Since then, she’s spent the last few years cooking up tartines, cannoli, and sfogliatelle under the Bella Mercato banner at farmers markets in Woodstock and Lents. And now she tells the Mercury that plans are in place for Bella’s Italian Bakery & Market, her upcoming 24-seat brick-and-mortar, which is presently in build-out mode at 5959 SE 92nd in the Lents neighborhood.
Vernier says that once the bakery’s up and running—probably sometime in late spring or early summer—it’ll offer the kind of eats her clientele have come to love: amaretti, focaccia, and those addictive cannoli, as well as newer items like pizza, beer, and Italian (and local) reds and white, the latter of which will come in $2 half-pours during her “Venetian” happy hours. Expect other bite-sized drinking snacks like salt cod crostini, frittata, and mortadella cubes to be priced between $1 and $2.
Opening hours are scheduled to last from 7 am to 4 pm, Tuesday to Sunday, with plans to stay open till 7 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
And for Lentsers who don’t feel like dining in, Bella’s will also have a market, inspired by her grandfather’s old delicatessen, which operated just outside of the Italian city of Purugia, and will be stocked with fresh cheeses, deli meats, pastas, and handmade pizza dough for DIY lunches and dinners.
