New Bakery Offering Chilean Specialties Opens In Babylon

BABYLON, NY - Chilean immigrant Luisa Olivera has been baking since she was a little girl. Now, she is sharing her baked good with the Babylon community. The Brentwood resident recently opened her bakery, Nz-Grei on 134 N Carl Avenue.

This isn't Olivera's first business. After coming to America 23 years ago to start a better life for her husband and five children, she started her own drapery business in the basement of her Oyster Bay home. But she always dreamed of having her own bakery.

The opportunity came after she passed by and saw the space that housed former ice cream store was up for rent. She finally acquired the storefront last November. Babylon was the perfect area for her, since her children and her six grandchildren all live in the area.

"I love the area, I love to take a break and take a walk along the lake," she said.

In addition to the perfect location, Olivera had the perfect name for her business, Nz-Grei. The name came from first letter of grandchildren's names; Nicole, Zakary, Gabriella, Rebekah, Elizabeth and Issak.

Much of the decor in the eatery includes images of penguins, on behalf of Olivera's daughter Catalina, who always wanted penguin as pet.

"I told her one day when I open a bakery you are going to have a lot of penguins," Olivera laughed. An image of penguin with a map of Chile on back was even painted on the wall of the bakery.

Olivera cooks up several Chilean specialties to sell in the bakery including her fresh bread. According to Olivera, she never brought bread, but instead always made her own from scratch.
A few of the menu items pay tribute to her family such as "Tata’s Sheeken Sanweesh" (Tata's Chicken Sandwich) which was named after her husband. "Tata" is a nickname for grandfather in Chile.

She also has "Nelly's pebre," after her daughter-in-law who passed away a few years ago. Pebre is Chilean salsa with mapuche spice. According to Olivera, Nelly made pebre even better than she did so she wanted to add it to the menu in her honor.

The bakery offers other Chilean specialties such as churros filled with dulce de leche; Brazo de Reina which is a cake rolled up with dulce de leche filling; completos, which are hot dogs topped with guacamole and mayo and Churrasco Chileno which is a sandwich with grilled thin beef, sliced tomatoes, mayo and avocado.

Olivera says what sets her bakery apart is that all her food is made fresh, she does not working from mix.

A grand opening was held last Thursday. Customers got to try alfajores and coffee for free.
Nz-Grei bakery is open from Monday through Friday from 5:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sundays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

All photos: Priscila Korb