Andrew Madden puts together Elinor Gregor's cinnamon-snail order at Mona's Danish Bakery, which recently opened at East Sunrise Drive and North Swan Road. The bakery's previous location was on the Northwest Side.

Photos by Dean Knuth / Arizona Daily Star

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After seven years on the Northwest Side, Mona's Danish Bakery had outgrown its tiny location and was in need of some more spacious digs.

It found those in the Foothills, where Mona's reopened Jan. 25 in a newer, roomier location on the northeast corner of North Swan Road and East Sunrise Drive.

"The old place, we had just 10 chairs inside," owner Steve Hashemi said last week, taking a break from the busy front counter to sit down in one of the dozen or so spread through Mona's dining area. "When we were busy there was no room to sit, so people had to take their food and go."

Customers still often take their sandwiches, pastries and traditional Danish breakfast concoctions home with them, but many also stick around to enjoy their Danish coffee cake or a hard roll with Havarti cheese and butter.

"It used to be, 30 years ago, you'd come down this way and find a place to go have breakfast, but not really anymore," said Glenn Wiagand, who was visiting Mona's with Virginia, his wife of nearly 68 years, for the first time. "We'd never heard about this place before, but when we saw they were coming we couldn't wait for it to open."

Hashemi, a native of Iran whose family moved to Denmark when he was 10, said the move to the Foothills was both for the nicer location and to accommodate what he says is a high number of Tucsonans of Danish and Norwegian descent who live on the East Side.

Hashemi, 45, said those customers — along with those from throughout Tucson and from Phoenix — would flock to his bakery when it was at 3701 W. Ina Road. But many often commented it would be nice to have it more centrally located.

"Now that we've moved to this side of town, everyone is coming from all over," said Hashemi, who lived in Denmark for 25 years — earning a degree in Danish baking and confectionary along the way — before moving to Tucson 10 years ago with his wife, Sherry, and the bakery's namesake, 14-year-old daughter Mona.

The Ina location closed Nov. 1 and Hashemi had hoped to have the new spot open within a few weeks. But even though work began on the new store Aug. 1, Hashemi said numerous delays with contractors, utility issues and problems dealing with Pima County over permits pushed the opening to Jan. 25.

"We had sent fliers to all our customers saying that we'd be open Nov. 15."

Since opening, though, there's been no shortage of business, both old and new.

"I happen to like small bakeries, and I thought I would try this one," said Evelyn Brown, who had stopped by Mona's to pick up some pastries and some freshly baked bread. "I got the cinnamon snail the first time and it was absolutely great. It was just the kind of thing I knew my grandson would be crazy for."