Sweet success

Paul Clinton

Gina De Michael puts a little of herself into each pastry sold at

Pacific Whey Cafe & Baking Co.

That goes for the currant scones, bulging muffins and pizza-shaped

cinnamon custard danish.

“Everything we make is full of two things: love and butter,” De

Michael said. “We just make it the old-fashioned way.”

Pacific Whey’s homey, comfortable atmosphere and wildly popular

baked goods tend to draw eager diners from as close as the homes

along San Miguel Road to as far as Riverside and San Diego counties,

De Michael said.

Since opening Pacific Whey in 1995, De Michael and her partners,

Cheryl Clancy and Marc Wilsey, have made their cafe such a smashing

success that they have launched expansion plans.

A second Pacific Whey location is set to open in early March at

the Crystal Cove Promenade, an Irvine Co. shopping center at 7961

Coast Highway in Newport Coast.

As many as eight other Pacific Wheys could open in coastal

Southern California in the coming years, Wilsey said.

Tucked away in a shopping center at the end of San Miguel Road,

Pacific Whey draws a packed house on Saturdays and Sundays, with

lines stretching out the door.

“We’re a little off the beaten path,” De Michael said. “Over the

years, word gets out.”

Along with the baked goods, Pacific Whey also offers fresh mangos,

berries and kiwi brought in every day. Fresh-meat sandwiches, fresh

salads and a full dinner menu are also available from 6:30 a.m. to

8:30 p.m. every day.

A staff of 23, including two pastry chefs, run the cafe. The trio

of owners count on a 2% to 3% “intentional waste” each day, since

freshness is the No. 1 priority. The food that is not sold is given

to local homeless shelters, a “second harvest” mentality that ensures

very little is truly wasted.

The bubbly, energetic De Michael opened Pacific Whey in 1995,

after leaving Haute Cakes Cafe, which she founded with her

then-husband, Paul Taddeo, in 1990, after spending time as the pastry

chef at the Four Seasons in Newport Beach.

In 2000, De Michael and her partners doubled the size of Pacific

Whey. In addition to the new locations, they plan to launch a retail

line of high-quality European breads. They also sell their own

dark-roast coffee, a private-label blend specially roasted for them.

The 43-year-old De Michael, who lives in Newport Beach, is clearly

the creative element in the trio. Clancy, a 47-year-old Dana Point

resident, managed the Ritz.

Wilsey, 46, has put together Pacific Whey’s business plan. He

lives in San Clemente, but grew up in Newport Beach in the late 1960s

and ‘70s, playing on Newport Harbor High School’s 1975 league

champion football team.