The corner of Southeast 91st Avenue and Woodstock Boulevard on a Thursday night is a dangerous place to be if you are on a diet. That’s when Bella’s Italian Bakery and Marketcasts its net to haul you in like a helpless Amalfi anchovy. Six days a week Bella’s is a superb Italian bakery serving the Lents neighborhood from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. You would think offering quality pastries, espresso, focaccia, deli selections and Italian dry goods nine hours a day would be enough for owner Michelle Vernier; it’s not. Every Thursday she offers a wine bar happy hour from 4 to 6 p.m.; lasagna, pizza and salads emerge from Vernier’s kitchen from 5 until 8 p.m. 

Vernier launched Bella’s in November 2018 after a 20-year career that started in the kitchen of a family-run Italian restaurant in Detroit, Michigan, when she was still in high school. After graduating in 2000 from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, Vernier worked for some of the top restaurants in Boston and Portland as she transitioned from chef to pastry chef.