Acton cafe is off to a sweet start

Sweet Bites Bakery and Café
5A Spruce St., West Acton
Hours: Monday-Friday 6:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Saturday 7 a.m.-5 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m.-2 p.m.
978-263-2233; sweet-bites.com

Had Caitlin Adler started a high-tech company at age 25, nobody would have blinked an eye. But Adler focused her entrepreneurial skills on opening an upscale café in West Acton, and in an industry with a legendarily high failure rate, her youth and inexperience might have presented some daunting obstacles.

Instead, Sweet Bites Bakery and Café, Adler's nine-month-old coffee shop and eatery, is off to an impressive start. The café already has broken even and is building a loyal clientele.

For Adler, a pastry chef with a degree from the Culinary Institute of America, the stressful 15-hour days are well worth the effort. She is realizing a long-held desire to be her own boss and operate a unique eating place.

"I'd rather do this now than spend 10 more years in a terrible job," she says.

Walk into Sweet Bites, in a historic district near the corner of Route 111 and Spruce Street, and you're inundated with the sumptuous sights and smells of prepared foods, handmade pastries, and coffee. The walls are bedecked with the work of local artists, and on the counters are an array of specialty chocolates, gourmet pet treats, and packages of Adler's own Sweet Bites brownies.

"I wanted to be the anti-Starbucks," Adler says.

The cushy armchairs and small number of tables do lend a Starbucks-like feel to the dining area and coffee sales make up one-third of the café's revenues, but the daily fare is distinctive. Credit for that goes to Adler's fiancé, Chris Vuich.

The 40-year-old Vuich has an economics degree from Syracuse University and has worked in restaurants since he was 14. After coming to Boston in 1991, he gained experience under the tutelage of such luminaries as Todd English and Andy Husbands, and was a co-founder of Panificio Bistro and Bakery in Boston. While Adler makes most of the pastries, Vuich serves up soups and wraps. On Sundays, he creates enticing brunch offerings, including eggs Benedict.

Ralf and Kelly Klein of Stow have become regular customers. "I love the diversity here," Ralf says about the beverage and food offerings at Sweet Bites. "They are finding their own style and not mimicking the chains."

"I'm already heavily addicted to the place," says Karalee Manning, a mother with two toddlers in tow. "I'm in here at least five times a week."

A steady flow of regulars tramps through from 6:30 a.m., when the doors open, through the lunch hour. Executives on their way into Boston grab a coffee and one of Adler's signature doughnut muffins. Retirees linger, and stay-at-home moms meet while their pre-schoolers are occupied. "A little community is coming together here," says Manning. "It feels like the 'Cheers' bar."

Adler and Vuich met in Boston several years ago when she was a pastry cook at the Four Seasons Hotel Boston. She had become disillusioned by the repetitive work and slow pace of advancement in corporate settings, and last year, she and Vuich started looking around for a café for sale. Everything in and around Boston was prohibitively expensive, so they took a ride out to Acton.

"I liked the look and feel here," Adler says of the coffee shop that preceded Sweet Bites. "I like the town as well. There wasn't anything around here that resembled what we wanted to do."

Financing could have been a problem, but Adler had an entrepreneur's ace in the hole: angel investors, who happened to be her parents. Barry Adler, editorial director for the Boston Consulting Group, and his wife, Pat Permakoff, an attorney, live in Manhattan. They agreed to provide a long-term loan.

"Caitlin had been in the food world for 10 years, even though she was young," her father says. "We felt comfortable that she was at a point in her career where it was important that she start her own business. She's very creative and ambitious."

He is well aware of the risks - between 50 and 60 percent of eateries fail during the first five years - but he is betting on Sweet Bites. "The food is excellent. It's just a matter of whether they can draw the volume of business to make it a success," he says.

Keeping up with monthly payroll and materials expenses is daunting, and Sweet Bites needs to increase the volume of customers to turn a steady profit.

"Right now, 75 percent of our business is local, repeat business," Vuich says. A small advertising budget and considerable word-of-mouth are the basis of their marketing efforts. Adler and Vuich envision someday expanding beyond one location.

"At some point you plateau, and to break that you need another location," he says.

GLENN RIFKIN