Cafe, Glass Preparation Room Among Plans for New Madame Butterfly Locale

Madame Butterfly Cakes will be expanding to a new space over six times larger than their current location if the Babylon Village Board approves their application.

Owner Micheline Cummings told the board her custom cake business has outgrown its space at 22 Fire Island Avenue, and that the move would help them become more successful.

"We want to open a bakery cafe, expanding on what we do currently," Cummings told the board during a public hearing on Tuesday. "Part of it will be kitchen and retail, and the rest is a customer service area where they can sit... have coffee and our bakery items."

The current space at 22 Fire Island Avenue is only 300 square feet and does not allow for a space to dine inside. The new proposed location, at 450 Fire Island Avenue, would have over 2,000 square feet, allowing for many more options – including a glass preparation area.

"We want transparency of the current space – the kitchen will be windowed so customers can watch us while we're working," Cummings said, then laughed as she added: "We're going for a Willy Wonka-type of look."

Cummings said the business currently provided baked goods to Whole Foods Supermarket and that the new space would allow them to further that business to more markets.

The new space would also allow for the bakery to hold classes in its less-used finishing room, where cakes are decorated. Cummings told the board that not everything taught would be food related, but the business would not be renting the space out.

The new bakery, if approved, could be ready to go by the spring, when the current lease on their business district-location expires.

The village board members wished Cummings and her co-workers luck, but reserved decision on the application.