Buffalo Rising Online

May 14th 2006, 11:31am By queenseyes

Carriage Trade Pastries has been around since 1989, and current owner, Shandra Beutner has owned the business for the last eight years. In that time, Shandra, along with her husband Andrew, has established a very successful trade dedicated to dessert preparation, bread baking, and the art of the wedding cake.

I remember the days when Carriage Trade was located in the Atwater House on Elmwood next to Pano's. The old space was small and that was OK, because the treats that were served out of it were exceptional. It was a sad day for the neighborhood when they left the Atwater House, but in the end it turned out be a great move for the Beutners. They ended up buying a building at 1654 Elmwood, corner of Great Arrow. The new space gave the couple plenty of room to grow. Not only did they land additional room for in-house seating, they made room for an additional family member... a one-year-old baby girl whose name is Devan.

Now I must admit right off the bat that I had not ventured into Carriage Trade's current location, so I was totally surprised to see that there was indeed a sit-down area for customers to relax and enjoy themselves. The chalkboard mounted behind the counter is so simple that I assumed it listed the specials of the day. Nope. Here's the menu: Vegetable quiche, potato leak soup served with a cheddar scone, and a meatless chili also served with a cheddar scone. It's so simple! Coffee, tea, and juice round out the beverages (simple again), and help to turn this cozy pastry shop into a cafE of sorts. There will also be lemonade offered in coming weeks for those that want to cool down while enjoying their morning scone.

On top of that there are countless cookies, muffins, clouds, rolls, buns, crisps, a custard, tarts, a crunch, cakes, a torte, a tiramisu, a feuillette, cheesecakes (15 flavors), squares, diamonds, bars, brownies, pies... and a lot more. Everything is baked from scratch at Carriage Trade, which means that the selections are super fresh or made to order. What are the current customer favorites? Strawberries and cream cake, and the cranberry scones. Yum! The pastry shop also caters to some of the best restaurants in the area, including one of our favorites, Left Bank. They even supply the Coffee Roastery (located in the Main Place Mall) with trays of sweets in return for being able to serve up the roaster's coffee. Gotta love those local business to business relationships.

Here is a great example of real people running a real business. Run by the family through and through, this pastry shop is a real score for that section of Elmwood. And it doesn't hurt having the Pierce Arrow building across the street as well as the up and coming Vino Italian restaurant opening next door.

Carriage Trade Pastries is located at 1654 Elmwood Avenue in Buffalo. 716-881-2326