In a world of uncertainty, one thing’s for sure--people love cupcakes.
Tempting the collective sweet tooth of Bellmore residents since they opened more than two years ago, NY Cupcakery offers...what else? Cupcakes! But in addition that that, they also offer a large assortment of other items, including intricate custom cakes and other unique edibles.
Co-owner Joe Polito recently spoke with Patch about peddling his delicious baked goods within the Bellmores.
Before you opened NY Cupcakery, did you have any previous baking experience?
Yes, I was the head chef at the Garden City Hotel for a lot of years. I also worked at the Ritz-Carlton and a several other places, but Garden City is where I got the majority of my experience.
What made you decide to strike out on your own and open your own cupcake shop?
I wanted a little more freedom for my kids, although going into business for yourself can eat up a lot of your time. But once you get a system down and a good staff, it gets better.
Why cupcakes?
I honestly didn’t want to open a cupcake shop. I came into this with a bit of an ego...I wanted to work on elaborate cakes, but my wife thought we should open a cupcake shop and I eventually caved in on that. Then she wanted to make the place pink, and I said no way, but that happened too. However, we also do cakes out of here also, so we have a two-tiered approach to the business.
Tell us about your cake business.
We do individualized specialty cakes. It’s all about finding out the personality of the person the cake is for, finding out what their likes are and the things that motivate them and making a totally unique cake that tailors to them. I’ve had people come in here saying that our cakes were a lot better then anything they’ve ever had and a lot cheaper too.
Tell us where you got the idea for the mini-cupcakes. I’ve never really seen little bite-sized cupcakes before.
We got the idea for them from our packaging department...they showed us these platters that held minis and it just seemed practical. You can bring a platter of minis to someone’s house for a party for under $20 and you’ll have a wide variety for people to try.
What else would you like people to know about the NY Cupcakery?
All our cupcakes, cookies, brownies, are made fresh every day. That’s very important to me...at the end of the day, we either donate our leftovers or throw them out. Nothing’s ever frozen...we bake it, we sell it. Period.
Honestly, there’s still a lot of people who don’t even know we’re here yet. We’re not big into advertising...we’re just trying to slowly generate word-of-mouth, and it seems to be working so far.
What do you like about owning a business in the Bellmore area?
I love this town. It’s a challenging area as far as keeping up with the competition, but it keeps me on my toes.
