The soft, fluffy, doughy “melt in your mouth” crème puff is baked daily and filled fresh to order at Chloe’s Crème Puffs.
Literally!
Don’t forget — choose the flavor you want inside! The regular vanilla and chocolate or try the other flavors currently on tap – raspberry, pumpkin and/or cookies n’ cream. And if you want a coating of sugar on top, go for it. Nom, Nom, Nom!
Meet Alison Lusardi, who brings this deliciousness to your taste palate as owner of Chloe’s Crème Puffs. Named after her family cat and open since February 2015, she began her business with the thought it would just be a “fun hobby.”
“I’ll open a couple days a week, we’ll do this as a hobby, we’ll see how it goes,” Lusardi said of her thought process. “And then it really started to take off within two years. Then four years into opening, I was able to quit all my other jobs and make this full time.”
And “all my other jobs” is not a joke. Lusardi has done it all. Her first job was actually a bakery and catering job believe it or not, but it took a bit of time to come full circle.
She graduated from Rowan University in Glassboro with a degree in art. “Completely unrelated to baking,” Lusardi candidly stated.
When she graduated, she opened up her own art studio, however in her words “it kind of crashed and burned.”
Then she worked for an optical company where she came to the realization, she didn’t like working for somebody else.
“I like things done a very particular way,” Lusardi said. “I’m kind of ‘Type A’ when it comes to my job and ‘Type B’ when it comes to hanging out with my friends. I’m the type of person that I need to do it for myself. I need to be my own boss.
“So initially my boyfriend [now fiancée Marcus] and I at the time were thinking, ‘we’re just going to move across the country. Just drop everything, just travel and have what we have in our car.”
Her parents Peggy and David Lusardi reeled in their freewheeling mindsets after college.
“They were always like set roots, don’t give up on Jersey just yet, make something here for yourself,” Lusardi explained. “So my parents ended up helping me find this building.”
The Lusardi’s were looking at a few small downtown areas – Collingswood, Haddonfield, and Merchantville – to name a few. The pricing turned out to be just right in the Pitman location at the time.
“It was pretty much an empty shell, which to my parents and I, a blank canvas to figure out what I wanted to do,” Lusardi said, noting the 525 square-foot space from front to back.
Prior to Chloe’s Crème Puffs, the location was home to a number of businesses – a furniture store, a candy store, a hair salon, which moved across the street, a tax wizards and it was the first location for Just Cookies.
“There’s been a lot of stores that started in this location so we always thought of it as a good luck charm,” Lusardi said, adding she initially thought she was going to open up a jewelry shop because her school degree is in jewelry, blacksmithing and ceramics.
However, with the “crash and burn” of her first art studio, she was hesitant about it.
“Even though I loved it, it didn’t seem something that was sustainable,” she said. “The type of pieces that I would make were collector pieces versus gifts. More like higher end stuff that doesn’t sound sustainable for the long run.”
That’s when Lusardi set her roots – well her Italian and Irish roots.
“I realized that I kind of like baking,” she said. With that said, Lusardi had to add she is not a cook (at all.)
So baking whisk, no cooking spatula. Got it!
“So when I initially came up with the concept, we were thinking of something that the town didn’t have.”
At the time, Pitman Bakery was still open and it had been around for 40 years. It’s something Lusardi adamantly stated she did not want to compete with.
After some brainstorming, it suddenly hit her, Voila, Crème puffs!
“It’s something that I have been making since I was 15 years old,” Lusardi explained. “When I opened up the store, it’s the only thing that we sold.”
The question that everyone had was, “How are you going to make money on just crème puffs?” And her answer was, “Well there’s a store in town that is called Just Cookies and they’ve been around for 20 years.”
“So maybe with just crème puffs, we can do it too.”
Using recipes from her grandmothers on both sides – Marie Worstall on her mom’s side and Alice Lusardi on her dad’s side – she started baking crème puffs offering seven flavors from Thursday to Sunday.
Today, Chloe’s Crème Puffs has a staff of four. They offer a variety of 30-plus flavors. Not all in one shot, but as the seasons change.
Currently open four days a week in the summer and “my oh my” has the business grown over the years.
“I feel like I should put an asterisk, Chloe’s Crème Puffs’ and more, not just crème puffs,” Lusardi said with a laugh. “We were getting a lot of inquiries about making cakes and about vegan and gluten free items.
“So after we were open for about a year, I was able to hire my first person to help me and that’s when we started expanding the menu.”
From holidays and moonlighting seasonal items, the menu started “growing and growing and growing” from cookies and scones to key lime pies and wedding cakes.
Yes, you read that right. Wedding cakes. And a lot of them. Although Lusardi initially didn’t think that was the route her business would take after eight years, it has become a welcome niche to her bakery.
Since Lusardi opened, she has received quite a bit of requests for vegan crème puffs. Currently they are piloting the recipe and hopes her small “but mighty” crew of bakers – Rachel, full-time head baker, and Ambbar and Dawn, part-time assistant bakers) can finally get it off the ground.
“Having a lot of requests for specialty items kind of helped our knowledge of figuring out a lot of different items that we can make,” Lusardi said.
“Every couple of months it’s always trial and error. Like what items are popular and what stuff to bring back and then obviously we rotate all the different items.”
Offering different items happens weekly, so every time a customer comes in, they will see something new.
So what is next?
For Lusardi, right now she is enjoying being a first-time mom to 11-month-old Leona.
She is also enjoying how successful her small location has been.
“I like where we’re at,” she said. “I never want to be pigeonholed into thinking it’s just about money because [really] it’s [about] finding good help and trustworthy help that will listen to you.”
Thoughts of looking for a bigger space and opening up a second location has been there. Then COVID-19 happened.
“We were pretty grateful that we didn’t sign a lease to get a bigger space or a second location,” Lusardi said, noting that 2020 was their busiest year as people started learning of their location. “[Having another lease] would have probably tanked everything.”
Chloe’s Crème Puffs is located at 7 E. Holly Ave. For more information call (856) 589-2919, email chloescremepuffs@gmail.com, or visit the bakery’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
