GENEVA \u2014 Sometimes, an idea is so sweet you just have to run with it, even if it\u2019s a little, well, naughty.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what Michael and Lydia Alexander learned during the past year as they built Naughty on the Weekend, a bake shop that has a soft opening from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. today in new space at 93 Castle St.<\/p>\n
However, Naughty isn\u2019t exactly a new business; the Alexanders started it in their kitchen toward the end of winter last year after Michael, 28, had a near-death experience as a delivery driver. It was about the same time that Lydia perfected making cookies that had the potential for the couple to make a living in a more sustainable way.<\/p>\n
At first, the idea of a business was \u201cunintentional,\u201d said Lydia, who is also 28. The two are high school sweethearts and have been together for 14 years and married for six.<\/p>\n
Michael was becoming disillusioned with his delivery job even before the near collision, and Lydia had baked a batch of cookies to help cheer him up. But all her previous efforts \u201cfailed and ended up in the garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n
She had to convince him to try the cheer-up cookies, Biscoff Cookie Butter; when he did, he pronounced them so good that they were \u201cnaughty.\u201d<\/p>\n
In their house, something that is naughty is usually something that is so special that it really is reserved for only weekend enjoyment; hence the name of the business was born. And, by the end of that evening, Michael had convinced Lydia to apply for a business license.<\/p>\n
They didn\u2019t start right away, but that fateful day of the almost accident propelled them forward. Michael put in his two weeks\u2019 notice, and they jumped into action.<\/p>\n
Lydia said the cookies caught on right away. Her aunt featured them in her restaurant, Margarita\u2019s Latin Soul Food at Waterloo Premium Outlets, which attracted Devyn Williams, a Hobart and William Smith Colleges student who works at Cam\u2019s New York Pizzeria in Geneva. Soon, the Exchange Street restaurant started carrying them too.<\/p>\n
Demand grew fast.<\/p>\n
From their kitchen, the Alexanders moved their burgeoning business at first into a local church kitchen and then into the community kitchen at BluePrint Geneva later in 2025. They wanted to hook into DoorDash, which didn\u2019t allow delivery from home-based enterprises, Lydia said. Michael\u2019s childhood friend is the son of Jackie Augustine, who is BluePrint\u2019s founder and its executive director. BluePrint is a nonprofit organization that, among other things, focuses on addressing economic inequality and food insecurity through community-driven projects and sustainable development.<\/p>\n
Loads of support and ideas started to pour in, including the possibility of opening an outlet at the Windmill Farm and Craft Market south of Penn Yan. At the same time, Lydia and Michael started thinking about having their own location in Geneva. They spoke to Dave Linger, who suggested 93 Castle St., where he had rented previously to Simple Sweets Bakery.<\/p>\n
They took the space. Their friends, acquaintances, and others have helped them source equipment; they also got some things through the restaurant auction house in Romulus. Lydia said she and Michael have relied on the power of prayer a lot and are taking on the effort without outside loans or other financial assistance.<\/p>\n
Using the kitchen they assembled at 93 Castle, they baked their cookies, which cover 60 varieties of original recipes, and took them to the Windmill starting April 18. The cookies have been so successful they have been near-sellouts every week.<\/p>\n
And, through their customer base they garnered when they were in BluePrint\u2019s space at 143 Wadsworth St. and at the Geneva Farmers\u2019 Market, they have amassed a segment of clientele who mail-order the treats. They said they have shipped all over the United States.<\/p>\n
The shop at 93 Castle, which the Alexanders have been renovating with the help of Williams for weeks, will feature more than just cookies, Lydia said. There will be muffins, croissants, and other pastries.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the Alexanders\u2019 5-year-old son, Michael Jr., said his favorite cookie is the \u201cice cream sandwich,\u201d really an oatmeal cream pie. Their daughter, Azizah, 2, was too excited to name a favorite.<\/p>\n
So far, the Alexanders have hired a few helpers for their business, but they are also looking for more to help with the Geneva location, which will be open just Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope some of them will also help us at the Windmill,\u201d Lydia said.<\/p>\n
They want their customers to feel like family and don\u2019t want the sales of their cookies to be purely transactional. Lydia said they are out to build a community around their business and to have it mean more than just a place to buy cookies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GENEVA \u2014 Sometimes, an idea is so sweet you just have to run with it, even if it\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7],"tags":[40865,13398,15789,15790,65],"class_list":["post-78374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-geneva","tag-cookie","tag-cooking","tag-cuisine","tag-foods","tag-geneva"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/116699022372429956","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}