Full line on fresh baked goods from donuts, pastries, cakes, to fresh made crepes. Our hours are Monday through Saturday 6:30 am to 6:00 pm.
More Lifestyle segment is sponsored by Baltimore City Main Street. Alright, Well, Baltimore City Main Street is a program designed to promote neighborhood revitalization by providing support and public resources to minority and women-owned businesses. Our next guest is the owner of Avenue Bakery. Now, their mission is to provide freshly made products, baked locally, in the historic Pennsylvania Avenue neighborhood. James Hamlin, thank you so much for joining us today. How are you? I'm doing great. And thank you for inviting me. Alright, so tell me, how long has Avenue Bakery been in existence? We've been in existence for nine years. This will be 2021, it will be 10 years for us. Okay, okay. So why did you decide to open a bakery on Pennsylvania Avenue? Well, I decided to open a bakery on Pennsylvania Avenue simply because I grew up in this particular community in the Druid Heights Upton community. And one of the things I realized is that back then, we as kids had opportunities, job opportunities, career opportunities. And it's because we had a vibrant business district, Pennsylvania Avenue, and all the businesses that surrounded it. And I realized that in recent years, those business opportunities or businesses were not here anymore. Those outlets and sources of economic opportunities for young people aren't here anymore. So the key is to attract people back to historic Pennsylvania Avenue with this history and legacy to be able to rebuild our business district centered around attracting tourists because this is one of the most historical African American communities in the country. So it makes sense to put the bakery here because someone once told me in order to attract people back to historic Pennsylvania Avenue, you have to put something here that you can't get anyplace else. And one of the things that you can't get anyplace else is Papay's rolls. And the question is, what is Papay's rolls? Papay's rolls is a yeast rolls that our families used to make back in the day on Sunday for Sunday dinner. No one makes them anymore. And I've been making at home for about, I guess, 30, 35 years or so. And everybody kept telling me, James, you ought to sell these things. You ought to sell these things. And finally, I decided that a two-fold, three-fold purpose, bringing fresh products to the community and attracting people back to historic Pennsylvania Avenue and launching the Avenue Bakery Home with Papay's Rolls on August 15, 2011. Okay. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us today, James. We appreciate it. And we look forward to trying all those sweet treats. All right. Thank you very much. Looking forward to seeing you here and experiencing the history and legacy of the artwork that we have here as well. Awesome. Awesome. Thanks, James.
