Downtown Cleveland’s newest bakery is turning Easter dessert into a two-for-one deal for local families in need. Pasteleria y Café has launched a "buy one, give one" tres leches program for Easter, pledging to donate a tres leches cake to a Northeast Ohio shelter for every cake a customer buys. The initiative pairs the shop's signature flavors with a small, direct donation drive aimed at local shelters and families, and the café, which opened earlier this month, is already taking orders for pickup and delivery.
As reported by Cleveland.com, the shop, run by restaurateur Phil Davis and pastry chef Yaxcira, makes tres leches cakes in six flavors: traditional, Oreo, key lime, Biscoff, peanut butter and chocolate. Tres leches is a sponge cake soaked in evaporated milk, condensed milk and whole milk, then finished with whipped cream, the site notes. The program is timed around Easter and aims to get cakes into the hands of local shelters when extra meals can help families.
How the program works
For each tres leches sold, Pasteleria y Café will match the sale with a donated cake to a Northeast Ohio shelter, according to Cleveland.com. "We think of food as a way to make a difference in the world," co-owner Phil Davis told the site. The shop has not yet publicly listed which shelters will receive donations.
Shop, hours and background
Pasteleria y Café occupies the former Pizza Fire space at 236 Euclid Avenue in downtown Cleveland and opened in mid-March, after operating as a tres leches ghost kitchen, Cleveland Scene reported. Event listings show a March 14–15 opening weekend for the new café. The menu and pickup or delivery options are live on ordering platforms including Toast and DoorDash, where customers can place orders for same-day pickup or delivery.
Why it matters
The buy-one, give-one approach gives small restaurants a straightforward way to support neighbors during a holiday when donations can make a difference. The model echoes other Ohio efforts using food sales to fund donations, such as Fonte Cucina's social-enterprise program documented by Columbus Underground. For Pasteleria y Café, the program is both a charity move and a way to introduce downtown customers to tres leches.
Pasteleria y Café lists individual tres leches cakes in the roughly $9–$11 range on its online menu, and the shop is taking orders in person and through delivery services, according to its listing on DoorDash. Customers who want to support the donation drive can buy a cake at the Euclid Avenue café or order online throughout the Easter period.
