SAUGUS — Kristine Bautista, the owner of Bits & Bites Bakery + Cafe at 488 Lincoln Ave., spoke about Women’s History Month’s significance for her and her experiences as a new business owner in town.
Bautista said that as men have historically dominated different industries, so her ability to show her passion and pride as a business owner is important.
“I really feel like women, if they know they have the passion and the determination to do what they want, then they will be able to accomplish a lot of it,” Bautista said.
Bautista’s brick-and-mortar bakery opened the week before Thanksgiving last year, but her culinary experience goes back to when she baked cookies as a teenager in the Philippines. She moved on to preparing ensaymadas, a Filipino brioche topped with buttercream and cheese.
She said that her mother, who loves cooking and baking, strongly influenced her to work hard and be passionate about anything she does.
“When I was younger, I wanted to do what she does,” Bautista said. “That’s why I entered this type of industry; I think I got that talent from my mom.”
Eventually, she moved to Malden in 2011, where she worked in the mayor’s office, before moving to Seattle in 2017. When she moved back, she was trying to decide between opening a brick-and-mortar bakery or not.
A friend of hers owns a restaurant in Malden but closed it during the pandemic to cater instead.
“That gave me the chance to rent the kitchen and start baking and building clients,” Bautista said.
After selling her pastries online, Bautista decided it was time to open a physical location in Saugus last year. She said that she has been overwhelmed by the positive response to her bakery.
She has ventured into hot food, serving specialty sandwiches with homemade ingredients like tapa, a kind of marinated steak, and tocino, a sweet cured pork. The restaurant also serves silog meals, in which the proteins are served with fried rice and eggs.
“I started doing these sandwiches on ciabatta, and some Filipinos would come in and ask if I offered a silog, which is very famous in the Philippines,” Bautista said. “So one weekend I did that, and it was a big hit, not only for Filipinos but for other nationalities as well.”
For pastries, Bits and Bites offers many options, such as cookies, cannoli, and turnovers, that are familiar to Americans. But many of them incorporate Filipino ingredients like pandang, a fragrant leaf that tastes somewhat like coconut, and ube, a purple yam. Bautista said that the restaurant’s ube cake is especially popular.
Bits & Bites also offers specialty coffees, which Bautista said are expertly crafted to enhance customers’ enjoyment.
One of the challenges she said the restaurant faces is sourcing ingredients like ube. While Bautista said local Asian stores sell them, they are not as authentic as the ones available in the Philippines, so Bautista imports them instead.
“It’s actually expensive getting it there, but because I want it to really taste authentic, I have to,” she said.
Bautista described some other challenges of opening a business, like the town approval process. While she got the lease in April, she could only open a week before Thanksgiving.
“They had a lot of requirements, which are different from other towns,” she said. “It’s reasonable, but it was very difficult, especially if you’re very new to the town and new to the industry.”
Because it was so close to Thanksgiving, the restaurant had a soft opening. The grand opening is going to be held on April 11.
There are also more psychological challenges to overcome, like the fear that a new business will not do well, given the competition and the history of sub-shops in the area.
“It was kind of a challenge to see if people are going to accept my cafe into the community,” Bautista said.
But given the success of Bits & Bites, which is open from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday and from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., it seems like Bautista had nothing to worry about.
Bautista gave a message to aspiring women entrepreneurs, encouraging them to continue being dedicated and innovative and to pursue their passions to inspire others.
“To all the women in business, congratulations on your achievements and the invaluable contributions you make to the world of business every day,” she said.
