By Delainey Muscato,
St. Bonaventure University
Laura Green, owner of La Dolce Vita Bakery in Olean, loves her business. She loves her employees, her customers, baking and cooking. The name of her bakery, which translates to “The Sweet Life”, came from her Italian upbringing and a trip she took to Italy. Her mother and aunts were always in the kitchen whipping up traditional Italian dishes. Green has loved cooking and baking since a young age and was inspired by her family to live her dream and open her own bakery.
Before entering the food industry, Green was a teacher for 12 years. She taught special education at a children’s learning center and BOCES. After this, she was an administrator at the non-profit Cattaraugus Wyoming Project Head Start for 23 years.
But not everything has been sweet since she opened her business in February of 2019. Green shared how COVID was tough on her and her business. “We were booming for five straight weeks and then it all kind of stopped,” Green said. They shut down completely for a few months when the virus first hit. Because of supply chain issues, some ingredients were very hard to come by or were simply too expensive. On Mother’s Day of the same year, they were able to start accepting online orders only. When they were able to reopen later on, business returned to normal, and they have been doing great ever since then.
The company has a very strong customer base. “We love our customers. They’re so great and we have a lot of regulars,” Green said. She also stated a lot of the customers have become like family to the company. It is conveniently located near a lot of apartments in downtown Olean. It is also located near Green Acres Café. This is her husband’s 28-year-old company. Of her husband’s business and her own Green said, “Everyone says we are competing, but we complement each other”. Green said it is super convenient for them to be so close. If one of them is out of something at either place, they can quickly run to their spouses storefront to grab it.
Since first opening, they have made quite a few improvements to their place. Green shared that it is a long, narrow space but they have made it work well. They added air conditioning to the dining room area as well as the kitchen, expanded their seating area and the kitchen, got more equipment for their kitchen and added a brand-new awning to the storefront.
It is not just customers that love La Dolce Vita and recognize what a great business they are. On May 3rd of 2023, Jamestown Community College Small Business Development Corporation awarded the company Entrepreneur of the Year. Green shared her excitement and appreciation of receiving this award.
La Dolce Vita has something for everybody. Their gluten free and dairy free options are very popular. The most popular of their pastries seems to be carrot cake. Green says she finds herself making that recipe quite often. They also make brunch boards, charcuterie boxes, bagels and breakfast sandwiches. Additionally, they have soups and salads. Their desserts change with the seasons. For the fall, they created some pumpkin flavored desserts. Finger Lakes Coffee Roasters provides multiple flavors of coffee to the café. La Dolce Vita creates custom desserts to go along with the different flavors of coffee.
When creating new desserts and meals, they take a lot of inspiration from social media. Green is thankful for her younger employees that follow trends on social media and come up with some