A month has passed since Baked Sweets and Seasonal Snacks Konomi opened near Choshiro Park.

This shop sells baked sweets using financiers, scones, and seasonal fruits. Yumiko Kurotaki, the owner and native of Aomori, opened a store on October 22nd. “I decided to open a business in Hirosaki because I wanted to have my own restaurant someday,” says Kurotaki. It is said that the origin of the name of the store was decided because "sweets" is read as "konomi".

In high school, Mr. Kurotaki dreamed of working as a pastry chef and moved to Tokyo to attend a confectionery school. He remained in Tokyo and has a history of working at Oven Mitten (Koganei City, Tokyo). At the same store, he studied under the owner, Rumi Kojima. He has been there for about 6 years.

“The way Kojima-san made the dough was different from the techniques I had acquired until now, even if it was just the way the dough was mixed. When I took a bite of the confectionery, I was impressed by the delicious taste of the finely-tuned ingredients.” and Mr. Kurotaki. “When we opened the store, Mr. Kojima came all the way from Tokyo to Hirosaki and helped us with the preparations.

The store was renovated from a 40-year-old office in a residential area. The store area is 14 tsubo. Hiba wood is used, the windows are large so that the inside of the store can be seen from the outside, and the space in front of the product counter is wide. Mr. Kurotaki says with a smile, "We created an atmosphere that makes it easy for local residents to stop by."

"Hirosaki has many attractive seasonal ingredients, and I would like to make confectionery carefully together with producers who I can see."

The menu includes financier (220 yen), vanilla pound cake (200 yen), scones (280 yen), cookies (350 yen), muffins with seasonal ingredients (350 yen), Orin's crumble tart, Pear tart using General Leclerc (over 450 yen), pudding (320 yen), etc.

Mr. Kurotaki says with a smile, "It's been a month since we opened, and we're happy to see elderly neighbors stop by and come back." "Since each item is hand-made and we don't make it in advance, there are days when we run out of stock early. I want people to enjoy handicrafts. I hope it will take root in Hirosaki for a long time to come," he said enthusiastically.

Business hours are from 11:00 to 17:00. Closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.