Café Alma Acquires Sweet Butter Bakery
Café Alma owners Lainey and Yair Richler have acquired Sweet Butter Bakery, adding its established line of kosher Jewish baked goods to the Pleasant Ridge café. According to Lainey Richler, Sweet Butter’s pastries will continue to be produced at the bakery’s Shepherd Drive location. Café Alma will continue making its breads and bagels while incorporating Sweet Butter favorites into the café’s broader bakery selection.
Sweet Butter entered the acquisition with established wholesale and community relationships. “The brand has already established successful wholesale relationships with respected local businesses like BonBonerie Bakery and Pipkin’s Market, validating both the quality of the products and consumer interest,” Richler said. “The community also loves having the treats at the JCC!”
Richler said Sugar n’ Spice is another Sweet Butter wholesale customer. Together, those relationships have introduced the bakery’s products to customers in neighborhood markets, restaurants and Jewish community settings throughout the Cincinnati area.
Sweet Butter Bakery was founded in March 2021 by pastry chef Erika Hecht, who initially turned to baking as relief from the pressures of her work as a social worker. In 2003, she began working professionally at a French pastry shop in Columbus. After gaining nearly two decades of experience, primarily under French pastry chefs, she opened Sweet Butter during the COVID-19 pandemic, relying on social media and word of mouth to develop a customer base.
Hecht combined that professional experience with Jewish family recipes. Her mandelbread, for example, was adapted from a recipe passed down by her husband’s grandmother. She brought a gourmet approach to traditional offerings that have included babka, rugelach, hamentaschen, challah, macaroons and seasonal and holiday specialties.
The selection reflects different parts of the Jewish baking tradition, from braided challah and filled pastries to cookies associated with family gatherings and holidays. Hecht’s approach emphasized flavor, quality ingredients and careful preparation rather than elaborate decoration.
Without a conventional storefront, Sweet Butter developed its following through farmers markets, community events and local retailers. That model allowed customers to discover the pastries in places they already visited while the bakery concentrated on production and wholesale relationships.
Café Alma offers a natural setting for Sweet Butter’s baking tradition. Since opening in Pleasant Ridge in 2022, the kosher, pescatarian café has built its menu around Mediterranean-influenced food and hospitality. Its scratch kitchen, established customer base and emphasis on gathering around food provide a practical home for Sweet Butter’s specialized products. The pastries complement Café Alma’s existing breads and bagels while broadening the selection of traditional Jewish foods available at the café.
“We recently acquired the business because we see tremendous potential to scale it while preserving the craftsmanship that made it successful,” Richler said. “Our goal is to bring handcrafted favorites like babka, rugelach, and black and white cookies to more consumers throughout the community.”
Café Alma plans to maintain Sweet Butter Bakery’s Cincinnati Vaad kosher certification. That continuity is important for observant families, congregations and organizations that rely upon recognized kosher supervision when purchasing food for meals, celebrations and community gatherings.
“Specifically, we would love to expand the pareve options the bakery provides and create greater accessibility for traditional Jewish baked goods right here at Café Alma,” Richler said.
Pareve foods contain neither meat nor dairy ingredients and ordinarily may be served with either type of meal under kosher dietary law. Increasing the local selection could provide greater flexibility when planning Shabbat meals, Jewish holidays and other occasions, particularly when baked goods will be served following a meat meal.
The acquisition carries the baking tradition Hecht developed into its next stage under the Richlers, combining family recipes, professional craftsmanship and Café Alma’s established place in Cincinnati’s Jewish food community.
