Richmond is not in my neck of the woods — from Vergennes, it’s a classic “you can’t get there from here.” But a friend from Jericho is my Sweet Simone’s delivery driver; he rarely visits without the bakery’s filled croissants or cupcakes.
It was recently my turn to visit him, so I stopped to check out Sweet Simone’s expansion. On Bridge Street since 2015, the bakery known for elaborate cakes and laminated pastries added a savory side in the adjacent storefront in October, with pizza, sandwiches and Italian-leaning specialty provisions.
Savory items aren’t new at Sweet Simone’s, though they’ve morphed over the years — sometimes just one sandwich and salad per day, sometimes an entire lunch menu, and for a stint starting in 2017, full-on dinners on Monday nights. They’ve always done well, owner Lisa Curtis said, but the kitchen was at capacity.
“Everything we were doing was bakery, bakery, bakery,” she said. “In the back corner, we had one savory guy pumping out some amazing stuff.”
Now, “savory guy” Ethan Chamberlain and a small team have their own kitchen. A third the size of the bakery, the store has shelves full of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, tinned fish, wine and snacks lining the right wall, leading to deli cases in the back.
“It’s what I grew up with.” Lisa Curtis
When designing the narrow layout, it seemed as if customers might find themselves in a “New York City-style squeeze-past-people situation,'” Curtis said. But the annex is roomier than she expected, and customers can sit in the attached bakery. It’s taking some time for regulars to find their way to the right spot to order a sandwich and for Curtis to spread the word that sliced-to-order meats and cheeses — as well as fresh fish and oysters delivered by Wood Mountain Fish — are now on offer.
Curtis said she’d taught customers what to expect at Sweet Simone’s, so “now I have to train them again.”
Another change: Sweet Simone’s sandwiches are no longer made in advance but can be ordered online. I was already in Richmond when I decided to stop, so I skipped that step. I barely had time to browse the shelves before my lunch was ready.
A hefty rectangular slice of pizza, topped with rich braised beef and spinach ($4.75), was more than enough. My husband’s Italian sandwich ($14) was stuffed with sopressata, coppa, mortadella and provolone. It had all the right zing, with pepperoncini and dressed arugula on a housemade baguette. (Gluten-free options from Montpelier’s Bonté Bakery are available for both sandwiches and pizza.)
The Italian-heavy menu is inspired by Curtis’ heritage and New Jersey upbringing. Eggplant and chicken cutlet sandwiches have been popular, as has the sub that’s based on her mom’s meatball recipe.
“It’s what I grew up with,” she said.
I went out of my way for those meatballs last week. A late-afternoon stop yielded six fist-size polpette ($3 each), as well as linguine with cooking instructions in Italian and a jar of extra sauce.
Other than Sundays, the new store stays open later to capture last-minute dinner provisioners such as me — until 6 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and until 4 p.m. on Saturday. One bonus: The bakery’s leftovers move over to the top of the deli case when it closes at 2 p.m., if you’re also after a sneaky peanut butter-chocolate chip cookie.
Curtis plans to keep hours steady for the first year, to let customers settle in to a new routine. She’ll keep spicing things up, though, and not in an exclusively Italian way. Customers may find Portuguese, French and Spanish specialties in the case, or soy sauce, ponzu and rice vinegar on the shelves. She’s also working on a liquor license, with Aperol spritzes, limoncello and sangria in mind.
Once that’s in hand, one night a week the team will offer “Aperitivo at Sweet Simone’s,” the casual drinks and snacks that are a predinner Italian tradition. That idea was inspired by Curtis’ visit to Italy last April.
“We’ll see if it catches on,” she said.
She might have to train customers again, but I’ll be among her eager students.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Sweet and Savory | Richmond’s Sweet Simone’s expands with lunch and provisions”
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2025.
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