Classic Bakery

It's about 8 a. m. here at Classic Bakery and Boardman. Anything else today? Some of the locals are picking up pastries for their coworkers on their way to work, but Andrea McCade drove about 30 minutes all the way from Cortland. I'm picking up a cake for a birthday and my kids love the cream sticks, so I'm getting those. A friend years and years ago told me that they had the best cakes. Her cake, along with all the other products at Classic Bakery, are made in the kitchen, where you'll find owner Paul Rovnak. You can leave that sit, just shut it off and leave it sit in the cooker for a little bit right now. Here we see Rovnak and several employees finishing up for the day by making 120 dozen cookies. We're actually making one of our cookies, pecan tarts, and we're making the bottoms for them right now. And then once we get all of the bottoms done, we'll end up putting pecans in them and then filling them with syrup, and then they get baked. Stem out the cookies just Put them into a bake at 350 age. Now wait and wait. A few moments later. Now there's lots of cookies to decorate. But these pecan tarts are far from the only pastries Classic Bakery is turning out. Other favorites include baked bread, donuts and pies. Here we see some cakes being decorated for the Easter holiday. Once they're done, they'll look Thank you very much. You have a great day. Rovnak has been a professional baker for over 40 years. And during that time he says running a retail bakery has become more challenging. 50 years ago, that's all there ever was is retail bakeries. And we're not bakeries in grocery stores, they're not baked goods in convenience stores. You couldn't buy donuts in gas stations. Rovnak says he stays competitive by offering the two things the big retailers can't. Quality and service. Bakery's being in grocery stores and being able to buy baked goods everywhere. It'segmented the market tremendously. And if you don't stand out in providing that quality and providing the service to keep customers happy, they have no reason to come to you. This is more homemade taste, very fresh and a lot of variety. I think it's top notch. Everything is really good, fresh and it's always clean here too. And you get service right away. Another challenge he says are new government mandates banning trans fats in food products. The biggest issue has been with all of the shortening products that we use. The shortening manufacturers have not been able to find good substitutes for the product that used to be on the market. And it's causing a lot of challenges for the whole baking industry. As a result, Rovnak says he's constantly making minor adjustments so customers don't lose out on the flavor they've become accustomed to. Almost to own a retail baker anymore, you almost have to be a chemist. If that's the case, then Rovnak's clients say he's a good one. I pulled up this place on Yelp and it had awesome reviews, so I swung over here. I got two turnovers, I got a couple pecan rolls, bear claw, some danishes. Lots of cool options and a little bit of everything, so it's nice. It's just the best so I don't go anywhere else. Price Heating and Cooling, serving the community since 1937.