Keys to the Door: Owners Candace and Charles Nelson, general managers Jackie Kosako and Julie Linnhart.
What’s Baking: In the complicated, competitive world where diminutive cakes compete for “best cupcake” honors, Sprinkles founder Candace Nelson reigns supreme. This trained pastry chef created the first bakery devoted to nothing but good ole American cupcakes in Beverly Hills in 2005, and the Hollywood celebrities ate it up, with lines forming around the block. Our Sprinkles can be found in Highland Village, in a quaint cocoa-hued storefront facing Westheimer. So whether you’re a Southern soul craving red velvet spread with cream cheese icing and topped with Sprinkles’ signature sugar-paste dot, a chocaholic jonesing for a chocolate-marshmallow-filled concoction or a vanilla/vanilla classicist, for $3.25 apiece you can have your fill of dozens of toothsome varieties. Every night, we’re told, Sprinkles’ leftover cupcakes (if there are any) are delivered to Houston food banks and police and fire departments. Throughout the year, Sprinkles’ collective charitable efforts (which have culminated in $1.5 million in donations) benefit nonprofit endeavors ranging from children’s hospitals to environmental agencies. How sweet is that? Highland Village Shopping Center4014 Westheimer Road, 713.871.9929; sprinkles.com.