Kouklet Brazilian Bakehouse is packing up its ovens and its signature yellow paint and moving up the block on East Passyunk Avenue, trading its original 1647 storefront for a bigger space at 1615 E. Passyunk Ave. — the former ITV bar space attached to chef Nicholas Elmi's now-closed Laurel restaurant. Owner Mardhory Santos-Cepeda plans to turn the new address into an all-day cafe, adding breakfast and lunch service alongside the bakery's existing pastry counter.
The move was first reported by the Philadelphia Inquirer, which describes the new location as roughly 1,200 square feet — about half again as large as Kouklet's current 800-square-foot storefront. The space comes with a basement walk-in refrigerator, additional kitchen capacity, and room for tables, a notable upgrade for a bakery that has never had customer seating since opening in late 2021.
The former ITV room has its own East Passyunk restaurant history. Laurel opened in 2013 as a French-inspired restaurant and was nominated for a James Beard Foundation award for Best New Restaurant in America. Chef Nicholas Elmi opened the adjacent wine bar, ITV, in 2016; in 2023, Laurel expanded into that space and shifted from a tasting-menu-only format to à la carte dining. Laurel’s evolution from a small restaurant into the adjacent bar space helps explain the previous life of Kouklet’s new address.
Santos-Cepeda says she began hunting for a new spot after her lease at 1647 expired in August and her landlord declined to renew it, according to the report. She has been leasing the original location month to month while she sorted out her next move, and noticed the former Laurel and ITV spaces were being offered separately about two weeks before the Inquirer's report published — ultimately working out a deal for the former ITV bar side.
An All-Day Cafe Takes Shape
The expanded menu will include egg dishes, tapioca flatbreads, rice bowls, and other breakfast and lunch offerings, plus a coffee and beverage program, per the same report. Santos-Cepeda plans to retain Kouklet's pastry counter, which features sonhos (filled doughnuts), bolo de rolo — the thinly layered rolled cake that has been the bakery's signature since its earliest days — along with cookies and savory pastries.
She also envisions an open kitchen so customers can watch the baking happen in real time, the station's report notes. A window counter will provide about six seats, with additional tables elsewhere bringing total seating to around 15 customers — a dramatic change for a business that, as Kouklet's earlier Inquirer coverage noted, started out with no seating at all.
Kouklet's bright yellow color scheme — a hallmark of the bakery since it opened — will follow the business up the block, inside and out, according to the report. Santos-Cepeda intends to keep the current East Passyunk location running until the new space is ready, then transfer the equipment over rather than closing the shop in between.
Kouklet’s move is happening on a corridor with a mix of independent retail and food businesses. The East Passyunk Avenue Business Improvement District says the avenue has more than 50 shops and boutiques, most locally owned, and describes its food scene as spanning fast-casual spots, neighborhood bars, cheesesteaks and fine dining. The planned cafe would add a Brazilian bakery with seating and all-day service to that mix. The district’s business overview reflects the range of storefronts along the avenue.
From Home Kitchen to Two Storefronts and Back to One
Santos-Cepeda, who grew up in Brasília, made up the name Kouklet while in high school and started the business out of her home before opening the East Passyunk storefront. She later opened a second takeout bakery and production kitchen at 1429 Wolf St. in 2025, but left that location over the summer of 2026; it is now Backyard Cravings, a pizza and cheesesteak shop, the Inquirer reports.
Before Kouklet became a storefront, Santos-Cepeda had already built the bakery across multiple markets. She launched it in Brazil in 2012 after culinary school, revived it in New York in 2017, and sold bolo de rolo at markets in North Jersey, Queens and Brooklyn. After moving to Philadelphia in 2019, she baked from a commissary and used farmers markets, pop-ups and nationwide shipping to build the business before opening on East Passyunk. Kouklet’s pre-storefront path began years before its first neighborhood shop.
Santos-Cepeda hopes to open the new Kouklet cafe by February. Reflecting on the five years since she first set up shop on East Passyunk, she told the paper, “It took five years for us to build this beautiful community we have here,” adding of the new bakery, “This will be no different.”
She also described the appeal of a proper Brazilian bakery counter to the Inquirer: “When you get into a Brazilian bakery, you are overwhelmed by all the options.” With a bigger kitchen, more seating, and a full breakfast and lunch menu on the way, Santos-Cepeda is betting that East Passyunk regulars will find plenty to be overwhelmed by at the new address too.
