MT. HEALTHY, Ohio — A long-time Mount Healthy bakery closed its doors for good on Saturday after more than a century of business.
Little Dutch Bakery was opened in 1920 and has kept a loyal fan base since then. Saturday morning customers showed their support one last time before saying goodbye.
"Just seeing the line outside of the door, reaching a couple blocks. It was it was really cool,” said Max Girmann. His father has owned the bakery for 40 years. The bakery went out with a bang, selling out most of their remaining product.
To send off the shop in style, the bakery “made like 100 coffee cakes. It’s like twice the amount of product we usually have," said Mariah, Max's sister. "It was two or three times the amount and we sold out by like noon."
Owner Chris Girmann posted updates on Facebook after making the announcement a few weeks ago. He posted on the bakery’s final day.
The decision to close came after he was hospitalized with COVID-19 last September, which forced the bakery to temporarily shut down for a few weeks.
"He had been thinking about retiring, because he's been at it for I believe, 47 years in total,” Max said. “It gave him some time to kind of reflect and think about his future. I think he kind of came to the realization that retirement was something that he kind of earned.”
As the bakery closes its doors, the family said they'll remember the generations of customers the most.
"Crazy to see like that kind of generational impacts that we've had on people like you know, we never would have thought that," Mariah said.
Many of their customers became another kind of family, sharing memories they've made at the bakery over the years, said the siblings.
“We'll miss you just as much as you'll miss us, I promise you that," said Max. "Life is going to be really different for our family now that this business is closing. They’re retiring, so we're optimistic for the future. But we're also you know, very appreciative of our past and what we've come from.”
The family says they'll continue to post on their Facebook page to stay connected with their loyal customers.
