CHELSEA — A new bakery and sweets shop opening this weekend aims to bring little-known Italian treats to the Big Apple.
Crave.it, which opens on Saturday at 546 Sixth Ave., will serve up contemporary Italian desserts and foods including xaeti veneziani, a Venetian polenta and raisin cookie, and pizette, bite-sized pizzas made from pastry dough.
The 30-seat bakery and cafe is the creation of Selvaggia Pizzetti, who was born and raised in Rome before she moved to New York, and chef Alejandro Quinones, who trained at bakeries in Italy. The pair hope to bring modern Italian cuisine to a city dominated by old-school Italian bakeries and restaurants.
"There's nothing like that here, so I decided to take a piece of it to New York," Pizzetti said. "I really follow food as a passion — it's a form of art when I work in the kitchen."
The shop will also offer single-serve monoporzione of homemade gelato and gelato-based desserts, with the goal of showing New Yorkers that the iced treat is something that can be enjoyed year-round.
A total of 18 creative flavors like strawberry-mint, peach-saffron and carrot-orange will all be available when the store opens.
"You can have thousands of combinations of gelato and desserts," she said. "We want to educate Americans on the East Coast that you can eat ice cream like this even in the winter."
Pizzetti imported kitchen equipment and decorations from Italy, and even serves Milanese Mokito coffee.
"I want to bring the Italy that I know to New York City, and I want to do it right," she said.