Bell Bakeshop is open to the public for exactly four hours a week, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays, out of a kitchen tucked into a light-industrial strip at 191 Rock Lane in Milford. That’s it. And from what customers keep writing, the line usually starts before the door opens.
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If you haven’t been yet, today is a good day to go. The woman behind the purple sign is Sage Esposito, a Foran High School graduate who turned a sugar-cookie hobby into a from-scratch bakery that now sells sourdough, cinnamon rolls, pies and custom cakes, teaches sold-out baking classes, and bakes for other businesses around New Haven County. Here’s what to know before you go, and what people who have been say to order.
From a home kitchen to Rock Lane
Esposito tells the story herself on the bakery’s website: she has always loved “all things sweet.” Baking started as a hobby, grew into a custom cookie business, and eventually outgrew her home kitchen, so she built out a kitchen of her own. Today, she writes, it’s where the bakery bakes for its clients and opens its doors to the community.
Foran’s student newspaper, The Mane Street Mirror, profiled her last December and reported that she started baking about 10 years ago and began selling from home a few years after that, beginning with decorated sugar cookies. Once she had a real commercial space, the paper reported, she was finally able to branch out into brownies, muffins, puddings and much more.
State records show Bell Bakeshop LLC was registered in February 2025 at the Rock Lane address, and it’s listed as an active, woman-owned business with an annual report not due until March 2027. The kitchen opened in early June 2025, according to the student paper, and the Sunday retail hours followed later that summer.
It’s a family operation, too. Milford Living magazine reported that Esposito runs the Crust & Crumbs truck, a combination cookie and pizza truck, with family members, and that her mother, Julie Johnson, runs CappuGino’s Coffee & Shakes inside the Milford Vascular Institute at 10 Commerce Park, where Bell’s baked goods have also been sold. Bell also bakes wholesale: its website says it supplies breads, desserts and baked goods to clients across New Haven County.
It takes multiple days sometimes to make these loaves of bread. The pride you feel when it comes out of the oven and it smells and looks great, that’s why I do it.
Sage Esposito, to Milford Living
Why there’s a line on Sunday mornings
Bell isn’t a cafe. There are no tables, and the space is a working commercial kitchen with a display case up front. One Google reviewer who stopped in before a snowstorm last winter called it an industrial kitchen with no sit-down, warned that the shop is only open Sundays from 9 to 1, and said they got there early because there was already a line. They took home cookies, muffins, a cinnamon roll, an oatmeal creme pie and a blueberry cheesecake bun.
The case changes every week. “I change the varieties every week, which is fun to sort of think of what might go together,” Esposito told The Mane Street Mirror. The bakery posts the Sunday lineup on its Instagram on Saturday nights, so that’s the place to check before you head over. Regulars’ advice is the same everywhere: go early, because the popular items sell out.
Google reviewers give the bakery a perfect 5.0 rating, and the comments circle back to the same things: the cookies, the breads and the people behind the counter.
They have the BEST (breakfast) pizza in CT & all their baked goods are amazing.
Matthew, on Google
Delicious sourdough bread over the top looking sweets … Fantastic ham and cheese croissants. Always a line, dedicated and friendly service.
Judy, on Google
Got quite an assortment of pastries, scones & cookies. Everything looked so good that I had to try a lot. Not a single item disappointed me.
Joan, on Google
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What to order
The chocolate chip cookies
Start here. “Our most popular things are cookies, like chocolate chip cookies, like thick New York style, like large cookies,” Esposito told the Foran paper. Matthew, on Google, calls the chocolate chip and s’mores cookies “amazing,” and Bell has also sold them by the dozen ($30) through its online holiday pre-orders.
Cinnamon rolls
Matthew lists the cinnamon buns and the oatmeal cream pies as “house favorites” in his home. Around the holidays Bell has sold half-dozen trays of unbaked cinnamon rolls with icing ($24) so you can bake them fresh on Christmas morning.
Sourdough bread
The sourdough is the multi-day project Esposito talks about with the most pride, and it’s popular enough that Drift Coffee was using Bell’s sourdough for its avocado toast, according to a November 2025 write-up on the blog The Nutmeg Millennial. Judy, on Google, singled out the “delicious sourdough bread.” The same blogger noted Bell offers some gluten-free options, too.
A Halloween cake (pre-order now)
This month’s showstoppers are three Halloween cakes, each $60, on pre-sale through the bakery’s website: the Ghost (pumpkin cake with cream cheese filling), the Spider (chocolate cake with espresso chocolate chip mascarpone filling) and the Clown (funfetti cake with black cherry mascarpone filling). Pickup is on Halloween itself, Saturday, Oct. 31, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Custom cookies and cakes
Decorated sugar cookies are where Bell began, and custom orders for cookies and cakes are still a big part of the business; you can request one on the bakery’s custom ordering page. Raven, on Google, ordered custom cookies with only a theme in mind and “trusted Sage,” writing that she “executed it beautifully and beyond expectations” and that her daughter was thrilled. A Foran special education teacher also told the student paper she’d recommend Bell for party favors, and that Esposito individually wrapped her order and kept it within budget.
The cakes lean into the frilly, vintage-piped look that’s everywhere right now, in colors from lavender to bright blue.
Take a class
Bell also hosts two-hour, hands-on evening classes in the Rock Lane kitchen, and they fill up. As of Sunday morning, the bakery’s online store showed:
- Spooky Cookie Decorating, Wednesday, Oct. 28, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., $65. You decorate four Halloween cookies with royal icing and take them home. The store showed 4 spots left.
- Spooky Cake Decorating, Thursday, Oct. 29, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., $70. You crumb coat and pipe a small 4-inch, three-layer cake in that vintage style. Pizza and other baked goods are included, and you’re welcome to bring your own drinks. The store showed 4 spots left.
- Christmas Cake Decorating, Thursday, Dec. 17, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., $70.
- Gingerbread House Making, Monday, Dec. 21, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., $85.
The Thanksgiving pie class on Nov. 25 and the Dec. 16 Christmas cookie class are already sold out, as was this month’s sourdough class. Tickets are non-refundable, but the bakery says you can transfer yours to a friend if you can’t make it.
Before you go
Bell’s retail hours are Sundays only, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at 191 Rock Lane, off Depot Road near Richard Conklin Field. Check the bakery’s Instagram on Saturday night for that week’s lineup, get there early, and plan to take your treats to go. For custom orders, classes and holiday pre-orders, use bellbakeshop.com or email sage@bellbakeshop.com.
PLAN YOUR VISIT
Bell Bakeshop: 191 Rock Lane, Milford · bellbakeshop.com · sage@bellbakeshop.com
Retail hours: Sundays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Weekly menu posted Saturday nights on Instagram.
Halloween cakes: $60 each (Ghost, Spider or Clown), pre-order online; pickup Sat., Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Classes: Spooky cookies Oct. 28 ($65), spooky cakes Oct. 29 ($70), Christmas cakes Dec. 17 ($70), gingerbread houses Dec. 21 ($85).
Good to know: Grab-and-go only (no seating). Custom cookies and cakes by request online.
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