For Garden City Park resident Peter Papaseraphim, opening the SweeTart Bakery Cafe in New Hyde Park was an abrupt career switch and the fulfillment of a lifelong aspiration.
After earning a bachelor degree in psychology at City College of New York and master of arts at Columbia University Teachers College, Papaseraphim spent seven years in the New York City Teaching Fellows Program teaching mathematics to eighth graders at I.S. 125 in Woodside, Queens.
But for Papaseraphim, something was missing and he decided to return to the bakery business he had learned while in high school opening SweeTart in August.
“I’ve always wanted to do this, and I just took the opportunity,” said Papaseraphim, who had moved to Garden City Park six years ago. “Teaching is fun. But I felt I was just a machine. The hours are much longer but it’s satisfying to create something and see people enjoying it.”
Papaseraphim, 48, migrated to the U.S. from Cyprus with his family in 1978 at the age of 13.
His first job was working in a bakery where his family settled in Astoria as he attended school. His older sister Angela married a baker and he worked in his brother-in-law Luka’s bakery during the summer when he was still in high school, acquiring skills that prepared him for his own business.
Over the years, he said, he continued baking baklava, spinach pies and other Greek specialties at home for his wife Joann and his children, Georgia and Kyriakos.
Living in Garden City Park, the choice to locate his business in New Hyde Park at 1200 Jericho Turnpike was a natural one.
“This is my community. These are my neighbors. They’re really wonderful people and what I like is that it’s so ethnically diverse,” Papaseraphim said.
He said he’s offering a wide variety of pastries and cakes to appeal to that diverse population.
“It’s really rewarding seeing people enjoying a pastry and a cup of coffee,” he said. “I felt there is a need for this community to have a bakery.”
SweeTart has been joined in his business by his wife, Joann, helps out behind the counter.
Soon, he said, he plans to introduce olive bread based on his mother Lukia’s recipe to his selection of baked goods.
SweeTart also offers a lunch menu of salad, artisan sandwiches, wraps and panini sandwiches. Soup, spinach pie and cheese pie are on the menu as “comforting lunch choices.”
“People appreciate good spinach pie,” he said. “Everything in life can be stressful. Sitting down to have a pastry or a sandwich is relaxing.”
Papaseraphim is also planning on introducing sugar-free pastries and gluten-free almond cookies, chocolate chip cookies, coconut macaroons and raspberry and apricot tarts.
So far, he said he’s received a positive response from the community and from local businesses, which have been ordering lunches.
A member of the Greater New Hyde Park Chamber of Commerce, he participated in the recent village street fair, drawing a brisk business at the outdoor tables he set up with baked goods.
“Life is a cycle. I started out doing this and now I come back to it,” Papaseraphim said.
More information about SweeTart and its hours of operation are online at www.sweetartbakerycafe.com.
