They say three times's a charm, and if that's true, the Serrao family certainly hopes their new Oakmont Bakery will be charmed.

Workers are putting the finishing touches on the 19,500 square foot bakery at the corner of Hulton Road and Third Street, which will be ready to open soon. It's the third location since the business launched in 1988 in a small storefront on Allegheny River Boulevard. Owner Marc Serrao gave Marty the grand tour of the building he hopes will make the bakery a "destination" for food lovers across the region.

Before you even go inside the new bakery, you can see this place is literally a "big" deal. They've gone from 32 parking spaces at the old bakery to 110 spaces here, which will make it easier to accommodate a growing clientele interested in an "experience" that the new facility is designed to provide. "It's so big even the bathrooms are massive," Marc joked.

When you walk in the front door, the front counter area and indoor cafe space is huge. You'll see a "great room" to your left with a 16 foot fireplace (the grey area over Marty's left shoulder in the picture below) designed to create a cozy atmosphere for customers to enjoy a fresh-made cup of coffee and a pastry. Above the fireplace workers will install four 60-inch video monitors. "We're gonna show how wedding cakes are made, how cookie production goes at Christmas time," explained Marc.

Even the decor in the cafe reflects the bakery theme. The chandeliers are designed to look like wedding cakes, with three cake-shaped layers of light bulbs.

"The customers are going to love the new space!" Marc Serrao, Oakmont Bakery

More customers means more cakes, pies, cookies and their famous paczkis will be needed, and Marc says they've planned for that too. The cake decorating space has almost quadrupled. There's an oven room just for ovens and fryers and a room just to mix batters and make dough. In total the baking space is double the size of the old bakery, which currently serves about 800 customers on a normal day, and is packed with upwards of 3,000 on holidays. "The customers are going to love the new space but the people who benefit the very most are the employees, those of us who work behind the scenes," said Marc proudly.

We'll update you when an official date is set for the grand opening, and Sparkt will be there to cover it!