March 1, 2016 By Michael Florio
A new bakery is open in Hunters Point featuring a wide variety of creative pastries and gelatos.
SugarCube, located at 10-16 50th Ave., opened this weekend, according to owner Peter Zaharatos.
Zaharatos said that Mauricio Santelice will be the pastry chef at the bakery. Santelice is the founder of the “Don Huevo” dessert, which is a chocolate egg that opens up when caramel sauce is poured onto it, revealing another dessert inside. He has also won an episode of the Food Network show “Sweet Genius.”
“He is a very creative and inventive pastry chef,” Zaharatos said. “He has a lot of experience in high end restaurants and hotels.”
Santelice created the menu for the bakery.
The menu includes unique desserts with French, Greek and American inspiration, according to Zaharatos. It will have a variety of pastries, gelatos, chocolates and coffees.
Menu items will include strawberry shortcake, chocolate mousse cube, Greek coffee tart, tiramisu with Oreo blackout cocoa and Aegina Island pistachio éclair. Chocolates include Greek pistachio ganache and Greek sour cherry.
The menu will also feature a variety of gelatos such as salted caramel gelato, passion fruit mandarin sorbet and Greek 
strawberry yogurt with Greek thyme honey. It will also have baked items such as Melomakarona, a Greek honey vegan cookie, as well as butter croissants, orange cranberry scones, cheddar scones, blueberry muffins and a variety of coffees, according to Zaharatos.
The hours are currently 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., seven days a week. However, they may change to 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., depending on the needs of clientele. The bakery can seat 18 people.
“We are testing the hours and want to see what the need is,” Zaharatos said.
Zaharatos, who lives in Bay Ridge, has often traveled through Long Island City for work and noticed how up and coming the neighborhood was, he said.
“A lot of people are moving into the neighborhood from all over,” he said. “But it still needs something special.”
“It is a wonderful community with a terrific culture,” he added. “We are excited to be a part of it.”
He hopes the bakery will become a place where residents will come to have a coffee and pastry while they work or meet with friends.
“Cafés are a place where ideas happen,” he said. “There’s a need for that in Long Island City.”
This is the first bakery that Zaharatos has opened.
Previously, he worked as an architect. He has worked as lead designer for the Second Avenue subway prototyping the station entrance design. He also helped design the new NYPD Academy in College Point.
He designed the bakery himself.
