Bake Shop Serving Community For 37 Years
/By Janee Law
jlaw@longislandergroup.com
Mary McDonald, right, owner of A Rise Above Bake Shop, stands with employee Hana Fulfarr in front of cookies that the bake shop prepared for the day ahead.
A Rise Above Bake Shop in the heart of Huntington village cooks up a homey atmosphere, with walls decorated in white wallpaper lined with blue flowers, and a vintage display case displaying dishware and baking tools that parallel the delicious aroma of freshly-baked cookies.
Everything baked at A Rise Above is made from scratch. The 333 Main Street bakery offers muffins, scones, cookies, pies, Linzer tarts, cakes, brownies, cupcakes and more, and also brews up coffee.
“We do everything like they do it at home,” Mary McDonald, owner of the shop, said. “We start really early, baking scones and muffins and get the coffee going.”
The cookie selection at A Rise Above Bake Shop in Huntington village. Each of the bake shop’s offerings are made from scratch.
The day at A Rise Above begins at 7 a.m., but McDonald said the shop continues to bake throughout the day, filling the needs of whichever items are running low.
The 1,000-square-foot bakery has been doing this since 1979, when it first opened under the name of Well Bred Loaf. McDonald managed the store until she bought it in 1986. She and two other co-owners kept the name until five years later when it made the switch to A Rise Above.
“We were doing a lot of our own recipes,” McDonald said. “We felt that it was time for us to move on with our own brand.”
Now the sole owner of the shop, McDonald said she has seen families grow after serving the Huntington community for 37 years.
“You couldn’t ask for a better place to have a small business like this,” McDonald added. “We have really loyal clientele and have been involved in both the good parts of people’s lives and the unfortunate parts.”
A Rise Above Bake Shop has been serving the Huntington community for 37 years.
The shop is also known for its signature sour cream chocolate cake, delicious scones that come in several flavors, like raisin, chocolate chip, and chocolate raspberry, along with seasonal scones, such as fresh apple, and blueberry.
And everything is fresh, McDonald said. “Everything that we do is from scratch.”
“When we make an apple pie, we peel the apples… It’s not canned apples,” she added.
Now, the shop is preparing for the upcoming holiday season. Shortbread cookies in the shape of turkeys are being prepped for Thanksgiving, and snowmen-shaped cookies will come in time for the December holidays. Other popular holiday cookies include spice, orange crisp and Swedish spritz.
For Thanksgiving pies, with flavors such as apple crumb, pumpkin, cranberry-apple, pecan, coconut custard and New England cheese, customers can order them in sizes of six, eight or 10 inches.
“The feedback has been very positive,” McDonald said, regarding her customers’ response to her products. “I’ve been very fortunate over the years. I have great employees, and they’re not just employees. They’re friends, so it’s been a very good run.”
A Rise Above Bake Shop
333 Main St., Huntington
631-351-9811
