The Miles Coffee Bar, 4039 E. Tremont Avenue, is preparing to sell homemade pies and cakes baked fresh for the holidays.
Opened on March 8 next door to Muscle Maker Grill, the coffee bar will offer for sale homemade pies such as apple, blueberry, along with banana bread, cornbread, according to Mario D’Agostino, who owns both eateries.
Customers are welcome to request specialty items including vegan pies or cakes.
“Around here there are a lot of Italian bakeries, but they don’t really offer homemade apple pies. They sell more Italian pastries,” D’Agostino said.
D’Agostino said the coffee bar makes all its pastries in-house, with bakers starting work as early as 5 a.m., making cookies, etc.
“For the holidays we figured it would be nice to offer our loyal customers and hopefully, new customers in the neighborhood, fresh pies for Thanksgiving and Christmas that they could share with their families,” D’Agostino said.
He recommends that pies be ordered at least five days in advance of a holiday.
For example, the last order for Thanksgiving would be taken by Saturday, November 18, and for Christmas by Wednesday, December 20.
Customers can stop by to see a list of the types of pies that will be available starting on Friday, November 10.
Customers can order and pre-pay for their pies and either pick them up the day before or on Thanksgiving morning.
D’Agostino has owned the Muscle Maker Grill since it opened in May of 2010, he said.
The Miles Coffee Bar is open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, and then 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday, and 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday.
Muscle Maker Grill’s hours are 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, and closed Sundays.
The coffee bar will convert to a wine bar in the evenings, with extended hours, after it receives a liquor license.
Once the wine bar opens, plans call for live entertainment and different events.
“That’s something we’re going to work on little by little as we get asssociated with turning the place into a wine bar,” D’Agostino said.
Open about eight months, with the coffee bar working smoothly, the wine bar will be another business in itself, and will take time as to how it will operate, according to D’Agostino.
He’s considering keeping the wine bar open to 10 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends.
There is seating in the back of the coffee bar and also a large outdoor garden, which will be enclosed in the winter.
The coffee bar has a food menu of sandwiches and salads, and service is separate from the Muscle Maker Grill next door.
The sandwiches are made with freshly roasted turkey and roast beef, according to D’Agostino, not with deli cold cuts.
The coffee beans come from Sweet Leaf Coffee Roasters in Brooklyn, and are imported from Colombia or from the coffee-growing regions in Africa.
