The new Morning Star Bakery & Cafe in Bath has become a phenomenon that co-owners Eric and Darcie Bosshard weren’t expecting.
The Bath Township couple, who opened the eclectically European-style business April 17, created the bakery and cafe as a passion project. Two weeks after opening, the couple reported that Morning Star was selling 700 to 800 pastries daily and about 1,000 a day on weekends, wiping out the bakery cases daily.
The large community response has meant lines out the door from 9 a.m. to 1:30 pm. daily at 1070 Ghent Road. That customer traffic is three to four times more than the Bosshards had expected.
“It’s a pretty remarkable thing,” Eric Bosshard said.
The volume of customers has been so high, the bakery has switched to being closed Mondays and Tuesdays to catch up with baking.
Executive Chef Sarah Carciopollo and four other bakers are the ones making the magic when it comes to the cafe’s European pastries.
“I’m super excited. We never dreamed that this was gonna take off this way,” Carciopollo said at the eatery May 1. “We just take it one day at a time, create new things, put it out, keep the people coming, trying new things.”
The little French canelé, a regular pastry at Morning Star, has a caramelized exterior and custard inside. It’s made in molds imported from France.
“I consider it the queen of our case. They’re small and just spectacular,” Eric said.
He said the bakery opened with two bakers and has now expanded to five. Morning Star now has 25 employees, 10 of whom were hired in late April.
The Bosshards developed their 3,000 square-foot bakery at the west end of the Corner Provisions building in Bath in what had been a raw space that the former Pitchfork restaurant sometimes used for overflow storage. With the help of Eric Jones of Jones Group Interiors, they created Morning Star modeled after European cafes that they’ve spent time in, including in Copenhagen.
“We wanted a space that we would want to be in and had lots of textures and different fabrics,” Darcie said.
That includes textured wallpaper and luxurious, green upholstered banquette backs. The Bosshards also picked out an eclectic mix of contemporary art for the cafe.
The choice of a large space was purposeful.
“We really wanted to create a place where people could connect, so it was always meant to be a place where people could sit down … a community gathering place,” Eric said.
“It’s not meant to be a grab-and-go type of place,” he said. “It’s a bakery. It’s a coffee shop. It’s a cafe. It’s a little bit of all of them.”
Morning Star seats 58 inside — including community tables, counter seats around the bakery from which customers can talk to the bakers — and 20 on the front patio.
The eatery’s open bakery concept was inspired by a bakery the Bosshards visited in Charlottesville, Virginia. The European-style Morning Star is inspired by numerous bakeries they’ve visited throughout Europe and the United States, including New York.
Darcie said she enjoys working at the pastry counter and explaining to customers what different baked goods and ingredients are.
“Eric and I just both love people and love a sense of hospitality,” she said. “We’re happy you’re here and we’re just happy to serve and just give back to our community.”
How Morning Star Bakery & Cafe was born
This passion project came to fruition after Eric suffered a cardiac arrest on his bike in 2024 while doing his daily, 40-mile ride. He had no pulse for 9 minutes but miraculously, a nurse who was passing by helped save him by administering CPR on the side of the road.
“Coming out of that, I examined my life and said, ‘Every day is a gift,'” said Eric, who decided with Darcie and their three grown children that this was the time to realize their dream of opening their own cafe.
Eric, who went through multiple surgeries and months of recovery, continues to run his investment research company, Cleveland Research Company, as his day job.
The Bosshards, who met pastry chef Carcipollo through Eric’s company, traveled with her to Copenhagen in October to take a baking class in the city that has some of the greatest bakeries in the world.
“We learned to make the cardamom (knot) and we got our hands in there and we learned to make the little knot, that is what the cardamom (knot) is made of and you twist it around your fingers,” Darcie said.
Spots that they visited in Copenhagen also inspired their choice of tile floor and bakery cabinet design at Morning Star.
Ever-changing pastry offerings
Bakery offerings change daily with specials, which on May 1 included a Danish vanilla bun, Dubai chocolate croissants and a pizza croissant with roasted tomato ricotta, fresh pepperoni, mozzarella, basil pesto and hot honey.
“Nearly every day there’s something new in the case,” Eric said.
Daily baking starts at 2:30 a.m. and runs until about 11:30 a.m.
The pizza croissant, invented by sous chef Lauren Hlad May 1, was Morning Star’s take on Pizza Friday, Carciopollo said.
The ube cinnamon rolls, which are sourdough rolls, are so popular, they fly out of the cases. Customers have been known to wait for an hour and 20 minutes to make sure they get one from the next batch. This ube treat is usually first available two hours after opening.
Morning Star’s hours are 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
Japanese influences
Morning Star also has influences from the Bosshards’ travel in Japan, namely matcha teas and other Japanese teas that are served in hand-crafted tea cups imported from Japan.
Besides its baked goods and drinks, Morning Star offers breakfast and lunch fare. Breakfast choices include an egg biscuit with gouda chive eggs, house sausage, arugula and mustard; Morning Star Toast with sourdough, avocado, egg, cucumber, radish, onion and feta and a Morning Bowl with grains, a farm egg, sausage, kale, feta and maple tahini.
Lunch options include everything from the classic jambon beurre on a baguette to a shawarma chicken bowl. One lunch entree straight from Copenhagen is the vegetarian smørrebrød board, which is three slices of sourdough bread topped with curried egg salad, roasted carrot with herbed ricotta and golden potato with crispy shallots and lemon dill sauce.
“I think people really enjoy something new,” Eric said. “The community is just so interested and intrigued.”
Arts and restaurant writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: European pastries wow customers at new Morning Star Bakery & Cafe
Reporting by Kerry Clawson, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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