By JACK NICHOLL

jnicholl@dailynews.net

STOCKTON -- After planning a bakery for about 11 1/2 years, Dominic Antonini and Laurie Calvin needed little time in their decision to open one in Stockton when the opportunity presented itself.

"What happened was we made a pros and cons list, and the pros outweighed the cons," Antonini said. "We wanted to do it anyway, but it just fell into place where it was easier for us to do it here."

The engaged couple opened Carousel Bakery and Cafe, located at 1003 Cedar, on May 12. It was just a couple weeks after they moved to Stockton from Wichita, and about six weeks after they started to remodel the building. The decision to move to Stockton was made easier by the fact Calvin's parents live there.

The couple sells only breakfast items, but is in the process of testing lunch products. A grand opening tentatively is scheduled for the first week in July.

Antonini does all the cooking, while Calvin is more focused on selling cakes, which she said is their main product. The bakery started as just a donut and pastry shop, but the couple has added a full breakfast in just more than six weeks. Antonini said lunch could include hot and cold sandwiches and possibly an Oriental day once per week.

One thing the couple does want to eventually do is open the bakery, which has a mixture of tables and booths, to reserved events at night.

"You never know, it might go into where we are open for dinner, too," Antonini said. "I don't know what the demand is going to be for that, because we're still trying to figure them out around here. There are days where we can't put enough stuff in there and other days, like right now, where we have all these pastries and donuts left."

Antonini and Calvin get help from a few summer employees during the day, but Antonini comes in at about 3 a.m. every day to start frying the donuts. The bakery opens at 7.

Before it was Carousel's, the building housed another cafe that served all three meals. Antonini and Calvin renovated the building regardless, and they brought in all of their own equipment. They decorated the place as well as did some custom work on the tables.

"It's been a learning experience, definitely," Calvin said. "It took a good month and a couple weeks to get it from where it was to what it is now."

Stockton also has another new unique business.

Miranda McCune, the owner of Cune's Corner at 101 S. Foster, opens her business for 39 hours per week. She sells products and does accounting, marketing and advertising. Her "team" consists of three employees.

The catch is McCune does all of this while attending Fort Hays State University. She is entering her fourth year of a 51 1/2-year business management major.

"Between my family and school and this place, sometimes time can become crucial," she said.

McCune opened Cune's Corner on March 16 and since has gone from exclusively an ice cream place to selling sub sandwiches, soups, pasta and lettuce. She offers food specials Friday and Saturday, and the ice cream can come in a variety of forms.

McCune has received some help from her family along the way. Her husband and dad did most of the remodeling, while her mom still owns the building from a prior cooking business that closed four years ago.

"After working with her, I really wanted to open my own business," McCune said. "We went ahead and started opening this year because we had the building. We just had to remodel it, and that's what we did."

McCune said she picked up her accounting skills at Fort Hays, along with some of her advertising and marketing methods.

She said there are no different future plans for her, even after she graduates from Fort Hays.

"I'm kind of where I'm at for right now with what I want to be doing, but I'm hoping this winter of start doing more specials during different nights, and opening maybe during lunchtime maybe on Sundays, because customers around town have really wanted somewhere to be after church," McCune said.