After five years nestled in the heart of the South Main District, Primas Bakery + Boutique has moved to a bustling retail stretch where Mt. Moriah Road meets South Mendenhall Road in East Memphis.

Primas — the Spanish word for “cousins” — encompasses two businesses under one roof owned by first cousins Rachel Mullen, 38, a trained pastry chef, and Angelique Gonzalez Sloan, 40, a trained artist.

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“We built a really good base Downtown, and the neighborhood was really supportive,” said Mullen, owner of RM Petit Cakes, an artisan dessert shop that makes up one-half of Primas.

“We just realized that we wanted our businesses to grow, to be more centrally located and to be more convenient for more people.” 

The new location at 734 Mt. Moriah Road is across from Gus’s Fried Chicken and along the same stretch as The Urban Gardener, Gibson’s Donuts and Garibaldi’s Pizza. 

“There are so many Memphis staples around this area, and there are a lot of families in the area and a lot of schools and churches,” Mullen said. “So we’re excited to be in the neighborhood. It’s also growing and new businesses are coming in, so we think we chose the right time to move here.” 

Unlike Primas’ previous location at 523 S. Main St., the new location offers free parking. 

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“Because we didn’t have a parking lot Downtown, people had to find street parking, then carry their cakes to their cars,” Mullen said. “Now we have our own designated parking lot.” 

Primas will celebrate its new location with a grand opening on Friday, July 28, from 4-6 p.m., featuring giveaways, special menu items and a ribbon-cutting celebration with the Greater Memphis Chamber. 

The cousins first collaborated in 2017, when they co-hosted a pop-up event in South Main. 

Mullen was teaching culinary arts at Bartlett High School. She trained at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, and returned to Memphis to work in culinary education. 

Outside of school hours, Mullen was busy building a business focused on baking customized occasion cakes and selling homemade desserts at local farmers markets. 

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At the same time, Sloan’s boutique garnered a following as an online venture. 

“I knew Rachel wanted her own bakery, and I wanted my own space, too,” Sloan said. “So we started planning, and that’s what got us on South Main.” 

In the summer of 2018, Mullen and Sloan opened Primas Bakery + Boutique on South Main Street.

Although the location has since changed, the businesses mostly remain the same, albeit roomier. 

Visitors are welcomed by inviting aromas and a kaleidoscope of vibrant colors. 

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“We love color,” Sloan said. “We both have very unique, fun styles. So, I think it’s a good blend.” 

Unlike Primas’ previous location, the new space has a separate entrance for each business.

The one closest to the road leads to RM Petit Cakes, Mullen’s artisan dessert shop. 

You won’t find any croissants or sourdough loaves at RM Petit Cakes. 

The shop offers an ever-changing daily dose of sweets, which on any given day might include cupcakes, macarons, petit fours, cake pops, tartlets, profiteroles or eclairs. 

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“Right now we have our French macaron ice cream sandwiches, which are very popular with kids, and they’re really good,” Mullen said. “The daily selection changes so there’s always something new going into the case.” 

Mullen, who competed on The Food Network’s “Spring Baking Championship” earlier this year, also creates elaborate custom-tailored cakes for weddings and birthdays. And Sloan offers balloons garlands to complement the cake designs. 

Petit Cakes has a colorful party room to host private parties and events. Most recently, the schedule has included cookie-decorating parties with Barbie, Encanto and Ratatouille themes. 

Mullen has started offering teatime events featuring both sweets and savories. A sample menu: Nutella macarons, almond frangipane petit fours and lemon tea cookies, along with deviled eggs, parmesan herb scones and goat cheese truffles. 

Petit Cakes offers another option — an unusual twist on teatime — called “Not Your Average Tea Party.” It includes tea for two accompanied by charcuterie. 

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The second store entrance leads to Sloan’s ShopMucho, a boutique with a focus on curating creative pieces from local woman-owned businesses. 

ShopMucho has around 80 vendors, mostly small businesses. Local items include silver sterling necklaces from Estes Designs, colorful relief prints from Colors by Kait, polymer clay earrings from Sunny Slate Studio and handmade soy candles from Roselo Candles. 

Inspired by Sloan’s paternal family’s Mexican heritage, the boutique centers Latin makers and aims for the feel of a Mexican market. 

Sloan’s family roots lie in South Central Texas and across the border in Mexico.

A graduate of Memphis College of Arts with a background in digital design, Sloan began her career as a photography stylist.

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But she was drawn to opening her own brick-and-mortar business, following in the footsteps of her grandmother, restaurateur and cookbook author Bea Gonzalez. 

Gonzalez grew up in Tampico, Mexico, and moved in the 1970s to Memphis, where she opened Lupe & Bea’s, a beloved Mexican restaurant located in the Crosstown neighborhood. It closed in 1996.

Sloan has a copy of “Lupe & Bea’s Tex-Mex Cookbook” framed on ShopMucho’s wall. 

“Lots of people still remember her,” Sloan said. “It was a very successful business for a while, and I get that drive from her. I always kind of felt a little special being a Gonzalez and having that part of me. And I went to high school (in Memphis) and college here. So, I like being able to kind of have my little bit of culture sprinkled in. It makes me happy and I don’t want that part of me to ever go away.” 

Sloan also makes and sells a line of prints and T-shirts she calls Memphis Lottery, which marries her familial culture with depictions of Memphis, including Shelby Farms, the Downtown trolley and the Hernando de Soto bridge. The series is modeled after Lotería, a popular Mexican game-of-chance played with a distinctive deck of cards. 

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Mullen and Sloan are related through their mothers, who are sisters. The two women have a close and symbiotic relationship both as family members and as business partners. 

“We’re both really creative in different ways,” Mullen said. “We can really bounce ideas off of each other, brainstorm and make our ideas even better by working with each other.”