|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Over a decade ago, Menlo Park resident Maya Fezzani would take her kids to a frozen yogurt shop in the middle of Santa Cruz Avenue. Now that frozen yogurt shop is her own Middle Eastern bakery, LeVant Dessert.
“The kids are much older now,” she said. “But when they walked in, they were like, ‘This is really weird,’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, I never thought it would be mine one day.’”
LeVant Dessert is a cafe offering Middle Eastern desserts made from Fezzani’s grandmother’s recipes, as well as all-vegetarian savory options and a selection of coffees and teas. The Menlo Park bakery soft opened Jan. 15 and will have its grand opening Feb. 17, with live music courtesy of Fezzani’s friends. Previously, LeVant Dessert operated through Sultana Mediterranean in Menlo Park and Oasis Baklava in Sunnyvale, which Fezzani acquired in the summer of 2020. Now LeVant Dessert has a home of its own.
“We opened on a Monday, and that Sunday I was so anxious, and people were saying, ‘Why? You’ve always been out there,’” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Not quite. It’s not the same. I’m in downtown right now. I have my doors open for anyone to walk in.’”
Pistachio baklava crowns for sale at LeVant Dessert in Menlo Park. Photo by Magali Gauthier. 
The baklava cheesecake at LeVant Dessert in Menlo Park. Photo by Magali Gauthier. 
Tea is offered at LeVant Dessert in Menlo Park. Photo by Magali Gauthier. 
Housemade ice cream flavored with mastic and orange blossom and encrusted with pistachio at LeVant Dessert in Menlo Park. Photo by Magali Gauthier. 
Petit fours for sale at LeVant Dessert in Menlo Park. Photo by Magali Gauthier.
LeVant Dessert’s menu is continuing to expand up until the grand opening, when all menu items will be available in store. Currently, you’ll find sweets like orange blossom pudding, take-and-bake knafeh, petit fours, booza (Middle Eastern ice cream), baklava and more. Savory options include fatayer (a Levantine hand pie that can be stuffed with a variety of ingredients, like spinach or cheese) and Middle Eastern sandwiches, and by the grand opening, LeVant Dessert will offer dip trays and snack platters, said Fezzani. The business is in the process of getting a cappuccino machine, which will allow the cafe to expand its drinks menu, currently consisting of Levant coffee (a Turkish-style coffee), lattes and French press.
Fezzani hopes her cafe can be a go-to neighborhood hangout spot and plans to work with the city to expand operating hours until midnight during Ramadan.
“In Ramadan, we break our fast around sunset and we get all our energy back, and we want to socialize, but there’s nowhere to go,” she said.
And while Fezzani now owns two Bay Area bakeries, it may come as a surprise that she has no formal pastry training.
“It’s really not planned. It’s just the way it happened,” she said. “I was just a stay-at-home mom with the kids and loved it, and then when the kids grew up, I started exploring with baking and enjoyed it.”
Fezzani moved to Menlo Park in 2008 for her husband’s job (they had previously been in Hong Kong and London.) She quickly realized there were no places nearby to purchase Middle Eastern desserts, so she asked her grandma for her recipes and began making them for dinner parties.
“I’d take some desserts with me, and people would say, ‘You should open a bakery,’ and I’m like, ‘No, me?’” Fezzani said. “And then it suddenly clicked in 2017 where I thought, ‘Actually…’”
At first, Fezzani wasn’t too sure about the idea of starting a Middle Eastern bakery because typically, Middle Eastern desserts are served family-style, like large trays of baklava or big bowls of pudding, she said. Fezzani worried that customers unfamiliar with these desserts wouldn’t want to order large quantities without knowing what it tastes like. So she took her grandmother’s recipes and made the portions smaller and presentations more aesthetic.
She began catering Middle Eastern dessert bars with smaller versions of the treats she knew from her childhood, and the concept was well-received by many communities, she said.
Then in February 2020, she leased commercial kitchen space within Menlo Park restaurant Sultana Mediterranean to expand LeVant Dessert. But only two weeks after opening, on March 15, 2020, the pandemic shut her business down. Come summertime, Fezzani acquired Oasis Baklava, a baklava bakery in Sunnyvale founded in 1977. She was determined to continue LeVant Dessert, so she fulfilled orders through Oasis’s kitchen while continuing to run Oasis operations.
“Ever since I started LeVant, this was the dream, to open a cafe,” Fezzani said. “The fact that I bought Oasis in the process was not something I planned. It just happened, and I’m actually very grateful…Acquiring Oasis was definitely a great step because I acquired a great team, great kitchen, location, equipment, everything.”
Fezzani is most proud that her pastries are fresh and from scratch.
“A lot of people ask the question, ‘Where do you import it? Who provides your desserts?’ and I always find that offensive,” she said with a laugh. “I make everything from scratch. It’s all my hard work.”
LeVant Dessert, 842 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park; 650-402-2525, Instagram: @levantdessert. Open Tuesday through Thursday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday through Saturday 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
First look at plans for major housing, office project at Menlo Park USGS campusFebruary 10, 2026 12:06 pm
Developer Proposals for Downtown Affordable Housing Confirm This Project Is Doomed.February 9, 2026 9:01 am