WILMINGTON — The pastry chef behind the Hotel du Pont has gone from baking some of the most talked-about cakes and breads in Wilmington to now opening her own cafe in the I.M. Pei Building.
Spark’d Creative Pastry, led by Chef Leah Ferrara and with a team of nine employees, opened for business last week, moving from the DE.CO Food Hall as the Buccini/Pollin Group has officially changed management to the Bardea Restaurant Group. While that shift did prompt Spark’d to look for a new spot, Ferrara said it also made sense to stay two blocks from the Hotel du Pont.
Spark’d, named after hopes to spark someone’s day, replaces coffee and quick-serve cafe I.M. Coffee in the building on 11th and Market Street, owned by the Buccini/Pollin Group.
“We are the Hotel’s bake shop, but the fact that we can expand in the I.M. Pei Building has great visibility,” Ferrara said. “The key is having that coffee shop and being able to serve quick-serve meals in a place with a lot of offices in that building and nearby.”
Ferrara is a culinary arts graduate from the Art Institute of Philadelphia, who started out as a line cook at the Hotel du Pont, one of the top luxury places to stay in the country, and has seen visitors like Tiger Woods, Elon Musk, and even Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz when he was quickly tapped to become Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate for the 2024 election.
But over time, Ferrara crafted her own unique style for custom wedding cakes, brioche bread, and pies that spread by word of mouth among the patrons of the Hotel. That opened the door for the in-house bakery at the hotel, which opened in 2018. The natural next step was to open a kiosk in DE.CO Food Hall a few years later where customers could buy a cup of coffee and sweet treats.
The other benefit with the I.M. Pei building not only is there less competition compared to from a food hall setting, it also has a bigger kitchen space. Before, the Spark’d team baked the food at the Hotel and delivered it to DE.CO. It also opens up more customization in the space than just a rented-out stall in a food hall.
“We really wanted to share that positive energy and the ability to bring high-quality pastries to every meal with others,” Ferrara said. “We still do get our loyal pie customers who come back every Thanksgiving and Christmas for pies, and I know them by face or by their voice on the phone. But we’re getting customers who get their coffee and their pastry, because it’s a quick walk from where they work.”
Like many other restaurants and others in the hospitality industry, Spark’d was closed down in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But once the team regrouped that summer, they started to focus on new ways to bring in customers. That way was bagels sourced from Manhattan, which later paved the way for sandwiches.
“The secret to surviving that, I think is to be open to what the customer wants, and if anyone has a custom idea, we embrace it,” Ferrara said. “More often, it gives us a chance to be creative and maybe even create a lifelong customer.”
That creativity led to a unique project Ferrara did for a customer: a custom-made bread cornucopia for a customer’s Thanksgiving that created quite a stir with the client and on social media. That creativity will now be stretched to include breakfast sandwiches and a new lunch menu, including dishes with fun names like a ham sandwich named I Won’t Disabrie on the menu.
“We’re really excited to expand in a way that’s not just baked food, but creating a whole experience,” she said. “With a coffee shop, you can shoot for anything. With the world out there, sometimes there’s chaos around you, and sometimes you want to relax. I hope to make a nice spot where people can relax and enjoy.”
