Treat Yo’ Self Bakery, a hit on TikTok, built for Instagram, brings Pride to Wilson, NC

With its pastel pink and purple walls, cookie and cupcake decals and slick black and white tile floors, Treat Yo’ Self bakery looks like it could be in any major metropolitan city. But the modern storefront isn’t in New York City or even Raleigh — it’s in Wilson, a city around 40 miles east of Raleigh with a population of 47,731.

Husband team Greg and Alex Mason opened Treat Yo’ Self four years ago after moving to the town, where Alex Mason’s parents had recently moved.

Greg Mason said people often joke that they feel like they are in Raleigh instead of Wilson when coming into the store.

That feeling wasn’t an accident.

Almost every space in the bakery is designed to be an Instagram moment, he said, from the light pink, yellow and green throne embedded in one wall to a couch area complete with a sign that reads, “Can’t buy me love, but you can buy me a cupcake.” The bakery worked on the space with Design Dimension, a company based in Zebulon, he said.

“We like to design cool things and really make our brand cool and modern and fun, because you know, we’re here every day and we want to hang out here, too,” Greg Mason said.

The Instagram-ready nature of the bakery is tied to the brand’s strong social media presence. Greg Mason’s TikTok account, @trashyqweenz, has amassed 1.1 million followers in less than a year.

Alex Mason had wanted Greg Mason to join TikTok for a few years — he said he thought people would enjoy Greg’s personality and find him funny. When Greg was hesitant, Alex eventually just started filming him. Greg Mason agreed to make one video, thinking it would never go anywhere. But he was wrong.

The video went viral, as did the next one and the one after that.

“Now it’s actually turned into kind of like a part-time job, in a good way, because I love interacting with people and I love posting and seeing the comments and going live and stuff like that,” Greg Mason said. “But it definitely was never intended to kind of take off like it did, with over a million followers in less than a year.”

He described TikTok as “ a whole new journey,” one he is still learning to navigate.

Many of his videos revolve around him baking and decorating cakes, often while sharing stories about interactions with customers. Greg Mason said a lot of people relate especially to his videos about working in the service industry.

“A lot of people just like to talk about all the good and the sunshine and the rainbows but like, being in customer service is hard. So I kind of try to keep it real and I’m like, you know, this is going on,” he said. “But putting a funny twist on it.”

His TikTok has definitely drawn people to the business, Greg Mason said. People frequently come from hours away, and occasionally even fly to the bakery and then spend more time in the state.

The road to acceptance

While the majority of the bakery’s attention has been positive, the Masons have seen some pushback.

Earlier this year, people put stickers on the exterior of the building with anti-gay and homophobic comments, and people have said “horrible things, I can’t even repeat” about the couple to the City Council.

“I mean we’ve had a few really deep instances where it’s like, you know, I don’t feel the safest here in Wilson anymore,” Greg Mason said. “But you know, I’m not the type of person to just back down.”

Overall, though, he feels like the couple is doing good work in the community. One of the couple’s goals for the business is to create a safe, inclusive and welcoming space for people, Greg Mason said. As a part of those efforts, the two started the nonprofit Wilson Pride, whose mission is to provide events, opportunities and resources for LGTBQ+ people, especially youth, in the area.

“One thing when we moved here, there was no resources for LGBTQ+ people and so moving to a small town was kind of scary,” Greg Mason said. “So one of our efforts is to change our community to really make it more welcoming.”

Treat Yo’ Self to goodies

The bakery sells a variety of baked goods, including cakes, cupcakes, cookies, muffins and scones. Greg Mason said the bakery changes its cupcake flavors every week, and often takes inspiration from new food products, such as a new flavor of Pop Tarts or cereal.

One of Greg Mason’s personal favorite flavors is cotton candy, which the bakery often incorporates into its offerings. While some items change, others, like the popular cinnamon scones, have become a staple of the business. Alex Mason’s personal favorite item is the chocolate espresso cookie, which was originally introduced as a holiday cookie in 2019 and later extended due to its popularity.

The Masons have combined their backgrounds in the creation of the bakery. They both went to Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, where Greg Mason graduated with degrees in baking and pastry and food service management and Alex Mason graduated with a degree in marketing.

Alex Mason said he thinks people sometimes underestimate younger people opening a business because they assume they may have a lack of experience — Alex Mason will be 31 next year and Greg Mason will be 30 this year. However, he said that when you have determination to reach your goals, your age doesn’t matter.

“So I would say, more or less, I feel like people are more surprised what we’ve brought to Wilson and what we’ve done, especially invested in our community through the community focus that we have and starting Wilson Pride,” Alex Mason said. “I think people are very grateful, for what we brought to a city that isn’t our hometown originally.”

While the name of the bakery was heavily inspired by the popular TV show “Parks and Recreation,” in which two of the characters embrace a day of luxury and self-care with the phrase “treat yo’ self,” Greg Mason said he lives his life in a way that embodies “treating yourself.”

“I feel like we just live in such a work-work-work society, overworking is glamorized and people need to just take a step back, take a chill pill, you know, treat themselves, because we do work hard,” he said.

Treat Yo’ Self is at 419 Goldsboro St. in Wilson and is open from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday.