A few weeks ago while clicking channels I spotted a local baker at her sweetshop on TV. It was an adorable little cottage, very shabby chic in nature, and the baker/owner was as bubbly and passionate about making her cupcakes and wedding cakes for locals as anyone could be.

I admire bakers and pastry chefs. They have to be precise, something a savory chef (me!) can avoid. Bakers' hands must be skillful and controlled in order to fill the luscious centers of the newest treats emerging from their ovens.

 Sweets offers lucious pastries and breakfast fare.

So with that in mind, meet Sweets--a little bakehouse in the urban Bradenton quadrant that is now known as Village of the Arts. I have been shopping at Heart’s Desire, Vikki Rollo's charming shop just down the street, and now I have even more of a sweet spot for 12th Avenue.

While Sweets is still in the opening and growing phases, it certainly has potential. Weekend brunch featured homemade biscuits with sausage gravy, fluffy scrambled eggs and a baked French toast topped with strawberry butter. There is French press coffee and, for people like my hubby, homemade hot chocolate topped with Fluffernutter. And yes, for the mimosa lovers, Sunday brunch includes complimentary mimosas.

 

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays (but with full-service catering available), Sweets also offers breakfast all day and a modest lunch menu featuring delightful light bites such as a tomato caprese sandwich, blueberry summer salad, croque monsiuer, quiche of the day and other several daily specials. They're open Wednesday-Saturday 8 a.m.-2 p.m., and request 24 hours' notice on special orders and one week's notice on wedding cakes and catering orders.There is a monthly Saturday stroll around Village of the Arts, and if you decide to go, make sure to check out another little delight--Ortygia Italian restaurant, which we have enjoyed for the past few years.

Sweets Bakehouse

(941) 201-602

930 12th St. W.

www.sweetsbakehouse.com