Main Street in this Burlington County town is getting a European bakery

MOORESTOWN – Cheesecake anyone? The township will soon have a bakery on Main Street.

By Zena, a European specialty bakery, plans to open at 41 Main Street, a location that once occupied a Starbucks.

It will have café offerings for breakfast and lunch, with indoor and outdoor seating, said the owner, Zena Demirceviren.

"The cheesecake is one of my award-winning recipes," said Demirceviren, a pastry chef for 25 years.

It will serve “full-scale baked goods, pastries, savory items, and lots of European baked goods, as well as custom cakes and desserts for special events.”

A native of Turkey, Demirceviren said she bakes with high-quality ingredients, mostly organic, and without additives and preservatives.

She aims to fill a longtime void on Main Street, which lost the popular Peter Pan Bakery in 2008.

Her location inside a former bank is between two popular restaurants: The Cubby Hole and Akira, a Japanese restaurant.

“It was a Starbucks and after Starbucks, it was a juice place,” Demirceviren said.

Demirceviren has a culinary degree. She attended Le Cordon Bleu in Istanbul, Turkey, then later studied at the Academy of Culinary Arts in Mays Landing.

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Demirceverin previously opened a brick-and-mortar Zena’s at Main and Broad streets in Riverton in 2002. She eventually sold her share to a business partner, who closed it during COVID.

“I took a break when I had my daughter in 2013 and then I went out of the industry for a while and then in 2018, I started baking for friends, events,” Demirceviren shared.

“I got my cottage license and I’ve been doing that and I have a commercial kitchen I’ve been using and I’m doing it through Facebook and Instagram right now. But I’m opening back the store.”

Some of the items she's sold recently include: pistachio raspberry chocolate mousse cheesecake; gluten-free carrot cake loaf with cream cheese icing, and matcha green tea raspberry cheesecake.

A fire at the Moorestown location delayed opening plans for Demirceviren, who's waiting for the restoration company to release the space to her.

“They’re working on it,” she said. “They were supposed to finish their work (in June). Hopefully, we are looking like September (to open).”

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