George’s Bakery Gets New Life; New Owner Going Back to Old, Historic Building

The streets of downtown North Bend experienced a big change, Wednesday, January 7, 2015, as one iconic building got a huge facelift.

Out with the new and in with the old – well, sort of.  The distinctive Alpine facade of longtime downtown North Bend business, George’s Bakery, came tumbling down Wednesday morning.

In with the Old

Once the Alpine facade was removed, another historic George’s Bakery facade was revealed, complete with an old business sign, George’s Butter Crust Bakery. The removal of the next layer revealed the building’s original facade, including a large, beautiful bank of windows.

Finding History

It’s what new owner, Steve Teodosiadis, was digging for after seeing old photos of the building he owns – purchased about a year ago from the widow of George’s Bakery founder, George Macris.

Exterior work on the building will likely take longer than the couple of weeks estimated for the interior renovations. Steve said all of the exterior brick will be replaced and a new top brick facade will be added to match the adjacent building, both of which were originally constructed on North Bend Way in the 1940’s.

New Life for Interior

The interior of the building is also getting new life.  The old dropped ceiling was removed, revealing high ceilings that will now be flooded with light from the bank of windows uncovered during Tuesday’s exterior work.

The display window was removed, too. That space will soon become a seating area similar to the other street window on the opposite side of the front doors. And the front door was also just replaced with large, glass french doors.

The entire interior space will be repainted in the coming days and the bakery will re-open in hopefully a couple of weeks – complete with baker Joe who bought the business from George in 1993.

Baker Joe and Original Products Still Around, New Name

Steve said although Joe sold the bakery to him last week, he will be sticking around to help with the baking. All of the current products (with original recipes) will still be filling the display cases, too.

There will be a slight change, though. George’s Bakery will become Georgia’s Bakery, named for Steve’s wife.  They will also be bringing in some new items – and new coffee.

Steve said he really wants to make the bakery a destination place for locals and travelers – so the coffee is important.