A customer walked into the Rolling Pin one day with his daughter and started telling her about the cookies he used to buy there as a boy. Owner David Dombroff watched the scene unfold across his own counter, and the arithmetic hit him: “so now we’re 30 years later, this kid is grown up and has a kid of his own.” That single exchange explains more about a neighborhood bakery than any ad could. People do not just buy from a place like this. They hand it down, the way a family hands down a recipe card.
A Bakery With Roots in the Three Village Shopping Center
Rolling Pin Bakery sits at 1387 Route 25A in the Three Village Shopping Plaza, a few minutes from Port Jefferson and a short drive from Mount Sinai. The bakery’s own website describes David Dombroff as sole proprietor and a Culinary Institute of America graduate who has been “providing incredible desserts for Long Island and New York for over 30 years,” combining centuries-old baking methods with contemporary decorating techniques.
Dombroff’s path started early. According to Village Times Herald reporting from 2020, he earned an associate degree at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park by age 19, worked for a hotel chain in Boston and on Long Island, and put in time at his father’s bagel store before buying the former Glendale Bakery. That bagel store, Bagel King, operated for 15 years in the very same shopping center where the Rolling Pin now stands. The family connection to the plaza predates the bakery itself.
Opening a business was a harder bet than the finished story suggests. TBR News Media quoted Dombroff describing the first few years as “absolutely awful,” with “endless work [and] little to no income.” He opened his own bakery at age 25, and he told the paper that things were “easier [to open a small business] back then,” since “the bank’s a lot more hesitant to just lend out hundreds of thousands of dollars” today.
The Reunion That Made the News
In December 2025, TBR News Media named Dombroff one of its People of the Year, and the profile carried a detail that rarely surfaces in bakery coverage. To mark three decades in business, he rented the Port Jefferson village hall for a reunion of former employees. “We invited over 300 employees from over the past 30 years, of which over 150 responded yes and came,” he said.
Think about what that room represented. Teenagers who once worked the register were now adults with children of their own. “It was their first job for many of them, [and it] taught them how to make change,” Dombroff said, adding that it “taught them how to deal with the public.” His name for the whole arrangement is the “Rolling Pin Family.”
Current staff describe the same culture. Manager and wedding cake decorator René Lagreco, who started in 2001 as a mixer, called his boss “down to Earth, very easygoing, very helpful in anything” and added, “He’s a goofball, he’s not serious.” A teenage employee told the paper, “He’s been a very good boss, and he treats us like family.”
What Comes Out of the Ovens
The menu is a classic neighborhood-bakery spread. The bakery’s website organizes its offerings into wedding cakes and wedding cupcakes, other cakes (store cakes, bridal and baby shower cakes, birthday and Sweet 16 cakes, groom’s cakes and occasion cakes), cupcakes, cookies, pastries and tarts. Couples can request a tasting for wedding cakes through the site.
One item earns repeat mentions from customers. Port Jefferson village resident Emily Murphy told TBR, “anytime we’re in the mood for something sweet, that’s where we go,” and said she is “particularly a big fan of the apple turnovers.” Her verdict on the place itself: “It’s the kind of place you keep returning to because it always hits the spot.”
Wedding season is the bakery’s heavy-lifting stretch. Before the pandemic, Dombroff said, “This time of year we would typically be making 45 to 55 wedding cakes per weekend.”
Weathering 2020 and a Second Location That Closed
The bakery marked its 25th anniversary in September 2020, in the middle of the pandemic. The timing was brutal. “This was by far the biggest hit — we lost over 70% of the business,” Dombroff told the Village Times Herald, as wholesale accounts shut down. The planned anniversary gala at the Setauket Neighborhood House was canceled under state gathering limits. In its place, the bakery gave away free cupcakes on September 22 and September 26, 2020, and added curbside pickup and DoorDash delivery.
The Rolling Pin also once ran a second shop at 184 West Main Street in Bay Shore. That location closed, and in early 2020 Amanda Dill reopened the corner as Amanda’s Bakery Co., inheriting the old counters and cases. Dombroff’s explanation for the closure, per the 2020 report: “we couldn’t replicate the magic from Setauket.” Staying put in the Three Village plaza has been the constant ever since.
He credited the neighborhood for the survival: “Thankfully, the community has supported us through the years by shopping local.”
Giving Back, One Tray at a Time
Leftovers do not end up in the trash. TBR reported that unsold pastries and bread are donated to soup kitchens every night. “I would never want to sell it the next day, so rather than just tossing it,” Dombroff said, the baked goods go out the door to people who need them. The paper described the total as “thousands” of items, an estimate from the bakery rather than an audited figure.
Rolling Pin Bakery at a Glance
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Name | Rolling Pin Bakery |
| Address | 1387 Route 25A, Three Village Shopping Plaza, East Setauket, NY 11733 |
| Phone | (631) 689-2253 |
| Website | rollingpinbakery.com |
| Owner | David Dombroff (sole proprietor) |
| Opened | Marked its 25th anniversary in September 2020 |
| Known for | Wedding cakes, birthday cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pastries, tarts, apple turnovers |
| Delivery | DoorDash was added in 2020; confirm current availability before ordering |
| Hours | Not published on the bakery’s site; call ahead |
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Rolling Pin Bakery? At 1387 Route 25A in the Three Village Shopping Plaza in East Setauket, roughly a short drive from both Port Jefferson Village and Mount Sinai.
Who owns it? David Dombroff, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, who is the sole proprietor. His father previously ran Bagel King in the same plaza.
How long has it been open? TBR News Media reported its 25th anniversary in September 2020 and described three decades of operation in December 2025.
Does it make wedding cakes? Yes. The bakery’s website lists wedding cakes and cupcakes and offers a tasting request page.
Is it worth the drive from the Mount Sinai side? For a wedding cake tasting or a tray of cookies, the answer from three decades of repeat customers appears to be yes. For an easy pairing, the village of Port Jefferson has plenty of nearby stops, including C’est Cheese and The Pie, and the broader North Shore Food Trail maps out more.
Sources
- People of the Year: David Dombroff’s Rolling Pin Bakery, a sweet place to visit — TBR News Media, Dec. 27, 2025
- East Setauket Bakery Celebrates 25 Years Despite Pandemic — TBR News Media, Oct. 10, 2020
- Amanda’s Bakery Co. takes over former Rolling Pin spot in Bay Shore — Greater Long Island, Feb. 4, 2020
- Rolling Pin Bakery — official website
- Rolling Pin — LongIsland.com business listing
