THUNDER BAY — A popular local bakery will be opening a café in the vacant space in Indigo bookstore.
Erinn and Kris DeLorenzi opened the first Sweet North Bakery in the north core on Court Street in 2014.
The Sweet North has two current locations, High Street and Fort William Road, which will remain open as the "new personality of the Sweet North" comes to fruition inside Indigo.
“We just got the keys, so nothing's going on yet. We will get started as soon as we can,” said Erinn DeLorenzi.
DeLorenzi said the hope is to be open by mid-October.
“We are definitely transforming it into the Sweet North. We want our familiar customers and new customers to be able to walk in and say, ‘this feels like the Sweet North.’"
DeLorenzi said the staff will likely be doubled due to the large space and being open seven days a week.
“We want to make sure that we do it right, so we are definitely looking to hire all positions,” she said.
The project has been in the works for about a year, and DeLorenzi said it’s an overall overwhelming feeling.
The bakery announced this new chapter on the one-year anniversary of a flood that led to the closure of its Court Street location.
"(We're) just doing a play on writing our own adventure, starting a new chapter. We wanted to recreate the narrative there that you may have a time when things look really bad and it's difficult and a struggle and you can't see the bright side and then boom, everything can be different so quickly.
“Don't give up hope and keep going,” she said.
DeLorenzi was blown away with the support the bakery got from the community, after a social media post announcing the new location.
In a social media post, Indigo Thunder Bay said it is proud to be welcoming the Sweet North to the location.
"Books and coffee are the perfect partnership."
“We've just had our heads down working so hard really since the pandemic. The past year for sure has been probably our most difficult year in business with the unexpected closure of Court Street.
“So, to see all of that excitement, I was really blown away because like I said, we're doing our best and we're working hard and tweaking and problem-solving every day,” she said.
There are plans in the works for new items, but the much-loved items are not going anywhere, she said.
“We feel that going into a café is different than having a drive-through or having quick takeout. We are tailoring our menu to that location.”
DeLorenzi said that the staff at Indigo have been great to deal with.
“They’ve made this easy. It's a complicated process to open in a space like that, and they've been so helpful and welcoming and positive. The staff that work at the store have been incredible too, so we can't wait to be partners.”
