Women Who Bake
Sabrina’s Café on South Street Celebrating Women’s History Month in March with Pastries and Desserts from Some of Philly’s Finest Female Pastry Chefs
Sabrina’s Café may be known for their sweet and savory breakfast items, but one thing the beloved 22-year old Philadelphia breakfast and lunch brand doesn’t offer is dessert. That will change in March, however, as Owners Robert and Raquel De Abreu have come up with a charitable initiative to celebrate some of Philly’s finest female pastry chefs while also celebrating Women’s History Month.
The De Abreus have partnered with James Beard-nominated Tova du Plessis of Essen Bakery, award-winning pastry chef Monica Glass, Fiore Fine Foods’ Co-owner and pastry chef Justine MacNeil, Kouklet Brazilian Bakehouse owner Mardhory Santos-Cepeda, and Vanilya Bakery owner Bonnie Sarana to provide various pastries and desserts to the restaurant throughout March, with each woman designated for a specific weekend through the end of the month. Proceeds from March pastry sales to Project Home’s Women of Change, a safe haven residence for women. The series will take place only at the Sabrina’s Graduate Hospital location, at 2101 South Street.
“So many of our customers come in for our gigantic, sweet, indulgent breakfast and brunch items — it’s one thing that our guests associate with Sabrina’s — but we don’t currently have desserts on the menu,” said Robert. “We’ve been focused on adding dessert to our menu recently, and with Women’s History Month approaching, we decided this would be a wonderful way to celebrate the women of our city while also giving our guests something new, exciting, and delicious to enjoy while joining us for weekend brunch. We’re looking very forward to working alongside such talented women, and we’re grateful for their participation.”
MacNeil will kick off the series on Friday, March 3rd with a gelato flavor made exclusively for Sabrina’s: Stuffed French Toast with banana cream cheese filling. Glass will follow on March 10th with gluten-free blueberry lavender scones and gluten-free chocolate chip banana bread; Santos-Cepeda will be providing her Brazilian cream-filled donuts called “Sonhos” (which translates to “dreams” in Portuguese) beginning March 17th; du Plessis will be showcasing her famous Chocolate Halva Babka on March 24th; and Sarana will feature her bagels, as well as a Coconut Revani with kaymak and pistachio — coconut semolina cakes soaked in an orange blossom syrup and topped with clotted cream and pistachios, on March 31st, which will be offered into the beginning of April. Marc Noll, the Culinary Director of Operations for Sabrina’s, is overseeing the series, implementing each item into the weekend menu.
Women’s History Month is an annual declared month that highlights the contributions of women to events in history and contemporary society, celebrated during March in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, corresponding with International Women’s Day on March 8th. The commemoration began in 1978 as “Women’s History Day” in Sonoma County, California, and was championed by Gerda Lerner and the National Women’s History Alliance to be recognized as a national week in 1980, and then expanded into a monthlong celebration in 1987 in the U.S., spreading internationally after that.
Sabrina’s, which has locations in University City, Wynnewood, Art Museum, South Street/Graduate Hospital, and Collingswood, NJ, is open seven days a week for breakfast and lunch. The first location opened in May 2001, and was named after Robert De Abreu and his wife Raquel’s new baby, Sabrina Isabella.