When Kelli Bernard first started her 9-to-5 computer job, she had no idea that in a few years she would be the owner of a successful bakery/teahouse. But to her pleasant surprise here she is, in splendid culinary glee. The young and very impressive head of Amai sells goods online, in specialty stores like Dean and Deluca and in a recently opened up shop on 3rd Avenue.

While the Amai line of tea-inspired treats (a.k.a. Tea Sweets) is available in other stores, the namesake shop has many exclusive offerings. The location features scones in tasty flavours like vanilla, earl grey and green tea. Individual quiches are another exclusively in-shop treat. Signature Tea Sweets cookies are available in a variety of flavors like green tea, chai almond, white tea and strawberry. Plus, there are puddings, pastries, and Botanical Brownies (no, these aren’t “special” brownies) to boot.

Amai is not just a mere bakery; however, it's a tea house as well. And a little tea shrine at that. With a large tea selection, it's easy to be overwhelmed; but, resident tea expert Queenie Folk is always on-hand and ready to give her advice. If tea doesn't do it for you, you can always opt for a hot chocolate or an apple cider with salted caramel instead.

Opening the café, Bernard must have thought that she was biting off a bigger chunk than she could chew. At her previous day job, Bernard frequented many local bakeries on her lunch hour and started writing about the places she visited on her blog. She soon started collecting recipes and experimenting on her own, honing her skills along the way. One day, she was at the Polkadot Cake Studio and saw a sign in the window that read “Help Wanted.” Sensing that there was an interesting baked goods world out there and wanting to explore it, she quit her computer job and started working at the Polkadot as a barista to start. It was in Ayse Dizioglu's kitchen that Bernard discovered her interest in baking with tea. At night, she experimented in the Polkadot kitchen with flavors like matcha and earl grey.

Her first taste of commercial success came with her creation of Champagne Brownies, which she made for a blogging event called Sugar High Fridays. She offered them for sale on her website and was impressed with the response. Soon, Ms. Bernard opened Amai with two main products: Tea Sweets (cookies) and Botanical Brownies. She started selling these artfully packaged little treats online and then to high-end stores around the country, generating a favorable buzz along the way. Not to say she didn’t meet rejection. Many told her she should use margarine instead of butter, lower quality chocolate, flashier graphics, and ingredients that were cheaper. But Bernard stuck with her vision, knowing the demographics she was aiming for would appreciate the fine details. And so far she’s been right. So right that she was able to take over a space that was once a Tasti D Lite (when does that ever happen now-a-days?), renovate it, and create her own little shop in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Manhattan. Not bad for the inexperienced new kid on the block.