Bakery

The Otterbein's Family Bakery has changed a lot since it opened in Baltimore in 1881, from a modest storefront pastry shop to a factory operation that churned out about 7 million cookies last year for grocery stores and vending machines. But one thing hasn't changed: The sweet contents of Otterbein's red-and-white bags still are shepherded to market by the family that started it all. Mark Otterbein, who runs the Windsor Mill-based operation, represents the fourth generation of his family to run the bakery, which celebrated its 125th anniversary this month.

Corner Bakery Cafe, a Dallas-based fast-casual chain, will open its first Baltimore store on Monday. The Baltimore location is in Lockwood Place, across from the aquarium, where the Best Buy is. "Feed the Day" is the motto at Corner Bakery Cafe, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. The first 100 customers on Monday will receive a commemorative Corner Bakery Cafe travel mugs and free daily refills for the remainder of the year. The specialties at Corner Bakery Cafe, which had its start as small bread bakery in downtown Chicago, are breakfast scramblers, panini and made-to-order sandwiches and pastas.

Anybody who thinks Americans are eating only rice cakes and celery has never visited a Baltimore area bakery in December.Bakers go bonkers during the holidays. All those cakes, all those cookies, all those items that somebody's Grandma, used to make and that her modern day descendants gotta, just gotta, have for the holidays.At Otterbein's Bakery in Northeast Baltimore the Otterbein brothers predict they will bake 30,000 pounds of sugar cookies this holiday season. To keep up with demand, the brothers have moved to a larger store and rented two nearby apartments that serve as cookie warehouses.

After five years in banking, Linda Cheng decided it was time for a change of course. Faced with the decision between obtaining her MBA and following her passion for baking, Cheng enrolled in L'Academie de Cuisine's yearlong pastry arts program. That was three years ago, and today Cheng is the owner of Linda's Bakery in Columbia. “I've always enjoyed baked goods, and I'm one of the lucky ones in that I get to pursue what I love,” says Cheng. The bakery, which opened in December 2011, specializes in customized cakes for all types of occasions, from weddings to baby showers and birthdays to graduations.

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Little in this bombed-out, besieged city functions, little, that is, but the Klas bakery.This is not a time for cakes and pastry. A starving city needs bread, and the Klas bakery, the only industrial one still operating, yesterday turned out 70,000 loaves to feed 300,000 people cut off from the outside world for 10 weeks.Sarajevo is without fresh meat, fruit or vegetables, so people are dependent on the Klas bread factory to survive."We will do whatever it takes to get bread to these people.

Frances Woodward Sturgeon, retired treasurer of a bakery firm, died April 22 of cancer at the Calusa Harbor retirement community in Fort Myers, Fla. The former Hillen Road resident was 81.Known as Fran, she began her career in 1937 as a secretary of Rice's Bakery on North Gay Street. She retired as treasurer in 1966.Founded in 1868 near the Fallsway and operated by the City Baking Co., the bakery introduced Vienna bread, Louisiana Ring cake and sliced bread to Baltimoreans. It went bankrupt in 1974 after a gas explosion destroyed most of its turn-of-the-century plant.

William Eugene Vespermann, a Baltimore native who operated the Carney Bakery for 28 years, died of pneumonia Friday at his home in Forest, Va.A Mass of Christian burial will be offered for Mr. Vespermann, who was 61, at 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Ursula's Roman Catholic Church on Harford Road in Parkville.Mr. Vespermann, a graduate of St. Joseph High School, worked as a newspaper carrier for The Baltimore Sun from 1945 to 1948.In 1949, Mr. Vespermann opened the Carney Bakery on Harford Road in Parkville and operated the business until his retirement in 1977.

Services for John K. Ruppert, a former bakery executive, will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at the Evans Funeral Chapel, 8800 Harford Road.Mr. Ruppert, who was 76 and lived on Clydebank Road in Towson, died of heart failure Monday at Mercy Medical Center.He had worked many years for Rice's Bakery, where his father and two brothers also worked, and was its sales manager when the company was sold in 1973 to the Capital Bakery of Harrisburg, Pa.He was district sales manager for Capital until his retirement in 1979.

