NORTH PROVIDENCE – Syroya Eugene held a grand opening of her new bakery, Syroya’s Bakery, 1860 Mineral Spring Ave. near North Providence High School, last Saturday, officially starting business as the first minority woman-owned bakery in town.
Eugene, 41, was born and raised in Providence and got her start in an incubator space on Main Street in Pawtucket. She does not have a typical background in cooking or baking, but went to school to become a scientist.
“I’m a custom-cake artist,” she said. “My background is, I have a bachelor’s in science. I’m a clinical lab scientist by trade … I left my career as of this week, once I figured out everything.”
She specializes in custom cakes, novelty cakes, wedding cakes, really cakes for any occasion, also making pastries, pies, cookies, and puddings. Everything is made in small batches, in-house from scratch.
“I have recipes handed down from my grandmother,” she said.
Eugene attended the University of Rhode Island and then for the past 16 years worked as a clinical lab scientist. Her first job took her to Hawaii, but she returned to Rhode Island in 2008.
While she was working and raising a family of her own, including three children, she started to bake.
“I started baking when me and my husband had my youngest one,” she said. “For his birthday I wanted to do everything. Then I started doing things for friends and family.”
As her interest gained steam, she started to take online baking courses. Interest from future customers was also growing, and she eventually got her first paid order.
“I started as like an at-home kind of thing, just making things for friends and family,” she said. “Then, when I realized how busy it was getting, I decided to go try to make it into a legitimate business. I reached out to Hope & Main in Warren, the incubator program there, where they helped me really get my business started.”
A friend who was going to go into business with her found a retail space for Eugene, but it was 2020 and COVID hit. The idea of being a pastry chef kept calling out to her, said Eugene.
In October of last year, she opened her business in the Still on Main incubator building on Main Street in Pawtucket. She still worked per diem as a lab scientist as she looked for a more visible space with more foot traffic. And living in the Elmhurst area of Providence, North Providence was an appealing closer commute.
Everything Eugene makes, she said, is from scratch and with fresh ingredients. She said she has learned to develop new recipes while still learning and tweaking others. Her science background is a big help, with the chemistry and math has come in handy for baking, she told The Breeze.
Pies are her favorite to make.
“I make all of my pie crusts from scratch,” she said. “That’s very time consuming but it’s a lot of fun. Then I do my fillings. The pumpkin, which I have to start buying now because I roast them. It’s no-can pumpkin, so I roast the pumpkin here. I don’t really use anything that’s not fresh. Even my strawberry fillings, I buy the fresh strawberries and I will make the filling.”
The best-selling pastry right now is the strawberry crunch, which Eugene said pays homage to the ice cream treat. The vanilla oreo cupcakes have been big as well, as have been the mini cheesecakes. She said she likes doing fancy cupcakes, including her maple bacon ones that she served for the grand opening last Saturday and that won a contest in Bristol.
She said she usually has about nine to 12 flavors of cupcakes in her case as well as other desserts.
Syroya’s Bakery is now open Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. In the new year, Eugene said she wants to add a self-serve coffee station and more breakfast pastries to maybe start opening between 9 and 10 a.m.
Visit www.syroyasbakery.com for more.
Source: https://www.valleybreeze.com/news/north_providence/syroyas-bakery-opens-in-north-providence/article_8783af5e-5e3a-11ed-a39a-e7c2d6bdae32.html