Lockport commuters have fresh breakfast options at Italian bakery

Lockport — Commuters or those looking for a change from standard bakery fare in Lockport have a new option to choose from at the city’s newest bakery.

Nicola’s Heavenly Cucina is located in the city’s Metra station, 169 W. 13th St., and offers unique specialities, focusing on sourdough bread and traditional Italian cookies and pastries.

“It’s been great,” said owner Nicole Pietrarosso-Pavlinic, who officially opened the shop in October. “It’s definitely been a little overwhelming because I have such a big variety and I’m trying to finalize the menu.”

Although this is Pietrarosso-Pavlinic’s first brick-and-mortar bakery location, she said she has been baking from a young age and previously had tested selling her creations at suburban farmers markets.

“I’ve been baking my whole life – my mom taught me – and it’s been a dream for me to open up my own bakery,” Pietrarosso-Pavlinic said. “A lot of these recipes have been in my family for decades. I’ve always baked from home, but I started selling at the Brookfield farmers market in 2023, and my business has just exploded this year.”

Among the favorites on Pietrarosso-Pavlinic’s menu are Italian classics such as butter cookies, cannolis and tiramisu, along with chocolate chip and oatmeal cookies, coffee, and her house specialty sourdough bread creations.

“I’ve been baking my whole life – my mom taught me – and it’s been a dream for me to open up my own bakery. A lot of these recipes have been in my family for decades.'

—  Nicole Pietrarosso-Pavlinic, owner of Nicola’s Heavenly Cucina

Along with full loaves of sourdough, Pietrarosso-Pavlinic also sells sourdough scones, bagels and English muffins, which she uses for breakfast sandwiches.

“Everything sells pretty consistently, but the sourdough loaves and breakfast sandwiches are the most popular,” she said.

Pietrarosso-Pavlinic makes all the bread from scratch, a two-day process that involves fermenting the dough with homemade sourdough starter and using imported Italian flour.

She said she decided to focus on sourdough because it is “more beneficial to your health.”

“If you make it with homemade starter instead of commercial yeast, it’s very different and healthier,” she said. “Lots of sourdough in grocery stores is made with yeast and vinegar to recreate the taste, but it loses out on the benefits.”

Some of those benefits, Pietrarosso-Pavlinic said, include lower amounts of sugar and gluten, which she said makes the bread easier to eat for people with diabetes and gluten sensitivity. She did note, however, that people with severe gluten intolerance still could react badly to it.

Even some of the nonbread items on Nicola’s menu are made with sourdough, including the oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.

“The better the ingredients you use, the better it’s going to taste,” Pietrarosso-Pavlinic said. “I wanted to really focus on healthier baking, because you can taste the difference. You don’t feel fat after you eat it.”

Among the other ingredients she prides herself on are European grass-fed butter, locally sourced lettuce from Lockport’s Second City Greens, organic sugar, homemade vanilla extract, ricotta from a Joliet dairy farm, sausage and bacon from a small family farm in Michigan, and raw milk and cream from Vintage Meadows Farm in Indiana.

“I try to keep my suppliers local when I can to support other small businesses,” she said.

Pietrarosso-Pavlinic said she has “loved” setting up in her own small space at the Metra station, calling it ”really cool and homey." She is continuing to do occasional weekend markets in Brookfield and said she has plans to expand her business.

“I’m excited for things to settle down after the holidays so I can start looking at doing curbside pickups and deliveries,” Pietrarosso-Pavlinic said. “I want to start slow and venture out. Ultimately, I’d love to get into the bigger production world and make bread for restaurants, but this is where I’m starting for now.”

Pietrarosso-Pavlinic said she has seen a lot of enthusiasm for her products so far, with some customers traveling miles – one customer comes from as far as Barrington – to visit the shop.

“The best review I’ve gotten was from a woman who had a big order of Italian pastries and cannolis who said her family is from Sicily and very picky,” Pietrarosso-Pavlinic said. “She told me, ‘It tastes like back home,’ which felt like an amazing compliment.”

Nicola’s Heavenly Cucina is open from 5:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays.