100-Year Old Hamtramck Bakery To Close

HAMTRAMCK (WWJ) - After more than a century of serving up paczki, pies and other baked goods, Hamtramck's New Deluxe Bakery is closing its doors later this month.

Rose Gjorgjeski who's owned the bakery for 25 years, said business had declined recently, but it was her husband's recent health problems that forced her to break the news to longtime customers, family and friends.

"It's very hard. Because, like I said, I started in my 20's, early 20's there and I've grown accustomed to everything, you know," she said.  "These people aren't just customers, they're my family, so that's what makes it so hard to let go."

Gjorgjeski said she tried calling on every relative she knew to help in the kitchen, but it wasn't enough.

"We have two boys and a girl that's been pulling double shifts, with their own careers and their own jobs, and they've been coming in to help us," Gjorgjeski said.

Along with traditional flavors, the bakery featured paczki fillings that included pineapple, butter cream, apricot, prune and rose hip.

Gjorgjeski said it was a tough decision to make, but their last day on Conant Street, north of Caniff, will be November 12.  She's hoping customers will stop in one more time.