A new family-owned bakery and cafe is opening in Frisco with a cool fondness for Italian desserts. Called Pietro's Bakery & Café, it's at 11625 Custer Rd. in a former BurgerIM where it will serve baked goods including cakes, cheesecakes, pastries, muffins, tarts, biscotti, cookies, and macarons.

But this won't just be a bakery: It will be a casual cafe, with soup, salads, sandwiches, appetizers, pastas, and entrees. Beverages will include wine and beer, as well as a coffee service with espresso-based drinks such as cappuccinos and lattes.

Owner Tina Delia says that their goal was to create a place you could go for good coffee and a slice of cake, but also with the option of a full-dining Italian experience, and at reasonable prices.

Their menu includes starters such as Caprese salad, Sicilian pizza, garlic cheese bread, mozzarella sticks, meatballs, and bruschetta. One special appetizer is panzerotti, which are small fried cheese calzones.

In the non-Italian app category, they have wings, spinach dip, and stuffed mushrooms.

There are sub sandwiches: chicken parm, meatball, Philly cheesesteak, and an Italian cold cuts sub with arugula, tomato, salami, ham, pepperoni, prosciutto, and provolone. Arugula is always a promising sign. There's also a burger with caramelized onions on a brioche bun, and a fried chicken sandwich.

Delia comes from a restaurant family that has owned restaurants in the mid-cities. She began baking eight years ago, and found she had a knack. She also liked the idea of featuring Italian desserts.

Her cakes include Italian cream cake; that Italian favorite, tiramisu; limoncello mousse cake featuring the lemon-flavored liqueur; and chocolate cake but made with almond flour instead of wheat flour.

She also does cheesecakes, but "Italian-style" — made with ricotta cheese rather than cream cheese.

"I went to New York and came back and felt like nobody here had good desserts," she says. "I liked the idea of a place like Corner Bakery — I like the full experience, where you can get coffee, wine, dinner — but they don't have too many items."

Pastas will include fettucine alfredo, rigatoni alla vodka, spaghetti Bolognese, and two lasagnas, one vegetarian and one with meat.

Italian-themed entrees include eggplant parmigiana, chicken piccata, chicken marsala, shrimp scampi, and chicken saltimbocca. There's also grilled salmon and fish & chips.

With COVID-19 still lingering, they'll open in stages, with an interim approach at the beginning that features takeout and to-go, including cool packages such as a charcuterie board with a bottle of wine, and then expand once dining goes back to normal. They're hoping to open in mid-October.

While the concept is her idea, she says it'll be a family affair.

"My sister will help with the front of the house, and my dad and my brother will be chefs — my dad has been cooking for 30 years," she says. "It'll be a whole family thing."