OAK PARK, Mich. – Star Bakery in Oak Park, a staple in the Metro Detroit Jewish community, officially closed its doors over the weekend.
The bakery opened more than 100 years ago in 1915. It was a family business before being sold in 2021. The new owners said the rising costs of ingredients and labor, along with the pandemic, made it difficult to stay open.
Customers flocked to the bakery Sunday to reminisce and get one final order in.
“It’s more than a coffee cake -- it’s just a slice of memory,” customer Jonathan Hoff said. “My bubbie, my zaide, they live like not too far from here when we were growing up. So anytime we went to bubbie and zaide, she got her special babka and it was later on when I was older, and I realized bubbie wasn’t making the babka she was she was coming to this place.”
“My mom used to come to this bakery with her father, my papa,” customer Sarah Bennett said. “His favorite cookies are over there, and she used to bring me and now I bring my children.”
Even Star Bakery’s president and managing partner Stacy Fox was in attendance.
“I grew up right around the corner,” Fox said. “My mom would come here and have me in a baby buggy so when we have that opportunity, I absolutely wanted to give it a go.”
It’s what made closing such a tough decision, but she said times have changed.
“When we started, there were probably 15 bakeries within a two- or three-mile radius, and now there’s a handful left,” Fox said. “It’s very, very labor intensive. Labor doesn’t cost what it used to, nor should it, and I respect that. Ingredient prices are through the roof.”
While people love the baked goods, they said the people who work there are the sweetest part.
“They know my kids’ names, they offer them little tea cookies -- it’s sort of a gathering place for the Jewish community, so it’s definitely a loss,” Bennett said.
Some of the bakery’s popular recipes will be passed along to Diamond Bakery in West Bloomfield Township.