Amore Dolci Bakery opens at 3709 Southwest Trafficway

Mallory Omundson was perfectly happy working as a pastry chef for the Pig & Finch restaurant in Leawood when, she says, “an opportunity just fell into my lap.” 

That opportunity was a storefront that the 26-year-old entrepreneur could lease, inexpensively, to open a new bakery at 3709 Southwest Trafficway. After a $10,000 renovation of the former tattoo parlor (including new ovens and a three-compartment sink), Omundson and her business partner, accountant Ashley King, opened Amore Dolci Bakery June 29. The urban shopping strip it calls home is going through a transition: A clothing company, Tokyo Underground, is closing in two weeks, and a new fabric shop has just opened.

Omundson, who attended the Art Institutes in Lenexa, wanted to open a bakery that sold vegan and gluten-free breads and sweets as well as traditional pastries. “I like to make miniature pastries, too,” she says.

Wednesday, her refrigerated pastry cases were filled with chocolate-orange cupcakes, miniature lemon cupcakes, miniature bacon-maple cupcakes, fruit scones, chocolate-peanut-butter cookies, snickerdoodles, and chewy vegan cookies.

Omundson is also planning to offer house-made ice creams (“Definitely a bacon-maple flavor,” she says) and fruit crostatas. “They’re like a baked hand pie,” she says.

The location seems unlikely for a bakery, but Omundson wanted to be close to Westport, without a Westport rent. “This has been a very good deal,” she says.

Amore Dolci Bakery is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

“My task right now,” Omundson says, “is getting the word out that we’re here using Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.”