If ever there was a classic story of immigration and the American Dream, it is Vera Gjelaj’s. An Albanian by birth, she immigrated to New York from Montenegro in the 1980s with a backpack, a few dollars, a child and one on the way. Today the hairdresser and pastry chef is the owner of Aromë Caffé & Patisserie (pronounced “ah roam”), which opened in Hastings-on-Hudson Thursday, June 27, next to her Salon Chou Chou.
The Main Street pastry shop, which seats 20 and employs five to date, features white tables and artwork, along with French desserts and savories, coffee and gelato. It combines two of Gjelaj’s loves – Hastings, to which she moved in 2000, and confections. But getting there required surmounting a number of challenges.
Gjelaj (pronounced “jay lie”) first worked as a house cleaner and with her family in the culinary field in Westchester County while she raised her children and put herself through beauty school. She gained experience in the restaurant business at Ciao in Eastchester in the early 1990s under brother Zef Gjelaj, Ciao’s owner. She continued on the dual tracks of hospitality and beauty as she raised the money to purchase Salon Chou Chou in Hastings, an entrepreneurial dream come true.
But it wasn’t enough. She attended the former French Culinary Institute at night with the idea of becoming a pastry chef while running the salon by day, which she continues to do. She also worked and trained with pastry chefs Antonio Bachour, Nicolas Botomisiy, Karim Bourgi, Gianulca Fusto and Sabrina Mancin in Dubai, Milan and Paris. In 2013, Gjelaj reunited with her brother to buy One if by Land, Two if by Sea, touted as the most romantic restaurant in New York City. There she served as co-owner with him and executive pastry chef for the next 10 years.
Now Gjelaj goes back and forth between Aromë and Salon Chou Chou, – creating confections at times; styling hair at others, but always living her double dream.
Aromë Caffé & Patisserie is at 10 Main St. in Hastings-on-Hudson. Hours are 6:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. For more, visit https://aromepatisserie.com/.
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