For fans of Butera's deserts you could now pick up the treats found there and more every day as the former baker for the restaurant has opened Sweet Lucille’s Pastry Café.
The bakery, owned and operated by baker and Smithtown resident Lucille Kelley, opened Saturday at 264 West Main Street in Smithtown.
Kelley was the baker of five years with Butera's for not only the Smithtown location but the Woodbury location as well.
She described the experience of opening a business in her hometown as "awesome, scary, risky, wonderful, exciting – all at the same time."
"It feels great ... more than half the people I know just because they're from in and around here," she said. "It's pretty cool to be in your own town and watch people walk in and you know just about everyone that walks in the door, it's kind of a nice thing."
The experience at Butera's combined with her studies at the Culinary Academy of Long Island gave Kelley what she needed to move on to what she refers to as the next chapter in her career – becoming a business owner.
Sweet Lucille’s features an array of decadent treats, from cakes to muffins, mini cakes and more. Kelley said the products have a “homemade fresh taste,” and are made with real butter, real cream cheese and no shortening.
While Kelley admitted she hasn't been able to accurately gauge the response form locals as she is in the back baking all day, co-owner Rich Delgado, who worked with Kelley at Butera's and mostly works the counter at the bakery, said the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
"Everyone has been thrilled with everything," he said. "We already have people coming in Saturday and Sunday, come back for seconds. Some people came in the past three days."
