Bella Christie & Lil’ Z’ s Sweet Boutique’ s second location offers interactive dessert stations that can satisfy any type of sweet craving.
Manic Milkshakes are offered in a variety of flavors including Salted Caramel Pretzel, S’ more, Cotton Candy, Birthday Cake, Cookies‘ n Cream and more.
Bella Christie & Lil’ Z’ s Sweet Boutique’ s second location offers interactive dessert stations that can satisfy any type of sweet craving.
By Nicole Tafe
“
Every
Sweet Success!
day is a sweet day at Bella Christie & Lil’ Z’ s Sweet Boutique!” say sisters Kristin Lewis-Smith and Kadee Lewis. As one of Pittsburgh’ s treasured boutiques, Bella Christie & Lil’ Z’ s offers something unique and delectable that will tantalize the taste buds of anyone whose favorite part of a meal is dessert. This fall, the booming business continues to cultivate its second location in Lawrenceville with unique interactive dessert offerings.
“ We opened our second location several years ago when the opportunity presented itself,” recalls Lewis-Smith.
Dozen Bake Shoppe— which had been open in that location for several years— was closing its doors and looking for someone to take over the existing lease. At the time, Bella Christie’ s business was growing rapidly and the sisters found the Aspinwall shop bursting at the seams, in need of space to expand.
“ Instead of relocating to one larger location, we decided to essentially split the bakery into two,” explains Lewis-Smith.“ Our Aspinwall location continued to craft our delicious dessert items and our cake wizards continued to sculpt and design their beautiful creations— only now they had more room to do so. We moved our candy making, chocolate dipping and decorated cookie production to our new location in Lawrenceville.”
Bella Christie’ s was initially started by Lewis-Smith about 12 years ago. At that time, the home-based business was small and specialized in decorated cookies and bakery bars as well as cookies produced for private and wholesale clients.
Growing up, Lewis-Smith would spend countless summers“ down south” apprenticing with her grandmother— a master“ southern” baker and candy maker. With her grandmother’ s influence, she fostered a love for baking and candy making, and when her children were very young, she decided to delve into a business of her own that quickly became a success.
About four years later, Lewis-Smith and her sister, Kadee Lewis, joined forces to expand the business to create the shop that exists today. Lewis, a personal trainer and gym owner in Aspinwall, pushed her sister to expand her talents and encouraged her to tackle new items like fondant and wedding cakes.
As the business took off, an actual storefront, more space and a staff became a reality for the Lewis sisters.“ Kadee is really
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