SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – A longtime South Lake Tahoe cafe and bakery, tucked in a cozy corner of the Y next to TJ Maxx, is officially under new ownership, keeping the same passion for community while bringing fresh ideas to Crazy Good Bakery and Cafe.

For the shop’s newest owner, Paola Arizti, baking and business were two things ingrained in her since she was a child.

“I was 13-years-old when I took my first cake-decorating class,” Arizti recalled. 

Growing up as one of five siblings, she and one of her brothers started a baking business at the ripe age of 14 to earn money for a new set of speakers. Arizti’s father said that if they could make 10% of the money needed, he’d match the other 90%. The caveat was that they had to work for their 10%, they couldn’t use money previously saved or money given to them. 

Thus, their at-home baking operation was born and together, Arizti and her brother would sell cupcakes outside of school and even to school cafeterias. 

“Once my brother had met his goal, he left the business to me, and I worked it for five years.”

Arizti would go on to rack up more experience, eventually extending from the Bay area while working with Le Cordon Bleu chefs to right here at Cuppa Tahoe working under successful owner/founder Sandra Santané. 

Now, Arizti’s dream of owning her own official bakery has finally arrived, and with the support of her partner, the community, and Crazy Good Bakery’s previous owner, Christine Andersen-Smith, she made the plunge. 

Andersen-Smith built the Crazy Good Bakery brand brick by brick. Starting out at farmers markets before moving into the brick-and-mortar space we all know and love, she created a solid foundation.

“[Andersen-Smith] had been working here, long hours, for nine years,” Arizti said. “She craved that feeling of rest and being fulfilled by what she had built and passing it onto somebody else that wanted to maintain it – but with their own style.”

While focusing on improving backend operations of the business, Arizti said she plans to carry on the values and traditions that were placed long before her, implementing all the knowledge she’s absorbed from Andersen-Smith and surrounding local Tahoe businesses, including the shop’s annual Christmas Cookie Decorating Night and some cherished menu items.

Bare Roots locally-roasted coffee beans, hand-made bagels, gourmet donuts, fresh Danish and bear claw pastries – some delicacies can’t be replaced. 

“I really wanted to make sure to nail them, and bake them as if [Andersen-Smith] was still baking them,” said Arizti as she noted that clean ingredients and sustainably focused food management are at the top of her priority list while still striving to maintain affordable prices for both visitors and locals. 

As word of Arizti’s transition into ownership traveled through the community, local businesses rallied to assist her – from Bare Roots Coffee and Kava Lounge providing training for her baristas, Three Pines Coffee Company giving maintenance to coffee equipment, Cuppa Tahoe’s owner, Santané, doing a walkthrough with Arizti in preparation for the health department, to members of the Tahoe Chamber who are assisting with the implementation of new system operations.

“There is this collaborative spirit happening, where it feels like I’m not alone in this. I feel like the foundation is solid because there’s a lot of people backing me on it,” Arizti said.

With plans to give back, Arizti is hosting an all-day fundraiser on Saturday, September 26 honoring Ryan Lucca Marietti, a Correctional Officer for El Dorado County who was killed in a solo-vehicle crash on August 28. Proceeds from the fundraiser go directly to the Marietti family.

Looking ahead, Arizti plans to continue supporting first responders, public service workers, and the community like her predecessors before her, with plans in the works to host baking classes and community events.

“One of the things that really attracted me to this place was the culture that it had, and one of my biggest wishes is for that culture to be maintained,” she added.

Crazy Good Bakery and Cafe is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily and is located at 2040 Dunlap Drive in South Lake Tahoe, Calif.