It was really only a few years ago that this house, located at the corner of Elmwood and Lafayette, was a complete disaster. Basically, it was a rooming house where a number of notorious shoplifters resided. One of those shoplifters regularly caused havoc at my store on Elmwood. Then Eran Epstein of E-Square Capital purchased the property and rehabbed it. Overnight this property went from flop house to housing legitimate tenants.
Fast forward a couple more years and this house is positioned to host its first commercial tenant. And don't think that I'm talking about low-profile business that would hide out in the attic. This house will soon be home to Zillycakes, an upscale cake design studio run by Zilly Rosen. I asked Zilly how she was going to pull this off and she explained, "I'm converting the garage addition (Elmwood side) into a glass storefront where I will work on cake design. Cakes have changed over the years, and with the advent of the Food Channel, people are fascinated by the artistic side of baking. Actually, there will be no baking there - that will be done primarliy by Dolci Bakery. I plan on taking baking and cake design to a whole new art form. When the glass doors are closed, passers-by will still be able to see me working on the cakes. It's going to be a fun business - very eye-catching. I'm so happy... I've finally decided what I want to be when I grow up."
Zilly will offer all of the cake design expertise, as well as consultation and delivery. She told me that the architectural build-out plans recently passed zoning too(!). Believe it or not, there were still a couple of people who tried to stop this project... people who will never understand how important these types of transitions are for the continued growth of the city. We need to see more and more residential-to-commercial conversions on Elmwood. The more commercial venues, the more the Elmwood Village will become a connected walking district. It's a scary thought that anyone could be concerned enough to go out of their way to voice themselves as concerned parties - especially with a project like this. Fortunately, Zilly fought hard to see her dream become reality even when faced with adversity. This will be a big boost for the Elmwood Village and for cake-lovers all over Western New York. Zillycakes is scheduled to open in either December or January.
For more information, or to schedule a tasting, call Zilly at 716-903-3405
