New café coming to Township 5 in Camillus

CAMILLUS, N.Y. — Township 5 announced Thursday that Café Pastel has signed a lease to open in the mixed-use shopping center in Camillus.

The café/coffee shop will offer a range of locally curated coffees and coffee drinks, a breakfast and lunch menu of “quick bites,” specialty cakes, and desserts.

“My goal is to provide the Camillus community with more options when they need coffee, desserts, or a casual meal,” Maria Rotella, business owner, says in her funding-pitch letter on the crowdfunding website Indiegogo.

Rotella says she’s been making custom cakes and desserts in the Syracuse area for more than a decade, operating under the name Maria Eliana’s Cakes.

Rotella projects to open Café Pastel by October. She anticipates the café’s operating hours to be on a split-day format: open from 8 a.m-2 p.m. as a café — serving coffee, light breakfast, and lunch. Then she’ll re-open at 5 p.m., until 10 or 11 p.m., focusing on desserts and coffee.

Café Pastel will incorporate sustainable business practices such as not using single-use plastic products such as cups, straws, forks, spoons, knives, and plates, she says.

Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com