NORTH TONAWANDA, N.Y. — North Tonawanda has seen a surge of new businesses in recent months, and last week a new bakery joined their ranks.
It was the dream of the baker to expand her business from baking at home to opening her own bakery and coffee shop.
Anastasia Nikolaeva started baking out of her home in April of 2020 and her business grew from there. Now, she has lines of customers out the door.
Nikolaeva moved first to Illinois from Russia 19 years ago, and said finding good bread at that time in the U.S. was a challenge.
"I come from a family that loves to cook. That's how we show the love to all family, we just get together, we cook, and we eat together," said Nikolaeva.
A friend taught her how to bake her own bread. Four years later, her family moved to Buffalo, she got her masters in industrial engineering, and started her PhD.
"Though I felt that I wanted to be a smart woman with a doctoral degree in industrial engineering, it was not my dream. My dream was to open the bakery and to welcome people and to have them around," said Nikolaeva.
That dream began when she opened her business in April of 2020.
"Everyone was at home. I was baking loaves of warm bread. We would drive them and deliver them to the doorsteps," said Nikolaeva.
She built up a big customer base by joining the farmers market and baking for local cafes. Two-and-a-half years ago, she realized they outgrew their home kitchen. So, they bought a space on Zimmerman Street in North Tonawanda and opened Anastasia's Artisan Bread.
"The community support has been outrageous. We had hundreds of people coming through the doors," said Nikolaeva.
Nikolaeva is hiring a bigger staff to keep up and is enjoying getting to know everyone in the community as they enjoy her European-style breads, baguettes, and desserts.
"When I have a moment, when everyone leaves and I can sit here a the table with a notebook to take notes for the next day, I'm like, I'm lucky," said Nikolaeva. "I had my four children, I had my masters degree in industrial engineering, like I feel those parts and this is my lifestyle. I just want to do it for the rest of my life, and I want people around me to be happy. That's the whole point. It's family."