Step into either Roma Bakery or Cookies by Design and smell the smells, see the sights—and you will soon find resistance to be futile.

After all, Mena and Sostine Castriciano have been tempting Lansing’s taste buds for close to 40 years, and they know how to make customers abandon their diets and surrender to the appetizing delights on offer at Roma Bakery, Deli & Fine Foods.

Mena and Sostine, co-owners of this traditional Italian bakery, came to the United States from Italy. Mena and her family (parents and five younger siblings) came to Lansing where her father, Mario Baldino, worked in his father’s small grocery store, Northtown Grocery. Sostine moved to Canada where he worked as a baker and where he and Mena met. They later married and settled in Lansing. Sostine’s work in a bread factory left him feeling that he wasn’t fully using his skills as a professional baker. The young couple bought a small grocery store at Erie and Cedar streets and began making and selling their own style of Italian baked goods. Soon, they moved to the larger location on North Cedar Street where they remain today.

The glass-fronted pastry cases and all they contain are a sweet-lover’s dream come true. The artfully created and strikingly displayed items are almost too beautiful to eat. Almost. But once sampled—well, let’s just say that the Castricianos have customers who have been making regular pilgrimages to the store for years.

Mena says, “We make sure that every ingredient that goes into our products is of the highest quality. We make everything from scratch in our own kitchens, so our customers know that what we sell is not only delicious but also fresh and wholesome.”

Customer favorites include fresh fruit tarts, succulent with strawberries, blueberries and sweet custard; cannelloni, a traditional Italian dessert of cream-filled pastry shells; tiramisu; a vast array of delicate cookies; all kinds of cakes; cheesecakes; and European tortes in flavors like Black Forest and German chocolate.

Roma Bakery also specializes in homemade artisan breads, baked fresh every day, savory deli meats like salami and ham, imported and domestic cheeses and made-to-order sandwiches. For the lunchtime crowd, there are also pizza slices, hearty enough that one slice will do (though two is certainly an option) and salads brimming with fresh herbs and other tasty ingredients. Roma also carries its own line of homemade pastas like manicotti, ravioli, tortellini and gnocchi; sauces; meatballs; and gelato, as well as a full line of gourmet items like olive oil, vinegars, spices, condiments and other hard-to-find goodies.

Cookies by Design

Cookies by Design is another source for delectable edibles. Who doesn’t love a cookie? Nobody, that’s who. And Kathy Deering-Groskopf’s business will delight all the cookie lovers on the list of people you want to please. Freshly-baked cookies, lovingly decorated and creatively packaged, are the specialty of this Okemos establishment.

Originally from Tawas City, Deering-Groskopf was working in the corporate world as a human resources director but felt it was time for something else. While exploring her options, she took a part-time job in at a Cookies by Design store in the Chicago area. Impressed by the quality of the product and the pleasure she took in making her customers happy, she decided to open a franchise back home in Michigan. In 1997, she opened in her current location and never looked back.

She says, “This has been a great location for my business, and the community has been very supportive. Even with the economy the way it is, we’ve been successful here.”

She continues, “We offer something different and delicious. We bake our cookies in our own kitchen and decorate and package them right here. We can make over 300 different shaped cookies, and we decorate them according to the occasion.”

The shop is filled with samples of cookie bouquet artistry: butterfly and daisy birthday cookies, decorated in pastel and forming a festive bouquet in a white basket; cookies resembling gaily wrapped packages, flickering candles and buoyant balloons arranged with tissue paper in a colorful container. The options are endless and will surely be received with smiles.

Deering-Groskopf says, “Our cookie bouquets are appropriate to just about any occasion—wedding or baby showers, birthdays, get well wishes, thanks, congratulations and celebrating the birth of a baby—as well as holidays like Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Bosses’ Day and Sweetest Day. We make lovely Mother’s Day gifts as well.”

She continues, “We can tailor the gift to the person and add balloons, stuffed animals and other special touches. For our corporate clients, we can use their own logo and other identifiers to make their cookie bouquets unique.”

In addition, the store has received permission from the Disney people to use their iconic Mickey and Minnie Mouse images, and Winnie the Pooh as well as the Disney® princesses. What little girl wouldn’t love a princess cookie bouquet for her special day?

Besides the decorated cookies that the store specializes in, gourmet cookies, also made on site, are available in flavors like chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin and more.

Holidays on the horizon are cause for celebration. It’s easy to add to the festivities with the appetizing and unique foods available at Roma Bakery and Cookies by Design. Bon appetit!