Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melania Castegnaro. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Melania, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you tell us about a time where you or your team really helped a customer get an amazing result?

Recently, we’ve been receiving incredibly thoughtful messages form our customers that remind us why we put in the hours, navigate the hard times, and celebrate the successes such as these.

One of our customer’s told us: “It wouldn’t be a Saturday without Melania’s.”

Another customer refers to us as “This is my happy place”.

Just recently we received the following message from a customer:

“I just want to say and don’t want to sound weird: Thanks so much for coming to Front Royal! The desserts are always out of this world! It gives us something to look forward to after a long and grueling work and life week. In this day and age, it’s tough to find love and joy around the corner. We find it every time we come into your shop with the people and the product. Love you guys!”

To know that we are making an impact like this in people’s lives means everything to us. Bringing joy to people’s hearts through our pastries, our cozy environment, and our staff is the highest reward we could achieve.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Pastries are not only my passion, they are my purpose. In September of 2023, I opened up my very own Pastry Shop, Chocolaterie, and Bohemian cafe with my husband in a little town called Front Royal, VA.

Having spent the last 10 years as an Executive Pastry Chef at multiple international organizations, and my entire professional career as a classically trained Pastry Chef, owning my own business has been my dream since I moved to the United States in 2010.

Growing up in San Jose, Costa Rica, I was introduced to baking from my Grandmother decorating Christmas cookies with her when I was 7 years old. I loved everything about it. The smell, the feel, the taste, the textures… Since then, I’ve always known this was my purpose.

Having left the corporate world, my mission is to bring world class, high quality pastries, chocolates, and spectacular breakfast and lunch options to communities that otherwise would not be able to experience this medium of culinary spectacle.

Front Royal is a small, dormant city 1.5 hours west of Washington, DC. The population here does not have access to the high quality, world class bakeries and pastry shops that are opening up all over the major cities across the East Coast. My husband and I fill that need by giving this community and the surrounding area an opportunity to experience culinary elegance in a warm and welcoming bohemian environment.

Every week we offer a rotating plethora of one-of-a-kind delicacies. We display Churro Cakes, Guave & Dulce De Leche Tarts, Lemon Meringue Tarts, German Chocolate Tarts, Hazelnut Crunch Bars, Apricot Cranberry Scones, Peach & Brie Croissants, Gluten Free Brownies, Cornmeal Pistachio Cookies, Chocolate Cyclone Cookies, Chocolate Peanut Butter and Pretzel Cookies, Weekly Specialty Cakes, and my award winning Chocolate Silk Bar (just to name a few of the delicacies we offer).

Through these offerings, we have created a small but rapidly growing following in the area. Now, our customers don’t just come in for the pastries, but for the warm and loving environment that we’ve created in our shop. It’s become a gathering place for friends, families, and businesses to connect with each other. One thing we notice over and over again is that people are rarely looking at their screens when they are in our shop. They are looking at each other. That is powerful.

Our motto is “Un Poquito Mas”. It mean’s “A little bit more”. It’s something that I say to my kitchen staff when they check with me to see if something is finished and I know it needs a little bit more. This little saying has defined both our food and our experience… you want “Un Poquito Mas”.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My cofounder and business partner is also my husband. We met on January 7th of 2022 when I became a new member at a gym in Washington, DC. He was one of the coaches and overheard that I was training for a fitness competition. When he approached me about it, I asked him if he was going to compete, and he said no he wasn’t. I asked him why and he said that he was moving to Costa Rica!

I said, “I’m from Costa Rica!” He immediately asked if we could meet up and talk about Costa Rica. We met that night and that’s when everything changed. We talked until the early hours of the morning about each other’s lives and dreams. I told him that my dream was to open up my own Pastry Shop and Cafe.

A few months later, I quit my corporate job as the Executive Pastry Chef of an international catering company and moved with him deep into the jungles of Costa Rica to help him start a small fitness business making functional fitness equipment using wood from the Costa Rican jungle.

I took an entire year off from my work to reevaluate if I wanted to stay in the industry. I had spent my entire professional career working countless hours for other people, and I was burnt out.

During that time in the jungle, I realized that baking and pastry arts weren’t just my life’s passion, they defined me. I knew that if there was ever a time to give it everything I had, now was the time to open up my own business. Prior to COVID, he had run his own Event Production Company in DC had the skills to handle the operational aspects of our new venture together.

We moved back to the States in January of 2023, found the perfect location to start our shop, and opened up our doors to the public on September 7th, 2023.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Competitive advantage.

One of the best questions ever posed by the legend who invented the fast casual concept (Ron Shaich – Founder of Panera Bread) asks “What will make customers walk by all of your competitors and through your doors?” The answer is competitive advantage.

In our area, we are the only business that offers a rotating plethora of world class pastries inside a warm and loving environment. served with genuine service. Once people try our product, they don’t just come back to us, they bring groups with them. This model repeats itself over and over again and it has given us the critical mass to slowly begin to grow the business.

We are known for consistent quality, consistent service, and there’s always something new on the menu that will bring people back over and over again. This is the model we want to continue to work off of as we begin our search to open up a second location in a similar market.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.melaniasgourmet.com
• Instagram: @melanias.gourmet
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092672944780
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/melanias-gourmet-front-royal

Image Credits
Katherine Manly Jenny Statler