Alina’s Cakes & Cookies opened in early February on 1252 Post Road East in the Turkey Hill plaza with Green Farms Spirit Shop, Gofer Ice Cream, and Fortuna’s. This is the bakery’s second location as it has been in Fairfield for over ten years.
Owner of Alina’s Cakes & Cookies, Alina Dancho is excited about expanding her bakery to a second location in Westport.
“In Fairfield we have always been like a community bake shop,” Dancho said. “We try to do a lot of custom orders and we like to play around with holidays. It’s always been tempting for me to come here and I think I was ready to expand a little bit.”
Westport’s new location has the same baked goods as Fairfield but also features more items such as breads, baguettes, and pastries.
“I wanted to go back to making breads and in my other location I couldn’t,” Dancho said. “I bought the bread ovens and I have a set up for croissants so we have all the materials and equipment. […] I wanted the breads and pastry to be more like a full bakery again.”
Dancho is also looking forward to running the new location with her family.
“My older son is going to help me and I want to teach him and show him a little bit about how to run a business,” Dancho said. “My mom works with me so it’s like a family business.”
Dancho’s original passion for baking and opening a bakery stemmed from her long history of working with food and in restaurants.
“I had been in restaurants for fifteen years before [opening a bakery] and I went to culinary school and pastry school,” Dancho said. “One day a neighbor said, ‘oh there’s a bakery for sale’ and my husband thought of me because I would do cakes out of the house and all that.”
Alina’s is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sundays.
