It’s been a long time in the making, but Pell City’s historic downtown district will soon find itself playing host to a good, old-fashioned bakery.

Custom Creations Bakery, formerly located in Argo, will celebrate its grand opening today and Saturday.

“We’re really excited to open up, and feel like we’ll serve the downtown Pell City area really well,” owner Jonica Fleming said.

Fleming is no stranger to the commercial bakery business with 14 years of wedding, graduation and retirement cake making experience under her belt. But it’s only been in the last eight years that she’s had a storefront and invited visitors into her shop.

“We opened in Argo in May 2009, and knew we wanted to have a secondary location here, but after driving back and forth to Argo for awhile, I just decided that I wanted to move the business home,” Fleming said.

Now, with a prime location near the St. Clair County Courthouse on the corner of Cogswell Avenue and 18th Street, Fleming is excited to share her passion and talent with the community.

“It’s really what I love to do, and you don’t generally see unhappy people coming into a bakery, so it’s a fun place to be,” Fleming said.

Fleming considered moving to the old hot dog stand near Pell City High School on Cogswell Avenue, but the location was just too small to suit her business. However, a former take-out café near the St. Clair County Courthouse proved to be the perfect space.

“I love downtown Pell City. We’re right where the block party happens, we’re close to the courthouse and we’ll really be able to give people working and doing business downtown a place to get lunch without losing their parking space,” Fleming said.

The Custom Creations menu touts a delicious chicken salad in addition to delicacies like lemon bars, cupcakes, Rocky Road slices, cookies and cinnamon rolls, among others.

Fleming will also offer specialty cakes for all occasions with intricate, creative confections similar to those designed on Food Network show “Ace of Cakes,” as well as edible arrangements of unique Cake Pops — small bites of cake and frosting presented on a stick.

All in all, Fleming hopes to provide a happy place for the older generation of Pell City residents to relive their memories of the neighborhood bakeries they experienced as a child while providing those same memories to a generation that doesn’t have the same access to the shops as their parents and grandparents may have had.

“When local kids grow up, I really want them to remember going to the bakery — what it felt like, what it smelled like to go into the bakery. It’s something that we just don’t really have anymore,” Fleming said.

Custom Creations will celebrate their grand opening today at 9 a.m. with a ribbon cutting, and will provide samples to new customers who just want to take a look around from 10 a.m. to 6 p .m. Friday and 9a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday.