MANITOU SPRINGS — Il Vegano, a kitchen/bakery that opened up during the summer of 2020, is working hard to bring tasty Sicilian inspired, vegan cookies to the Front range.
Drew LiVigni, the creator and founder of the relatively new bakery, started up his business after losing his job in the restaurant field due to the widespread closures that followed the start of the pandemic.
Finding himself with a new abundance of time and a goal of starting up a bakery where he could draw on his Sicilian roots, and create vegan baked goods, he took steps to make his dream a reality.
I want to create desserts for vegans, no matter how [one] came to [that] decision, but also for non vegans. To help them get over the hesitation of eating a plant based diet. And what better way to do that than entice them with sweets.
The operation is currently fairly small, Drew operating as a one man team out of a home-sized kitchen to create a range of Italian style cookies; but the desire for growth is there and the positive reviews have started to roll in.
According to this baker, the support of the community has really been a major factor in helping him continue and grow his new business and he hopes to be able to support others in the same way.
"If an opportunity arises where I can help someone or work with someone, then all the better, because I think it just all feeds itself," said Drew, "it just gives me a confidence that this community can get through whatever it needs to get through."
The cookies can currently only be ordered from the Il Vegano Website or purchased at Bread and Butter Neighborhood Market, but Drew hopes to change that, adding new vendors in the coming months.
The goal going forward is to add a range of desserts to his menu, set up more vendors in the hopes of moving towards a mostly wholesale business model, and continue to bring sweets to the area.
"it's been the anchor, so to speak, one of the anchors in my life, [helping me] get through the last year," commented Drew, "and I look forward to things sort of getting better and loosening up and the freedom to go out and present this to more people and create more things out of this idea."
To learn more about this vegan bakery's story, CLICK HERE.
