The owners of Michael’s Bakeshop in Downtown Willoughby recently expanded their business to space just next door . Located at 4145 Erie St., the additional space is intended for better customer service and allowing more kitchen space in order to make more cinnamon rolls as well as potential new items down the road. The owners of Michael’s Bakeshop in Downtown Willoughby recently expanded their business to space just next door of their first location. (Michael Richmond) “The biggest thing is we’re just very lucky,” said Michael Richmond, owner of the bakeshop alongside his partner, Michael McCall. “We’re in a great corner and timing has absolutely been on our side with starting at the farmer’s market a couple years ago, the space we’ve had for the last year opening up and now the space next door.” Related Articles Local News | Michael’s Bakeshop owners plan to give Sweet Beginnings its next chapter At one point in time, the two spaces in the historic building were connected, Richmond said, allowing for the perfect amount of flow. “It’s like the next logical step for our business since it all happened,” he said. “We got the keys to our space last year and then I think it was the Fourth of July weekend we found out that this space would be available. It only took us couple of months to get this up and running, but this is phase one. There’s still some menu items to grow upon and we’re still expanding with time.” With the additional space, the bakeshop will now be open Wednesdays through Sundays from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. or until sell out. “We do baby steps here before, we were open Thursday through Sunday,” Richmond said. The bakeshop’s mission statement is still centered around the cinnamon rolls. “Whenever we have a brainstorming session, we always start with cinnamon rolls,” Richmond said. “That’s what got us here and that’s what’s going to keep us here. Cinnamon rolls are like home here. I would love to add on more things slowly and we have all these cases in this new room to fill with certain things, but it’s just going to be a lot more cinnamon rolls for now.” The core of the bakeshop’s customers are the regulars who come in at least once a week if not every single day, Richmond observed. “That was one of our things with adding Wednesdays,” he said, noting that it could potentially drive more business and new customers, as well as being more accommodating to schedules. “We know many of our customers, what they like, what they get, when their family is in town and we know the other business owners. It’s such a nice, good-sized community. You know everybody and everybody knows you.” With starting at the farmer’s market and having met many people through that, the next chapter just made sense, Richmond said. “We make something that is special and fresh, and we don’t have a back shelf that has cinnamon rolls that have been there for a few days,” he said. “Everything we make is made that morning and we sell out when we sell out. Once we master this new, bite-sized piece, we’ll go form there. I think this is the next step for more and bigger.”