Sweet Tides to reopen Thursday

After being delayed one week and one day to reopen, Sweet Tides will again welcome customers on Thursday.

The bakery has been closed since early March to expand its storefront and offer specialty coffees in a café atmosphere.

Due to a backlog in permitting through the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, it was unknown how long the business would be delayed in reopening.

Owner Shawna Buness posted on Facebook last week that the permits were approved the day after a Sentinel story reported she didn’t know if it would take a week or month to get the permits.

“This letter serves as approval of your plan review of the expansion. You should receive your new FN-1 permit in the mail shortly, but until then, this letter serves as your approval to operate,” the April 20 letter from the DEC reads.

Sweet Tides will open at 6 a.m. on Thursday and remain open until 2 p.m. Regular business hours after that will be from 6 a.m. to noon.

“For the first week, we will only be serving pastries and coffee, but we will also have breads and such in the bread case,” Buness said. “We will continue expanding the menu and hours as we get more staff.”

The bakery’s coffee flavors and offerings will be limited, she said, as the focus is still on the bakery side of things.

“We are very excited to be back open and serving Wrangell,” Buness said. “We have missed seeing everyone’s smiling faces.”