Serving up the world at Dessertino

What began as the dream of a young data scientist has transformed into Dessertino–The Crafty Spoon, a café on Glen Cove Avenue, blending global desserts and artisanal coffee.

The cafe’s three co-owners, Omar Rivero, Dina Corigliano and Aseem Malik, each bring unique strengths and stories to the business, uniting their backgrounds in home decor, law, tech, and baking to craft a café unlike any other in the area.

Rivero, a longtime Glen Head resident and full-time carpentry teacher, said coffee was always at the heart of his vision.“

The only reason I did want to do it was because of the coffee,” he said. “We’re going to start roasting, you know, small batches — nothing huge — enough for the store and to sell a few pounds here and there. And we're going to bring in coffee from different farms in Colombia. They can only produce a certain amount a year, but their crops are better.”

A carpenter by trade, Rivero described the process of learning the coffee industry as a humbling journey. “With coffee, the more I jump into it, the more I learn,” he said. “It's like wine; it's a science.”

For Corigliano, a practicing attorney from Port Washington, the café was an
unexpected yet welcome venture. She and Rivero had owned a home decor store, Restoration Oak, in the same building before renting it out to Malik.

“We got to talking with him, and we got to know him pretty well, and he was very passionate about his business,” Corigliano said. “At first it was more about us being like the decorative part of things, like the home decor part, the making the shop look really pretty and nice. And then as things played out, we just got very interested in the cafe side.”

That collaboration grew into a full partnership. Dessertino officially reopened under its new name and vision in November 2024 after extensive renovations, with more still ongoing.

Corigliano said the trio’s diverse backgrounds help shape the café’s menu and atmosphere.

“I'm Italian, Omar’s roots are from Colombia, and Aseem is from India,” she
explained. “We all come with different points of view in terms of food and what we like, and we kind of want to blend all of that together.”

Malik, an immigrant from New Delhi and a data scientist by trade, had long dreamed of owning a café. “While I was an IT professional, I used to find cafes in New York City, kind of sit there and do my work,” he reminisced. “So always had a dream to open a business, a cafe, an opportunity where I can just go and do my work in my cafe.”

After a chance encounter with the building during a trip to Sea Cliff, Malik launched the original bakery, but quickly ran into difficulties. But Rivero and Corigliano saw promise.

“They saw that the kid has so much passion and is so hard working, they proposed me an offer,” Malik said. Together, the trio worked to build a warm, welcoming space where “different passions come together.”