It can be tough for those who are on strict vegan or gluten free diets to indulge, but it shouldn’t be! New bakery Elisa’s Love Bites inside The Loom on the Porter Ave side, is serving up delicious gluten free treats daily to the neighborhood.
Owner and Executive Chef Elisa Lyew was a pastry chef at various NYC restaurants before going into business for herself. Her transition from the PR industry to working in restaurants to entrepreneurship was an unexpected perfect fit.
“Growing up, baking was always my hobby,” Lyew reminisces. After she left her first job in PR, she thought “I’ll do something I like, at least while I figure out my next move – but that was it – there was no next move, I didn’t want to do anything else.” So she got her first job in a restaurant before starting her own online business, then opening her first storefront in The Loom at the beginning of this month.
Elisa offers a variety of rotating delectable treats, and a few consistent ones. All her pastries have cleverly descriptive names which make them all the more enticing, such as the “Bad Bunny Carrot Cake”, “Original Sin Apple Cake”, or the candy-coated “Nutty Bits.”
She recalls the unhealthy ingredients she worked with in her restaurant days, and how she always felt bad about serving them. Now, working for herself, she only uses the healthiest, simplest ingredients available.
The space itself, like the treats, is clean, minimalistic, and designed with love. The mural on the wall is a collaboration between Lyew and her cousin, the artist Ana Noel. The no-fuss kitchen is the perfect size for her creations, as everything is made in small batches so it is always fresh throughout the day. All pastries range from an affordable $2-$5 per treat.
This is the newest addition to the community of small businesses that is burgeoning on Porter Ave in the past year, and definitely worth checking out, whether you adhere to a gluten-free, vegan diet or not!
Elisa’s Love Bites is located at 10 Porter Ave. Hours 12pm-7pm daily. Tel: 347-987-4126
