Schat's Bakery expanding, adding cake and tea shop

Paul Schat's Bakery at the Carson Mall is adding a cake and tea shop, expected to be completed in about seven weeks.

Owner Paul Schat said Thursday that a couple of walls already have been taken down to make room for the new shop that will be adjacent to the mall's interior.

Carson City's Metcalf Builders is constructing the project and the Carrington Company, which owns the mall, is helping finance it, he said.

"We're going to do afternoon high-end teas, a lot of cakes," Schat said. "We're going to make it kind of fun, like an Alice in Wonderland kind of look ... with chandeliers."

He said the cake shop will be able to make wedding and birthday cakes.

Schat said business is going well for the Mammoth Lakes, Calif., based bakery's Carson City location, which opened in October 2009. The venture started with nine employees and now has 34.

"We're extremely busy, we're crazy, it's way busier than I ever thought it would be," Schat said.