The line of people looking for a final morning treat from Charlie and Alice Schwartz spilled onto the sidewalk.
Inside the bakery, boxes stuffed with doughnuts, glazed twists and other pastries waited for pick-up orders while customers pored over what was left on the racks.
For many, a chance to say goodbye to Magee’s Bakery and its familiar owners on the bakery’s closing day trumped the need for a sugar fix.
“I’m devastated,” said Larma Washington as she waited on West Main Street. “I love Magee’s. Even though my dad’s not here, I love Magee’s.”
Washington’s father, Lawrence Washington, was a baker at Magee’s when Charlie Schwartz’s father ran it. He even had a hand in training the younger Schwartz, Larma Washington said.
“I am so grateful to them because my dad didn’t finish his education, but Mr. Schwartz took him in and that’s how he made his living,” she said.
Diana Peters, a customer at the bakery since she moved to Frankfort in 1971, said the community will miss the owners as much as the food.
“I think everybody’s relied on this bakery for a long time,” she said.
Charlie and Alice Schwartz have been staples at the bakery, which has been on the market for about two years, since 1982. They recently sold the business, which will remain a bakery.
The name and look may be getting an update, but one thing the new owners won’t change at Magee’s Bakery is one of its most popular features.
“Their doughnut recipe is one of the best ones I’ve tasted, so we’ll be keeping that recipe,” said Amy Bersson, who recently bought the bakery and building with her husband, Tom.
“I think we’ll just be doing more toppings on the original doughnut.”
After today, Magee’s Bakery will be known as Magee’s Bakery Doughnuts & More, and will feature some new options along with the staples of cream horns and glazed doughnuts.
“We’re definitely going to keep a lot of the flavors everyone loves … but we’re going to be adding some more flavors for doughnuts,” said Laura Bersson, Amy’s daughter and head pastry chef of the new bakery.
“We really want to emphasize the doughnuts.”
One of those new flavors will include a bourbon-glazed doughnut with bacon toppings.
Bersson’s fiancé, Luke Ziegert, who will help Laura manage the bakery, said they’re also experimenting with a margarita doughnut with lime icing and rock salt, and they’d also like to make a chipotle chocolate doughnut.
The remodeled bakery will also have bagels, coffee and lunch items, like salads and sandwiches, and several tables will be added inside and out.
“We hope to be able to keep the same customers they have by offering the things they really like, then introduce them to more variety to see if we can bring in more people and make it more of a community … meet-your-friends kind of place,” Bersson said.
Bersson and Ziegert are from Charleston, N.C., while Amy and Tom Bersson hail from Virginia Beach.
But the Berssons have always been familiar with Magee’s. Laura and Amy Bersson would stop at the bakery when they came to Frankfort for the holidays to visit their grandfather and father, former State Journal editor Phil Swift.
It was during their visit last Thanksgiving when they noticed Magee’s was for sale.
“Our daughter has always been interested in baking, and of course I was, too,” Amy Bersson said.
Laura Bersson, who graduated from the Culinary Institute of Charleston in South Carolina, will manage the bakery with Ziegert, while Amy and Tom Bersson handle the finances from Virginia.
They bought the bakery and building from the Schwartz family, who’ve been running Magee’s since the 1950s, for $165,000. The sale will be finalized Friday.
The bakery will be closed for several weeks starting Friday for renovations. A re-opening date hasn’t been set.
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