Vanessa Dossantos had one firm requirement when she went looking for a place to open her bakery. She wanted a space that already had a walk-in refrigerator, because she did not want to buy one. Sippican Week reported that the owners of the Ropewalk building reached out to her, and within four months she was opening a newly renovated cafe at 33 County Road.
A short walk down the same road, at 81 County Road, a second baker moved into a second empty kitchen that same spring. Both storefronts had lost a food business, and both were filled by someone who needed what the last tenant left behind. Mattapoisett gained two bakeries this year mostly because the previous owners walked away from businesses but left the equipment in place.
What a walk-in refrigerator was worth at 33 County Road
The space Eden now uses was most recently Poi Market. FUN 107 reported that Poi opened on February 24, 2023, as a high-end grocery with fresh produce and locally sourced meats. Mornings brought Uncle Jon's Coffee with a danish or a breakfast sandwich, and from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. the counter served sushi and sandwiches. About 18 months after opening, Poi told the landlords at the Ropewalk that it would be leaving.
Poi's run was short, but the room it left was not empty. Meghan Rider, a manager at Walrus & Captain next door, told FUN 107 at the time that the landlords were open to any kind of tenant, and she pointed out one feature. "It's setup for a little kitchen, too," she said, adding that Poi had been making sushi and ramen there right up until it closed.
That kitchen was what Dossantos needed. She grew up in Fall River and studied math and engineering, then became a math teacher. She went on to train at Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Boston and later worked as pastry chef at the Hotel Viking in Newport, Rhode Island. The Ropewalk space already had the cold storage she was looking for.
| 33 County Road | 81 County Road | |
|---|---|---|
| Previous food tenant | Poi Market, a grocery and prepared-food counter | Magpies, a bakery |
| Previous run | Opened Feb. 24, 2023, gone about 18 months later | Almost five years |
| What stayed behind | A space set up for a small kitchen, with a walk-in refrigerator | A space outfitted for the next bakery owner |
| New tenant | Eden Cafe and Bakery, owner Vanessa Dossantos | Sweet Art, owners Brittney and DeAndre Gibau |
| Where the new owner came from | Pastry jobs in Rhode Island and beyond | A made-to-order shared kitchen in Fairhaven |
| Reported opening | Open by early June 2026 | June 2026 |
Magpies left the ovens, and a public invitation
Up the road, the handoff happened in public. Magpies posted its farewell on Facebook: "THANK YOU for (almost) 5 years of joy and laughter and tears and friendship." FUN 107 covered the closing, noting the eclairs, muffins, cookies, cakes and breads the shop had baked. It also reported that former owner Jenni Strand was trying to find another baker for the space instead of letting it go to any tenant who came along.
"This sweet space is outfitted with everything needed for the next bakery owner to jump right in and start creating." Jenni Strand, as quoted by FUN 107
Strand also told the station, "I'm dedicated to finding a fabulous person to take over that lovely little space and I really hope I'm able to make that happen."
It worked out that way. Sippican Week reported on June 26, 2026, that Sweet Art had moved to 81 County Road that month. Before the move, it took custom orders out of a shared kitchen in Fairhaven. FUN 107's opening story describes the shop as the former Magpies location, "bringing new life to a former bakery." The room Sweet Art moved into had been set up for a bakery from the start.
Sweet Art started small. In FUN 107's telling, it began in 2020 when the owner posted on social media asking who wanted chocolate-covered strawberries for Valentine's Day, and "to my surprise, I received a huge response." From there it grew into birthday cakes, wedding cakes and custom desserts. Local coverage spells her name two ways. The Standard-Times and Sippican Week call her Brittney Gibau, and FUN 107 calls her Brittney Araujo.
Two counters, two very different cases
The two bakeries share a road and a spring opening, and their menus go in different directions.
At Eden, Dossantos bakes French-inspired pastries along with some Italian and Brazilian treats. Her own favorite to make and eat is Brazilian flan. The menu changes every week. Five to seven pastries stay the same, and the rest of the case is whatever she decides to bake. Sippican's photos from early June show small cakes topped with fresh fruit, rows of cheesecakes, and an Oreo cinnamon bun she created. By late July, The Standard-Times had covered the shop as Eden Coffee & Bakery and called it "on the rise."
Sweet Art is known for trompe-l'oeil pastries, French for "trick of the eye." Each is layered mousse, cake and fruit filling, dipped in chocolate and decorated to look like the fruit it tastes of. Sippican listed six:
- Banana
- Cocoa bean
- Mango
- Passionfruit
- Raspberry
- Strawberry
The case also holds dot cakes, which are single-serving cakes dipped in nonpareils, plus classic chocolate chip cookies and cupcakes. FUN 107 adds croissants, loaded cake slices, loaded iced teas, and signature lattes in crème brûlée and tiramisu flavors. In June, Gibau told Sippican that the fruit pastries sell on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and that "we usually always have a line out the door."
Why a finished kitchen is the scarce part
Mattapoisett doesn't have much commercial space to begin with. In early 2025, FUN 107 wrote that the town has never had an abundance of places to spend money. It added that when Dunkin' arrived years ago, getting its drive-thru approved "took an act of Congress." The Ropewalk itself shows how long these buildings last. The same story said it was built in 1920, housed the Big 3 Hardware Store in the 1940s, and reopened as a shopping center in 1984. It sits on Route 6 across from the post office.
When storefronts turn over that rarely, the build-out decides what comes next. A room with a working kitchen draws food businesses, and someone starting out does not have to finance cold storage and ovens on top of rent. Dossantos said exactly this when she described skipping the cost of a walk-in. Strand did the same thing from the other side when she marketed Magpies as move-in ready for a baker. In both cases the town's next bakery came in through equipment that stayed put after the last business left.
Dossantos also told Sippican that people say Eden fills "a void because there were no coffee shops with seating." Mattapoisett does have other places to get coffee. Uncle Jon's Coffees lists a Mattapoisett location serving breakfast, lunch and coffee, and Poi used to pour Uncle Jon's coffee in the same room Eden occupies now. Even so, Dossantos told the paper she already had a few regulars two months in, and that many people still did not know she was there.
Planning a stop this fall
Most of the reporting on these two shops dates from June and July 2026, so check Eden's Instagram, @edencoffeeandbakery, and Sweet Art's, @sweet_art_1220, for current hours before you go. That matters most for Sweet Art if you want a fruit pastry, since in June those were made on set days.
Two upcoming dates pair well with a box of pastries:
- Saturday, Oct. 17, noon to 4 p.m. The Mattapoisett Lions hold their 10th Fall Free Family Fun Festival at Shipyard Park, with hayrides, face painting, pumpkin bowling, a Mad Science show and an old-fashioned popcorn machine. The rain date is Oct. 24, according to Sippican Week. The Wanderer's listing notes that this is the festival's 10th anniversary.
- Saturday, Nov. 7, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Mattapoisett Museum Holiday Craft Fair at 5 Church St. expects nearly 20 artisan vendors, with music by "Guitar Dave" Sterenchock.
Eden is in the Ropewalk plaza at 33 County Road, and Sweet Art is at 81 County Road.
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