Home Style Bakery’s last day is Saturday, after 76 years in business. Since word spread, the local mainstay has been mobbed, so busy that its owners of nearly 50 years didn’t have time to talk.
On one of the bakery’s final mornings, however, customers waiting in a line that stretched out its door were eager to chat about the beloved bakery.
The crowd was sad and nostalgic, but generally upbeat. Maybe because it was sour cream donut day. That’s why John Rundle was there. He’s been coming to Home Style since 1971.
“It’s a national heritage site as far as I'm concerned,” he said, with a laugh.
The parking lot was packed, with a car blocking the bakery’s delivery truck and drivers hunting for spaces in the surrounding neighborhood. Gwyn Nishimura had never seen the place so busy. Normally, she’d pick up some bagels, maybe some lemon bars or even pizza dough.
But by 8:30 a.m., all bets were off.
“I'm just hoping to get whatever's left,” Nishimura said, “whatever I can get my hands on!”
The line was slow but friendly, with people holding the door for customers carrying out boxes heavy with cannolis, gingerbread men and brownies dotted with chocolate chips. As they waited, dedicated fans shared their Home Style memories. An older man said he’d bought his three grown children their wedding cakes from the bakery. A younger woman talked about how her mother-in-law used to come to Home Style all the time to buy a donut after school.
Kathy Checots and her young granddaughter were waiting patiently. In a quiet voice, the little girl detailed her order: “A purple donut.” Checots said she was also picking up an order for the 93-year-old woman she cares for. When Checots read aloud a local newspaper story about the closure, the woman was sad and shocked.
“She called right away so she could get an order in before they closed because she's been coming here forever,” Checots said.
The woman’s standard Home Style order is four loaves of potato bread. This time, it’s six.
Many Home Style regulars have been stocking up on treats they won’t ever get to taste again. For Dick Southwell, that means “the best apple fritters in town.”
Other spots get them too dry or don’t use enough apples, he explained. But Home Style does them right — and from scratch.
“It’s dying art,” he said. “Everything seems to be the big stores nowadays. And the way they bake stuff just isn’t the same.”
When Home Style closes its doors for the last time on Aug. 17, Southwell will be sad to lose the apple fritters — but he joked that he may also lose some weight.
