & Vintage and others and then eat at Sissy’s. This one of the great businesses that are making Metropolis SUPER!