By Logan B. Anderson

SMYRNA — Sarah Lemire-Weems’ can-do attitude can be seen and tasted at her new bakery and eatery, Lemire Pastries.

The downtown shop is at the site of the former 1 North Main Eats & Sweets restaurant.

About six years ago, Ms. Lemire-Weems needed a cake for her son’s first birthday. She wanted something connected to “The Good Dinosaur,” his favorite movie at the time. But after searching for a baker, she thought she could do it herself.

“I have always liked art. I’ve always been into arts and crafts, so I took a swing at it myself. I really liked it, and baking became a passion after that,” she said.

She started making cakes for others and cooked up a following. As her business grew, so did her dreams for her new enterprise. Though she had never run a restaurant, she knew she could do it.

Her vision became reality when a cake customer of hers learned that the owners of Eats & Sweets wanted to get out of the industry. They connected and struck a deal, and on Aug. 20, Lemire Pastries opened its doors.

The establishment offers almost every kind of baked good you can think of — cookies, loaves of bread, dinner rolls, custom cakes, cupcakes and pies.

Ms. Lemire-Weems recently added doughnuts and bagels to her bakery cases, too.

Everything Lemire Pastries offers is made in-house by the owner or her staff of three.

Manager James Aubrey said he loves working with Ms. Lemire-Weems and hopes that more people discover the eatery.

“Everything is fresh. There’s not a lot of bakeries around here that do that. I think it adds a lot that we make everything,” he said. “I think it is a nice atmosphere. It’s welcoming. I get a good vibe in here. I come in when I am off the clock.”

Along with baked treats, Lemire Pastries offers breakfast all day.

“When you say breakfast for dinner, it’s like a celebration,” Ms. Lemire-Weems said, smiling.

For the wife and mother of three, family is significant. Her husband built some of the furniture in the restaurant’s dining room, and her children helped paint decorations on its windows. Her family can also be seen in Lemire Pastries’ menu.

“A lot of my menu comes from my family. My French toast is my dad’s recipe. It’s what we grew up loving to eat from him,” she said.

Ms. Lemire-Weems also celebrates her grandmother and her heritage with the Lita scramble — Philippine scrambled eggs — and banana lumpia, a cultural snack made with bananas and cinnamon sugar wrapped as a spring roll and fried.

Opening a business during a pandemic was a hard decision, but she knew she could do it.

“I thought about all of the businesses closing. I thought, I’ll be something new. We are doing all right. We have a lot of regulars that come in just for our bread. They come in every week, so they have fresh bread at home,” Ms. Lemire-Weems said.

Bread is a big seller for the downtown Smyrna shop, so it is gearing up for a potential holiday rush. The bakery also supplies bread and rolls to other area restaurants.

Additionally, Lemire Pastries is giving back to the community by contributing items for free holiday meals to those in need, part of a local faith-based effort.

Luckily, though she has seen some increased prices in her needed provisions, the shop owner has so far been mostly spared from the supply chain crisis affecting many other restaurants.

Besides family, good food is on top on Ms. Lemire-Weems’ priority list, and so is her impact on the environment, leading her to use environmentally friendly packaging and utensils in her shop.

The eatery also provides coffee, tea and other beverages, as well as free internet access for customers.

Ms. Lemire-Weems hopes her clients enjoy the space.

“We have free Wi-Fi here, and I have coloring books and crayons for kids, so that families can come in, and parents can have a coffee and relax. I have people come in and bring their laptops and do work from our couch.”

Lemire Pastries is open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays to Thursdays and 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. For more information or to place an order, call 302-354-4598 or visit the shop at the northwest corner of North Main and Commerce streets in Smyrna.