TAMPA, Fla. — A popular Tampa bakery, established in 1912, is moving to a larger location to reach a new generation of customers.

What You Need To Know

This Saturday at 6 p.m., the historic Alessi Bakery will close its old location on Cypress Street

The bakery is moving a block away to the old Tampa Letter Carrier’s Hall, 3003 W. Cypress Street

There will be a grand opening at the new location on Wednesday, April 15

Alessi Bakery has been in Tampa for 114 years

This Saturday, Alessi Bakery will close its old location on Cypress Street. The bakery is moving a block away to a larger space at the old Tampa Letter Carrier’s Hall, 3003 W. Cypress Street.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Alessi Bakery owner Phil Alessi Jr.

The new location is an 18,000-square-foot open kitchen concept that allows customers to view their food and desserts being prepared. There will be an expanded bakery, a cafe, a full-service community bar along with wood stone oven pizzas and rotisserie chicken.

Alessi, a fourth-generation owner, said they were ready to expand six years ago, but they delayed those plans after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the owner said this is the right time to move to a larger location. He said updates to their century-old bakery are critical to reaching a younger customer.

“We have our base of customers and they’re great and very loyal,” Alessi said. “But what we really want to capture is the younger generation. They don’t really know Alessi. And now we’ve made the space with the consideration of the newer generations, like the outlets where they can plug their phones in and computers, the Wi-Fi with the internet, and we have a lot of areas where they can do so and just kind of hang out.”

Chrissy Palmer has worked at Alessi Bakery for more than 40 years.

“It’s very exciting,” Palmer said.

She said her favorite section of the new location is the cafe.

“We’re going to be selling Acai bowls and smoothies and shakes,” Palmer said.

With the larger location, Alessi will need more employees. They are hiring 40 additional workers.

The old Alessi location will close its doors Saturday at 6 p.m. There will be a grand opening at the new location on Wednesday, April 15.