A fire damaged four Little Italy rowhouses yesterday morning, including a bakery that has been a neighborhood fixture for eight decades and is run by the community's last old-time bread maker.M. Marinelli & Son, which opened in a rowhouse at 321 S. Central Ave. in 1914, provides bread to about 20 Baltimore restaurants, including several in Little Italy and Tio Pepe, regarded as one of the city's best.By yesterday afternoon, the bakery was again producing bread, much to the relief of nearby proprietors.

Services for Marie L. Spilman, who with her husband operated a bakery in the North Avenue Market more than 20 years ago, will be held at 11 a.m. today at the Hiss United Methodist Church, 8700 Harford Road, Parkville.Mrs. Spilman, who was 90, died Tuesday after a long illness at a retirement community in Cornwall, Pa. She moved there three years ago from Elmora Avenue in East Baltimore.The former Marie L. Wheeler was born in Baltimore. Her husband, Wayland Spilman, died in 1970.She is survived by a son, Kenneth E. Spilman of Auburn, Pa.; five grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren.

Harbor Point, a development project led by bakery magnate and developer John Paterakis Sr., will be the site of the headquarters for the combined Constellation-Exelon company if the proposed merger is completed, the energy giants announced Wednesday. The prospect of adding a new office tower to Baltimore's skyline excited city officials and the development community. But some were disappointed that the companies chose a site between Harbor East and Fells Point, rather than in the central business district.

If it's been a while since you've browsed the shops at Historic Savage Mill, the holiday season is a great time to get reacquainted. Some of the mill's longtime tenants have moved or expanded within the shopping center, and there are plenty of new shops and attractions as well -- a doggie bakery, laser tag, $5 fashions and a ghost walk, just to name a few. "The cool thing about these folks, they not only operate their own space but these sole-proprietor...

Joseph George Otterbein, the retired baker who created and marketed a popular thin sugar cookie, died Saturday of complications from congestive heart failure at his Lake Montebello home. He was 88. Mr. Otterbein was born above the family bakery at Fort Avenue and Jackson Street in South Baltimore. He attended the Holy Cross School and was a 1941 Loyola High School graduate. During World War II, he served in the Army and was trained as a paratrooper. He was assigned to England and France.

James Hamlin likes to say, "It's not about the rolls," insisting that the next big thing on Baltimore's historic Pennsylvania Avenue - his Avenue Bakery - is about commitment to your community and respect for its heritage. It's about being a role model to others who dream of owning a small business. And that's all grand and admirable. But most people are just going to nod when Mr. Hamlin says, "It's not about the rolls," because they'll be too busy eating them to argue. Same for Mattie's Muffins, named after Mr. Hamlin's mother and made from sweet potato, apples, walnuts and raisins.

Wade P. Thomas Jr., a retired Annapolis lawyer who earlier had owned a bakery chain, died July 2 of kidney failure at Anne Arundel Medical Center. The longtime Crofton resident was 83. He was born in Baltimore and raised on Wardman Road in Stoneleigh. He was a 1946 graduate of Calvert Hall College High School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1950 from the University of Virginia. Mr. Thomas was a salesman for National Cash Register Corp. and owned a chain of six Cakery Bakeries, with five stores in Maryland and one in North Carolina.

Voting is live for Ultimate Baltimore Blowout! The following categories — spa, hair salon, bakery, gym and car wash — are for the best services. Voting ends 5 p.m. May 25. The poll is set up for one vote per I.P. address per day. Any questions/comments/requests for rules should be sent to contests@bthesite.com .          

It was only on a whim that Andy Mihok sent a letter to Pope John Paul II. The Forest Hill retiree, who has written his share of letters to the editor about every issue under the sun, doesn't ordinarily write to heads of state or church.But after one early-morning visit with his friends at the Bel Air Bakery was dominated by talk of the pontiff's impending visit, Mr. Mihok said he couldn't help himself. He went home and penned a short invitation to the pope, asking him to drop by Jim Hamilton's bakery on his way to Baltimore in October.

The Westminster City Council agreed to take another look at sidewalk sandwich boards last night after hearing an impassioned plea from the owner of a West Main Street bakery."