Bing Walczyk has a smile to light up a room, one you can feel even when it's hidden under a mask. She also has a work ethic that's tough to match.
“When I opened last October, I was working 12 hours a day for a couple of months every single day,” she said.
Walczyk is a Californian through and through. Raised in San Francisco and schooled in Los Angeles, she moved to Syracuse and the thing she missed most about the west Coast was cafe culture.
“My husband and I kept searching and looking for similar cafes in the area." Walczyk said. "It was kind of a production to drive 20 minutes downtown, pay $3 or $4 for parking, hang out for a few hours, and then drive back.”
Eventually, she got tired of looking and took matters into her own hands, opening Cafe Bing. Turns out, she wasn’t the only one around Cicero who felt that way.
"I was driving to Fayetteville, not five times a week," said Gina Sackett. "But that was the other local shop [I found].”
Sakett is a regular. She’s indecisive, so instead of having a go-to, she asks for a mystery. Today's mystery is pumpkin spice and carmel.
Relationships like this were Bing’s goal when she opened the shop. She wanted it to be a place to hangout stress free. COVID-19 took that away for a while.
“It’s been hard on my morale because I don’t know if we’re becoming the business that I wanted to become," Walczyk said. "As things are opening up again, people are starting to come back in and hang out. So we have a good mixture of both now."
She hopes that as normalcy creeps back, the cafe will become a hangout for Cicero-North Syracuse high school students. The walls are lined with photography from students, just one more thing adding to the hometown feel of Cafe Bing.
“It makes them feel special, and I think they are special. And they’re across the street so they can come look at their friends' art all the time," Walczyk said.
The art comes from C-NS, the coffee from downtown Syracuse, and the pastries from Canastota. Bing’s Cafe may not be on the West Coast, but it’s mixing the feel of her old home with some gems from her new one.