Glazed Donuts to take over Essex Experience café space

Glazed Donuts will replace Leo & Co. in the Essex Experience shopping center starting in early December.

The longtime café at 21 Essex Way will close its doors on Friday, Nov. 13. Glazed co-owner Rachel Lee said the new Glazed Café aims to launch shortly after the transition begins.

During the switchover period, customers can still buy doughnuts from the existing shop, but only through online preorders. The new café will keep the Lees’ doughnut bakery in the same location.

Lee said the expanded menu will include hot breakfast burritos and sandwiches. A doughnut sandwich will be on the menu, along with lunch sandwiches similar to those served at Leo & Co.

The drink list will feature coffee beverages, smoothies, and dirty sodas made with soda, syrups, and cream. Some staff who previously worked at Leo & Co. will stay on to bake specific items. Those include the vegan blueberry muffin and chocolate-tahini and brown butter-chocolate chip cookies.

Lee said the owners want to preserve the community feel of the space. They plan to shrink the market section that sells local food products. A new kid play area will be added to the room.

On weekends, the café will offer a secret pizza menu. The Lees hope to add same-day online ordering and DoorDash delivery for doughnuts in early 2027.

Kayla Silver, 33, opened Leo & Co. in June 2024. The space had been home to Sweet Clover Market for 17 years before Silver took over. It is located in the same building as her other business, Salt & Bubbles Wine Bar and Market, which she opened in 2021.

Silver confirmed that she has listed Salt & Bubbles for sale. She is currently speaking with several prospective buyers about the property.

Silver said she is pleased that Glazed will keep a café operating in the space. She described the decision to close Leo & Co. and put her wine shop on the market as difficult.

“I took stock of where I’m at in my life, and it’s not that I don’t love what I do,” Silver said. “But I’m also putting in more hours than a mother with an eight-month-old is interested in putting in.”

Silver said she plans to use her wine industry background in a different role. “I have some ideas about what comes next,” she said. “Most of it involves working for someone else.”