CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — Dozens of customers every week are lining up outside Sophia Marie Patisserie in Chester, a business which originally began with a pregnancy craving for macarons.
“That is how this all happened. Got pregnant during COVID. Like everyone else, stuck inside, locked down, wanted some macaron, and, you know, you couldn't get them anywhere, right?” owner and chef Stacia Palomeque said.
After failing to make the macarons she was craving during pregnancy, Palomeque went to school to learn after her daughter was born. She initially only wanted to make treats for her family to eat at home, but gradually started taking her pastries to farmers markets before opening a home-based bakery.
Palomeque opened the door to her shop in River’s Bend last year, named after the baby that started it all.
“Without that craving and the pregnancy, this probably would have never happened. So she is the inspiration. She is what keeps me going,” Palomeque said.
Palomeque told CBS 6 that she’s had to double her staff within the last three months to keep up with the huge demand.
“At this point last year, I was getting keys to this place, and it was just me,” she said. “This has grown into something way more than what I had originally expected.”
Now, seven trained pastry chefs keep the dessert cases full.
The patisserie’s popularity started to skyrocket when they began offering entremets: a unique pastry made up of three components: a cake component, a cream component and a fruit component, before being dipped in chocolate and glazed with a mirror glaze.
Before increasing staff, customers were asked to pre-order entremets each week because of the complex process.
“Each of these entremets has anywhere from four to six different recipes that go into it,” she explained. “The cake has to be made separate. The compote is made separate, the mousse is made separately, and then we combine all of those components. So from very beginning to end, if I were to add the hours together, we're looking at anywhere from six to eight hours per entremet.”
Now that there are more hands on deck, Palomeque says customers can pre-order or purchase in person.
While the entremets expanded their social media footprint, customers waiting in line when CBS 6 visited on Valentine’s Day were all there for different things. Michel Walker, who’s been shopping regularly for about eight months, said she visits for the bread and chocolate pastries. Daniel Diaz, who stopped in for the first time, grabbed some cinnamon rolls.
“I’m super excited for them, that they’ve gotten a lot of exposure and attention, because it’s really neat to have something like this in Chester,” Walker said. “It used to be you’d have to go into the city to get something like this.”
Sophia Marie Patisserie is located at 241 E. Hundred Road in Chester. Click here to view their website.
Where is your favorite place to get pastries in Central Virginia? Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
📲: CONNECT WITH US
Blue Sky | Facebook | Instagram | X | Threads | TikTok | YouTube
