Pure Sweets to Open Center City Bakery and Cafe

Owner Andrea Kyan is thinking big

Treats from Pure Sweets // Photo via Facebook

We love Pure Sweets. I mean, duh, we named its pistachio espresso cookie one of the best gluten-free treats in the latest print issue of Be Well Philly. So we’re moooore than ecstatic to hear that they’re moving in to a storefront in Center City at 1706 Locust Street in the former Adresse space. Owner Andrea Kyan says she signed the lease yesterday and forked over a deposit check, so it’s pretty much a done deal.

“I have a lot of ideas,” she says. Yes, yes she does. Allow me to count the ways: If things go according to plan—that is, if Groundswell Design Group owner/principal David Fierabend, who designed Talula’s Garden and Morgan’s Pier, can make space for everything Andrea wants to do—Pure Sweets will be part bakery, part coffee shop, part juice bar (highlighting its Pure Tonics line), part grab-and-go lunch spot, and part rentable private-event space, thanks to a killer backyard patio, which she plans to do up right.

One thing’s for certain: “We’re definitely expanding the sweets menu,” Andrea says. “Now that we can cater to foot traffic, we can go a little crazy and be more elaborate.” Until now, Andrea’s delicious organic, gluten-free, vegan, kosher baked goods have only been available at certain retail locations and via delivery.

Andrea also hopes to tap into the rapidly growing healthy-lunch business that’s taken Center City by storm these past few years. Her cafe will be the latest addition to the always-busy, always-popular Pure Fare/Agno/HipCityVeg/Honeygrow scene. The difference? Pure Sweets will offer healthy prepared foods that include a number of raw options. She hasn’t settled on a cuisine yet, but she says she’ll draw heavily from Southeast Asian influences (think: Burmese, Thai, Southwest China).

“My father’s family is from there,” she says. “You don’t see that kind of cuisine in America: really, really light but full of flavor.”

Once all the paperwork comes through, Andrea will have six months to build out the space to her liking. She hopes to be open for business sometime next March or April.