Bakery, Market to Open at Taste of Excellence

A Taste of Excellence Catering will soon complete the next phase of its relocation to Strongsville with an expansion of its business that includes retail spaces.

The 19-year-old company moved its headquarters from Parma to Strongsville four months ago after purchasing and remodeling the former Zig’s Bowling Alley property at 16888 Pearl Rd.

With 20,000 square feet of kitchen, warehouse, showroom and office space, the new facility is five times larger than its previous location.  

Now, owners Bill and Dawn Rini are preparing to open a retail gourmet and farmer’s market,  adjacent to the catering offices.

While the framing of the new spaces is complete, the interiors are still under construction. The bakery, to be named Patisserie 42, will open in early 2012, followed by the still-unnamed market later in the year.

Bill Rini believes the new project will become a shopping and leisure destination for Strongsville and other area residents.

As the name suggests, Patisserie 42 will have a French theme and offer both take-home bakery items as well as baked goods and coffee for dining in. A courtyard with space for seating connects the spaces and features black wrought iron fencing and grand arched doors leading into the bakery and store.

Rini said Patisserie 42 will “offer wedding and high-end specialty cakes, artisan breads, tortes, upscale cookies, and lots of French pastry. I think Strongsville residents will love to hang out here.”

The market will emphasize organic, local offerings from area growers and other upscale artisans and vendors.

Some features will include a prepared foods department, a basement wine cellar, and a glass-enclosed space where the Rini, a certified chef, will dry-age beef. Rini thinks the venture can succeed despite the current economy.

“Strongsville is still an affluent city,” he said.

A Taste of Excellence caters more than 300 events per year and runs the food service operations for a variety of Cleveland institutions, including the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Columbia Hills Country Club and Case Western Reserve University.

Patisserie 42 is partnership between the A Taste of Excellence and Maureen Leonard, a pastry chef who provides wedding cakes and other bakery for the company's catering events. 

Once named one of “Northeast Ohio’s fastest-growing companies” by Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, A Taste of Excellence hired dozens of additional employees, including 10 full-time staff members when it move to Strongsville.

Rini said, “Our business grew by half a million dollars every year through the recession, and we expect 2011 sales to top 2010’s by more than $1 million.”