Bella’s Bake Shop Sweetens Downtown Mount Kisco

Photos by John Bruno Turiano

The 19-seat bakery is a dream destination for specialty coffee and just-baked goods straight from a French oven in Westchester County.

Many bakers who haven’t been to culinary school refer to themselves as self-taught; David Chiappinelli, however, who owns the new specialty artisan Bella’s Bake Shop with wife Tatyana, prefers family-taught.

bella's bake shop

“I come from Italian and Armenian heritages, in which there are significant cooking/baking traditions,” says the father of two-plus-year-old Bella, for which the 1,800-square-foot bakery is named. “I was around lots of homemade food growing up in Bedford and developed a passion and appreciation for it.” Spaghetti carbonara, yalanchi (Armenian stuffed grape leaves), and baklava were but a few items his mother made that Chiappinelli recalls with fond memory. “I baked chocolate chip cookies from scratch at five.”

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bella's bake shop
David and Tatyana Chiappinelli

The career path for the Mount Kisco resident to open Bella’s was not a straight one. A graduate of West Point, he was an army tank platoon leader in South Korea and then went into finance in Manhattan. “For 12 years I lived in different areas of the city, and I discovered all the best nooks and crannies and developed my palate. Each neighborhood had good bread and coffee.”

 

 

Moving to Westchester from the city to raise a family (David and Tatyana are expecting a brother for Bella soon), he immediately saw a lack of good coffee and bread. He also knew there was an influx of NYC residents moving to the county. “I wanted to open an artisan bakery to bring a refined NYC-level product to Westchester,” he explains. According to Chiappinelli, “artisan” is defined as every step being important.

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bella's bake shop

His signature products at Bella’s are croissants, macarons, and sourdough bread. “These are challenging items to get right,” he says. He invested in a French Pavailler oven that is a combination steam deck and convection oven. “Timing is everything for bread. And no commercial yeast.”

bella's bake shop

Among other items on the menu at Bella’s: olive loaf, brioche bun, muffins, madeleines, avocado toast, and ricotta toast.

To pair with his baked goods, Chiappinelli serves Counter Culture Coffee, a specialty roaster based in Nolita. “I don’t like the bitter coffees; Counter Culture has a sweet side and is rich, chocolatey, nutty.”

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Bella’s off-the-street location may be a bit harder to find (the entrance is from the parking lot side of South Moger) but Chiappinelli says it allows him to afford more space. “Eventually I want to do wholesale, and the bigger space allows that.”

Bella’s Bake Shop
69 S Moger Ave
Mount Kisco
914.864.0311


 

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