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At left, Kelly Lynch, manager and lead pastry chef at Sweet-N-Sinful, prepares for the bakery’s reopening at its new location on Pine Street. At right, Our Way owner Eva Roswall reviews photos taken shortly after the 2010 fire that forced the popular restaurant to close for more than a year. It reopened April 4. Photos by Kathy Mitchell

Folks who’re in Avondale Estates when hunger strikes will be glad to know that two old favorite restaurants—Sweet-N-Sinful and Our Way Café—are reopening and taking their eateries to another level.

Sweet-N-Sinful 

The Sweet-N-Sinful bakery didn’t close completely—only the retail business and that for just three days—as it moved down the street into a new, larger location. “We were still filling orders,” said owner Layne Lee, who explained that the shop’s specialty is unique custom-designed cakes and confections.

“We had a podiatrist order a cake shaped like a foot and recently we had someone who wanted a kangaroo, complete with pouch and baby,” she recalled. Lee said the bakery has more than 300 cookie-cutter shapes and can make custom cookies for about any occasion. She said that while some custom items could get a bit pricey, there are lots of regular items at competitive prices—$1.95 cupcakes and $1 cookies, for example.

The business, which opened in Stone Mountain in 2004 and has been in Avondale Estates since 2006, outgrew its old space in the city’s Tudor Village as it continued doing a booming business despite a slumping economy. The new space on Pine Street—formerly a paint supply house—is 2½ times the size of the old one. “People are still having weddings and birthdays, so there’s still a big demand for what we do,” Lee said.

Following the grand opening on April 2, the shop will have some new breakfast offerings when the retail shop is open Thursday through Saturday. “We’ll have coffee and items like cheddar cheese muffins for people who don’t really want sweets,” Lee said.

Lee, who has a 7-month-old child, describes the shop as kid-friendly. “We’ll be having events like kids’ decorating parties. We’re super excited,” she said.

Our Way Café

After a year and three months of insurance negotiations, paperwork and physical rebuilding, Avondale Estates’ popular meat-and-three Our Way Café reopened April 4 with longer hours, patio space and something it’s never had before—a beer and wine license.

The dining room will look very different, too, according to owner Eva Roswall. “Before we looked like a Cracker Barrel gone wild,” she said with a laugh, referring to the copious collection of memorabilia on the walls and even hanging from the ceiling. This time there will be old photos of Decatur and Avondale Estates, including one taken in 1932 of the old general store that was just down the from where Our Way now stands. There also will be paintings by local artists that will be offered for sale on consignment.

Long time Our Way customers will be pleased to learn that the menu will be basically the same—a selection of four entrees and 18 meat-free vegetables every day. Roswall said she’s especially proud of the restaurant’s fresh, locally grown vegetables. “We were offering farm-to-table back in 1992, long before it got trendy,” she said.

While the restaurant welcomes children anytime, Roswall said, she plans to open the restaurant once a month on Saturday—a day it’s normally closed—just for children and their parents, with clowns, face painting and perhaps a movie. She said that Our Way had such a children’s day shortly before an electrical fire forced the restaurant to close in January 2010. “We played the movie The Wizard of Oz and even had an actor who played one of the Munchkins—he was in his 90s—come by. We went from our most fabulous day to our worst day—the day of the fire.”

Roswall said that her past success left no doubt in her mind that she would rebuild and reopen in spite of the extensive damage. “I’m thrilled. The food is here, the catsup is on the table. I’m ready to feed the people.”