A fixture of Binghamton’s West Side since August, De Colores Cookies y Mas will soon be bringing its sweet signature creations to 81 Clinton St. Starting this weekend, owner Ely Rooney will be moving operations to a storefront in Antique Row.
Since 2010, Rooney has sold baked goods online and from her home. When the Rooney family moved in August from Chenango Street to Leroy Street, De Colores moved with them.
Rooney said after the new shop opens, the business will no longer be operating from the Leroy Street house.
“We’re growing, so it was time to get into a bigger space,” Rooney said.
De Colores Cookies y Mas will share a storefront with Upstate Grain, a business run by local artist Morgan Hastings, 32, of Binghamton. A friend of Rooney’s, Hastings discovered the Johnson City location in October after toying with the idea of opening a store.
The store will operate as a retail and bake shop boutique, where each business owner will run her own register.
“We knew we wanted to keep both our identities, both of our businesses, so it’s basically a shared space,” Rooney said.
De Colores Cookies y Mas will still sell its usual cookies, tarts, quiches and more, while likely trying out new items as well. Rooney said the store will eventually start carrying hand-painted prints and greeting cards from a friend in Savannah, Georgia, who operates as Darling Lemon on Etsy. According to Rooney, Upstate Grain specializes in “cozy living” type items; the Etsy shop currently offers candles, blankets, bath products and Binghamton-inspired merchandise. Hastings also makes custom wooden signs, a skill that she’ll be sharing at in-store classes. Rooney will host classes of her own, teaching attendees how to decorate cookies.
Rooney, whose husband, Brian Rooney, is a lecturer of biology at Binghamton University, said she envisions the bake shop as a potential hangout or study spot for students once a cafe area is set up.
“It’ll be very BU-friendly, so students have a place they can go to and study and have coffee and just relax,” Ely Rooney said. “We kind of want it to be a home away from home, because our big thing is we really want to grow in the community and we want to be community-friendly, especially to our students.”
While many of her Leroy Street customers were in walking distance of De Colores Cookies y Mas before the move, Rooney said she believes they will follow her to Clinton St., as many of them did after the shop’s first location change. She said the Antique Row location, which neighbors the newly opened Parlor City Vegan and offers free parking nearby, is an ideal spot to run a business.
“It’s an up-and-coming space, I think we’re in an area that is going to grow eventually,” she said. “We’re hoping to bring people out to other businesses as well.”