Sophie Le Gourmand Coming To Cleveland Heights

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OH — A Lee Road storefront is being transformed into Sophie Le Gourmand, a pastry shop, café and catering business.

Sophie Le Gourmand is the brainchild of Robert Sferra, the owner of Culinary Occasions, a catering company. After more than three decades in the food business, Sferra wanted to combine his successful catering service and his love of pastries.

He purchased the space on Lee Road in 2019 and started a massive rehabilitation of the interior. The building used to be home to an HVAC shop and bar, so significant change was needed to accommodate Sferra's vision.

After training in Paris and restaurants around the U.S., Sferra developed a passion for confections and pastries. Even when Culinary Occasions was a success, Sferra daydreamed of sweet creations. So when the opportunity to combine his successful business with his confections visions, he jumped at the opportunity. Sferra recruited a an amazing kitchen crew, he said, with the confections division being led by Pastry Chef, Tom Francescangeli to make the vision for sweet creations a reality.

Then COVID-19 hit and the world came to a grinding, screeching halt.

"Like everyone else, we were figuring out how to survive during the pandemic," Sferra said.

Construction at Lee Road stopped for a time. Only when restrictions were lifted and vaccines started rolling out did business pick-up and work on Sophie Le Gourmand resumed. Now Sferra is finally thinking about his grand opening.

With luck, Sophie Le Gourmand will open before the end of the year, Sferra told Patch. As 2020 proved, unexpected hiccups can disrupt plans, so there is no hard grand opening date yet.

"We'll have a very French, European, slant," Sferra told Patch. He wants to bring a unique pastry option to Cleveland Heights. He has no interest in recreating the offerings of other bakeries and confectioneries.

"We want to have a very unique take on the café and pastry offering," he said.

"We are excited that Culinary Occasions is joining the Cleveland Heights business community. They further reinforce the culinary “maker” and artisan concentration of businesses on Lee Road – which already features a cheese maker, chocolatier, bakeries, breweries and a winery. I think Bob has a real vision for his business and plans for expansion on Lee Road with a larger storefront/retail presence and events/cooking classes that really compliments the rest of the street," said Brian Anderson, business development manager for Cleveland Heights.