By JIM KEVLIN

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RICHFIELD SPRINGS

When Harriet was a 6-year-old in Middlebury, Vt., her mother bought her an Easy-Bake Oven.
“All I wanted to do was to bake,” she remembered the other day. “I’ve been doing it all my life. And I love it.”
When she retired from teaching in Utica public schools in 2004, she told her husband, Dick: “I want to do a bakery.”
In looking for a location, she heard about the one-room Hallsville schoolhouse in Pleasant Brook, east of Roseboom.
“Since I was a little girl,” she continued, “I always wanted a one-room schoolhouse: And there it was.”
It was meant to be.


Before long, she and Dick, a former B-52 bomber pilot who had retired as director of the Utica Refugee Center, were in the midst of renovations.
The schoolhouse was converted into a two-bedroom home, and the 1846 Methodist Protestant Church next door into the bakery.
Because of the location – Pleasant Brook, though delightful, is tiny – the Sesslers soon found a bakery could not fly on its own.
They added lunch.
Then they added what became one of the SweetTooth Schoolhouse’s signature features: Ethnic dinners, every two weeks.
The first was German – Dick is of German heritage and knew how to make sauerbrauten – but soon their offerings were ranging several continents.
Then Harriet remembered something else she loved.
Her memory was brought to the fore when she was in North Carolina visiting her daughter, who had a friend working at a place called La Teada’s, featuring afternoon tea and dress-up parties.
“I remember from my childhood how much I loved to dress up with my mother,” said Harriet.
Done.



“Dressing up brings out the little child, the little girl,” she continued. And, occasionally, also the little boy: She bought a couple of tuxedos and men’s hats when she discovered male patrons felt left out.
Last year, as the price of gasoline continued to rise, customers were less likely to hop into their cars and drive to Pleasant Brook.
Also, the Sesslers were driving back and forth daily from their home in Richfield Springs, 15 miles each way. It just seemed to make sense to look for something near home.
As it happened, Harriet had just the thing in mind, a former monument-company building on Lake Street, a high-peaked building made out of an unusual light-brown brick.
Harriet had heard it was tied up in an estate, but her Realtor made an inquiry, and within 24 hours they had an agreement to buy it.
At some point, someone had intended to turn the building into an Italian restaurant, and the fancy chandelier from a New York City hotel was already hanging in the middle of the room.
In the course of renovations, the Sesslers discovered the building’s foundation was made of stone from Belgium.
(Their mason told them ships used it as ballast, then the ballast was dumped at ports in the New York City area. Upstate folks would salvage it.)
If you’d driven along Lake Street over the winter, you would have seen Number 42 all boarded up. Little by little, the building brightened and brightened until, in early July, a bright pink sign went up by the road.
The Sesslers were back in business.
They’re serving lunch from 11 to 2, Thursday, Friday and Saturday. There’s a lot of custom baking going on; lately, quite a few rhubard pies. Also, scones.
The private lunches and dinners are on the increase, birthday parties, showers. The Red Hats frequent the place.
There are dress-up teas and dress-up luncheons, just as Harriet envisioned.
And the ethnic nights are back. Friday, Aug. 1, French cuisine was featured. (The application is in for a liquor license, expected to be issued by fall.)
Friday, Aug. 16, there will be a Riggie Night, featuring that Italian-by-way-of-Utica specialty: breast of chicken in Alfredo sauce, with roasted red peppers, black olives, mushrooms, lots of Parmesan cheese, and “a few jalapenos.”
“Veeeeeeeeeery rich,” said Harriet.
Mini-strombolis, minestrone, antipasto and, for dessert, that crowd-pleaser, cannoli.
Saturday, Aug. 9, the Pleasant Brook era will officially end, as Lambrecht Auctions of Walton will be on the scene, selling off the two buildings and many of the antiques inside.
For now, Harriet and Dick are having a little too much fun to think too far ahead.
One thing’s for sure.
“We don’t want to get really huge,” said Harriet. “I don’t want to be mass-producing stuff. I want it to be small, cozy, so that people know us and we get to know our customers.”

Labels: Features, Glimmerglass, Local Businesses