By JESSA PEASE / Staff Writer

PELHAM— It all started with golden raisin scones. Thirteen years ago, after they moved back from Northern Ireland, a ship-out scone business landed in Mark and Connie Wallace’s laps.

It started as Highland Gourmet, a bakery/deli in Birmingham run by Bonnie Bailey, but the Wallaces took over, extended the name to Highland Gourmet Scones and never looked back.

“There have been a lot of challenging times, but it’s also been a lot of fun,” Connie Wallace said. “It was just a new challenge and moving in a little bit of a different direction.”

Mark Wallace teaches seventh grade at Briarwood Christian School, and Connie used to be a school psychologist. The scone business was a different ballgame for her, but Mark said it’s no surprise Connie’s done so well: She’s an excellent cook.

Several other recipes created through trial and error by Connie and Mark joined the golden raisin scone over the years. Flavors consist of lemon blueberry, orange cranberry toasted coconut, hazelnut crème chocolate chip, cherry amaretto and café mocha, along with season pumpkin spice and mint chocolate chip flavors.

“I like the creative part and trying to come up with different flavors and things like that,” Connie said. “I enjoy cooking. I had not really focused on baking, so it was kind of a new thing in that sense. But as I said, scones were something I was familiar with from over in Northern Ireland, so it seemed to be a good fit.”

Three years ago, the Wallaces decided to open a storefront in Pelham off Cahaba Valley Road. They brought a taste Ireland to the shop, serving their favorite tea and coffee brands from Belfast, and now they get to interact with their online customers in person.

“I like the fact that we get to meet so many interesting people,” Mark said.  “When it was the Internet, is was very impersonal you didn’t know any body. Now, people come in and they’ll talk a while.”

The ship-out business still keeps the Wallaces busy, and they shipped out to all 50 states last Christmas. Connie said the holidays are the busiest time of year for them. Scones can be ordered online for shipment or for pickup in the store.

Highland Gourmet Scones also has a drive thru for customers at the store. Guests can pull up to the window and order from full sized or wee-bite scone options.

“For us it really is as much about the relationships we develop around this (business) and just trying to do a good job for people,” Connie Wallace said. “We come up with things that people seem to respond to. We jokingly say we like to have a scone for every day of the week and a scone for every mood.”

For more information, visit www.highlandgourmet.com.