<bt>The Bake Shop, Lightfood Style, a bake shop in Leesburg has been open since November and is already popular to those who enjoy their morning cappuccinos, pastries and more.
"I come back because the food is always excellent. The taste is absolutely marvelous," said Anne Banks, courthouse attorney and regular customer. "They have a spinach croissant that I can't resist and it's very, very wholesome and I always get [a] cappuccino. It makes me happy."
The bake shop is owned by Lightfood restaurant's co-owners, executive chef Ingrid Gustavson and general manager Carrie Gustavson Whitmer. The shop occupies the former Ladies Waiting room of the old People’s Bank. Carol Palmer, principal with Good Taste Marketing Services, points out the irony in the fact that two women now own and run the very spot where woman were not allowed.
The Lightfood Restaurant, which was once the old People’s Bank of Leesburg and opened in March 1999 after two-and-a-half years of renovation, has become an award-winner eatery. The restaurant, a culinary landmark with an architectural setting that blends the past and the present, is known for its seasonal contemporary American cuisine which is a melting pot of all tastes from around the world.
THE THREE-STORY restaurant includes an open, main-level kitchen with a window, carpeted main floor, custom-built bar, an upper-level banquet facility and piano bar, a lower-level kitchen designed for food preparation and banquet staging. It seats 349 people for lunch and dinner, including private party rooms upstairs. Now with the bake shop, it serves an additional 50 people.
"We had a small space built in with the original building and we decided to utilize it as another outlet to sell our products," Whitmer said. The owners added a counter and renovated the space creating an old-fashioned bakery.
Daytime cashier Loraine Hughes said the bake shop has been popular, “lots of people that work around here in the courthouse and downtown they go, ‘We are so glad you are here. I hope you don’t go away.’ They come and get a little cappuccino to get going in the morning, a little something for lunch [or] a little something for snacks.”
Now located beside The Lightfood Restaurant and across from the Loudoun County Courthouse at 11 North King St., the bakery attracts the attention of those working across the street. One day, customers stop by themselves for lunch and come back with their co-workers or friends the next day.
“Somebody will come in from the Courthouse and a fresh pan of cookies comes out and they will run back over and next thing you know there is six of them getting the hot cookies,” Hughes said.
OPEN FROM 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday, the bake shop serves an assortment of pastries and breads baked daily in the Lightfood pastry kitchen, including Mocha Ya-Ya Brownies, Sugar Palmiers, white chocolate macadamia nut cookies, muffins and croissants. They also prepare two home-made soups. The Lightfood’s Tomato soup is served daily while the second soup changes everyday. A different type of sandwich and salad is served each day as well.
“We put out one type of sandwich a day because we have soup and a lot of people like something to go with it rather than something sweet,” said Hughes. “We also have different types of salads to go with the sandwiches.”
“We are always making different things, so it’s always good for people to keep coming back to see what we have,” Whitmer added.
Hughes said that about 30 to 40 people visit the shop on a daily basis. Some people she sees everyday and others two or three times a week. Whitmer also said some people stop by in the late afternoons before they go home to pick up bread for dinner and pastries for breakfast.