Francesco's Bakery — Restaurant in Town of Oyster Bay

DO NOT USE THIS BAKERY IF YOU HAVE ALLERGIES My fiancé and I are getting married at the Fox Hollow and were recommended Francesco’s Bakery. We scheduled a cake tasting for 4/28 (we called and scheduled this on 4/4). I have food allergies to gluten and dairy and we let them know this upon booking the cake tasting. They assured us that they would have something prepared for myself and my fiancé and that they could accommodate my allergies. When we arrived we told them we had a wedding cake appointment and it took a while to get anyone to help us. They eventually brought out a plate of cakes to try and I asked if there was anything gluten and dairy free for me. They seemed confused by request. We sat for over ten minutes with no one coming to help us. Eventually, the owner came out of the back and assured us that they would make a platter for me right now and that it would be gluten and dairy free. He said that they have Bavarian cream and that it is dairy free. The owner was very unprofessional and yelled at his employees in front of us. They brought out a platter for me and I asked again to verify that this was gluten and dairy free. They assured me it was. I ate some of the samples and against our better judgment and instincts/first impression we placed our order for our wedding cake. Within minutes of leaving my skin started to get itchy and prickle as it does when I consume dairy. I had not consumed anything but the cakes and my skin broke out in a rash as is typical for my dairy allergy. At the end of the night, we were disappointed and we just wanted to cancel our wedding cake order. We were told the Bavarian cream was dairy free and given my allergic reaction we know that this was not the case. We called the bakery at noon the next day and asked to cancel our wedding cake order and speak to the wedding cake planner we met with. They told us she was very busy and would call us back. At 4 pm we called again and were told the same thing. At this point it appeared they were dodging our calls and my fiancé insisted that we wanted to cancel as soon as possible. They put her on the line and he explained the situation and my allergic reaction to the cakes. She gave a defensive apology and said she was very busy and would find our paperwork when she could and give us a call later for a refund. Hours passed and still no call back. My fiancé called again at 8 pm and they transferred him to the wedding cake planner however another employee picked up and said that unfortunately she was super busy with cake tastings and couldn't come to the phone and my fiancé was asked for the third time that day to take down his information for a call that was simply not coming. My fiancé insisted that he needed to speak to someone to cancel our order for our wedding next year. The owner was eventually put on the line and when my fiancé again explained the allergic reaction to dairy that occurred the owner said never in my 37 years have I had a customer have an allergic reaction to gluten from our baked goods. My fiancé said it wasn't an allergic reaction to gluten, since my reaction to gluten is the closing of my throat. Not only was he not apologetic he questioned if I had consumed something else before the cake tasting and put the blame on us. He told my fiancé that we never should have come to his bakery if I have allergies. The bakery amenities indicate that they have gluten-free and vegan options and they charge extra for it. The audacity to blame us for listening to them when they assured us multiple times that the cake provided was gluten and dairy free. They told us they could accommodate us and Francesco himself said they were an allergy friendly establishment. We made a terrible mistake by paying for a cake from this bakery and thankfully got a refund after an absolutely nightmarish ordeal. I just hope other people can learn from our mistakes and not go through this awful experience themselves. If you have any food allergies (or do not want to deal with vendors of questionable morals) do...

If your getting married or using Westbury Manor as your venue, listen up. Me and my now husband for a year today got a list from our wedding venue (W.M) of bakery's they were affiliated with to make our wedding cake. So because this bakery was close to our home we chose it. When we went to choose what we wanted they offered styles of cake that wasn't what we needed for almost 200 people. Any additions cost extra so the designs and the colors that were added on the cake were over $1000. When we came here to get a wedding cake we never thought they would offer us an EXACT REPLICA OF THE TOP TIER of our wedding cake but they told me and my husband that they would give us exactly that. Not just once but multiple times; as long as we called with time and still had our receipt. Our wedding arrives, we get our cake which is the 1st picture you see down below, top tier and all. My husband called them two times the 1st time he called to notify them of that fact that our one year anniversary was coming up and we wanted our replica top tier to be made for today. They told him he could call closer to the day, so he did. When he called the second time they asked which of the two fillings we would want for the exact top tier replica and so he told them. He also mentioned that it was made of fondant and colorful flowers on top because they asked what it looked like. My husband thought it to be weird they would even ask this question and told them I can email you the receipt if you need to look over your notes and they said it wasn't necessary. So we show up today to pick up our EXACT TOP TIER OF OUR WEDDING CAKE and they try to box up something I had never seen before. I then tell the man at the counter that does not look like the TOP TIER OF MY WEDDING CAKE. He tells me "you don't get that because this is free and you didn't specify." I could not believe what was just said to me. He then says can I see a picture; so I show him a picture and he says "yeah if you didn't specify we can't do that."

We are upset about this. The whole reason we didn't save a piece of our original cake in the freezer was because we knew were getting this one a year later, but now it doesn't feel like a special cake, it looks like something you could make yourself or get anywhere. We were not really given at all what we were told and we spent a lot of money here, I don't see how they could give us (or anyone else) this cake and think that someone would be happy with it. Even without making a replica cake (which they said they were), they didn't even write Happy Anniversary, make a design...

My wife and I got married back on October 27, 2017 at Leonard's Palazzo. As part of our contract, we were told we had a cake included from Francesco's. Back in the Spring, we had gone for our cake tasting. We were able to try a variety of cakes and fillings. Of course, the ones that we loved the most (since they had the most flavor) were going to cost us extra money. These options were red velvet and carrot cake. We opted to pay extra for not only red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting but also extra to have them as cupcakes. We were also told that at that time if you want cupcakes you have to provide your own cupcake stand. Along with the cupcakes, we asked for a 1 Tier Cake, red velvet as well, with cascading leaves down the side(as our theme was fall frosted) in the colors of our wedding. Before we left that day, we paid the additional charge and all details were written down and confirmed. About 2 weeks prior to the wedding, Francesco's reached out to confirm our order details as well as asking for a monetary balance. We went over the details again (cupcakes, red velvet, the 1 tier cake with leaves in our color theme etc) as well as confirmed that we had already paid our balance. The situation was rectified and everything seemed to be on track. Then, 2 days before the wedding, Francesco's called again to confirm the details on the cake and specifically asked if we wanted leaves and not flowers on the cake. We confirmed for a 3rd time that we wanted leaves as this was the running theme of our wedding. Entering the reception room the evening of our wedding, the cupcakes looked absolutely stunning on the cupcake stands that we provided. However, we quickly realized that the cake tier did not have leaves on it like we had confirmed 3 separate times.....but had flowers! Of course no one noticed but us, but we were very upset as this was something that we had stressed time and time again. In the end cupcakes were very tasty and guests were happy to eat them. Overall, Francesco's does very well with their specialty flavors for their cakes, but their standard flavors are just average. When it comes to basic details, unfortunately for our wedding they missed the mark. We would recommend going over the details multiple times but we did that and still got flowers and not leaves. Better luck...