Philomena Bake Shop Moves Into Former Saucisson Space in Slavic Village

The new home of Philomena Bake Shop Credit: Courtesy Photo

Caitlin Shea was in the process of building out a bakery in Slavic Village when her friend, Melissa Khoury, confided that she was winding down her butcher shop, Saucisson. Khoury suggested that Shea take over the space after she moved out and that’s precisely what she did.

“I’m very, very lucky to have gotten it,” explains Shea. “It sort of fell in my lap.”

Shea, who lives in the neighborhood, launched Philomena Bake Shop five years ago after being diagnosed with multiple food allergies. Before that, she made traditional wheat- and butter-based products. Now, her product line is strictly vegan and gluten-free.

This week, Shea moved Philomena from a shared kitchen in Midtown to the former Saucisson space (5324 Fleet Ave., 216-543-9769). The plan is to ramp up production, continue serving her many wholesale bakery accounts, and later – likely this summer – open a storefront for retail shopping.

“The hope is to have a fairly wide range of options for people either to come in and buy or preorder,” she says.

In addition to vegan and gluten-free cakes, cookies, muffins and scones, Shea plans on introducing new products like bagels and offering some savory options as well.

Unti then, Shea will focus on using the newfound space to grow her business.

“Now that we have a larger space dedicated solely for our use that we can access at all times, we’ll be able to have longer, more productive hours in the kitchen,” says Shea. “Plus, there’s lot more storage space, so I can buy more ingredients, we can store more finished goods, we can send out more orders… This is really going to help us scale up.”

Asked if she finds humor in the tale of a vegan bakery moving into a butcher shop, Shea says, “There is a bit of an irony but I’m not going to make too much out of it. Hopefully we can make people in the neighborhood happy that we’re here and contribute something positive.”

Customers can now place orders for pickup starting April 9th through the Philomena Bake Shop website.

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