5 July. 2007 | The View – Heritage Newspapers

THE SISTERS ARE BACK

By William Zilke, Staff Writer

The stork has been busy on Main Street this spring.

He made a double delivery to sisters Monica Bercea and Daniela Petrascu, the owners of Caffe Delight, 514 Main St. in downtown Belleville.

Both are the proud new mothers of bouncing baby boys, weighing 6.2 and 7.11 pounds respectively.

"We wanted everyone to know the girls are back," Bercea said.

To the regular customers of Caffe Delight, the sisters are like family and vice versa.

"People come in and show us pictures of their children and grandchildren. Some of them have been regulars since the day we opened in January of 2006," she said.

"Eighty percent are regular customers and every week we get 10 new customers who come back."If there was a way to send the heavenly aroma of Caffe Delight down Main Street, people would drift into the store blissfully following the scents of rich coffees, homemade breads and pastries. It's hard to believe that anything that could smell that good could taste even better.

One of those aromas is that of their freshly baked scones.

"We're famous for our scones. We get phone calls about them. One of the daily newspapers wanted to run the recipe in their food section," she said.

Needless to say, it's a "sister secret" that doesn't leave the stylish confines of the popular eatery.

However, there is one ingredient Bercea would share.

"Freshness; There are no preservatives in any Caffe Delight pastires, soups or sandwiches," she said.

"We prep three days a week and bake everyday."

Though best known for their pastries that accent their coffees, the sisters also make up incredible sandwiches.

The special tuna fish on freshly baked wheat bread- or a flaky, fresh croissant- or their unique smoked turkey and baked ham sandwich will make you rethink how good a sandwich can be.

If that and a Greek, Caesar or garden salad, iced coffee and soup doesn't seem to be what you had in a mind on a hot, summer's noon, a fresh smoothie will.

"We don't use sugar. It's all fresh fruit, that's all we use," Bercea said. "We get a lot of moms bringing their kids in for a smoothie."

Even the syrups, imported from France used for flavoring coffee do not have sugar in them.

Their special espresso beans are imported from Italy.

With the added enticement of sitting outside on Main Street and wireless Internet access, word is spreading to Ann Arbor of the little cafe in Belleville without the long lines, ridiculous Ann Arbor prices and friendly small town people.

"We get a lot of people from Ann Arbor and we get people coming back from other states," she said.

Before the city of Belleville began work on its last Master Land Usage Plan, it held a major visioning session with all of the city's boards and the public telling the planning commission what it wanted in terms of entertainment, leisure and restaurants.

McKenna and Associates told the DDA and PC what it would take to attract and keep young professionals in the city and what they wanted in terms of places to go.

A walkable Main Street, outside tables, Internet access, a view of the lake and a great coffee shop topped those lists.

Caffe Delight met all of those demands, though Bercea and Petrascu had no idea of those key demogrpahics when they got the idea for the cafe.

Bercea and Petrascu were exactly what the city wanted to attract and their cafÈ is what its residents wanted.

"My family lived in Dearborn and moved to Belleville. We loved the scenery and way the town is placed. People from around the country would kill for the view and the great homes," she said.

Though the Internet access is a modern accent that would be a natural attraction to the sisters' generation, the rest of Caffe Delight has an old world charm, from the wrought iron outdoor seating and European interior design to the imported coffee and sugarless flavoring.

"I come in for the coffee and pastry as well as the small town feel and personalized service," Julie Leidel said.

The service at Caffe Dleight is indeed personalized. Bercea and Petrascu somehow know each of their hundreds of regular customer's favorites.

Ironically, they'll ask, "The usual?" as each comes through the door, though there is nothing at Caffe Delight that can be considered usual - such as the mouth watering Hungarian streudel, or even available anywhere else locally.

Caffe Delight's outdoor seating is available from May to September and they plan on returning to their 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. hours soon.