MT. HEALTHY, Ohio — With a line out the door at the Little Dutch Bakery in Mt. Healthy and the smell of fresh bread wafting through the air, Chris Girmann has spent the past few mornings just trying to keep up with a surge in demand.
“What are you all doing in here?” he jokingly shouted to his line of customers. “Where have you been for the last 40 years, for crying out loud?”
For them, it’s the last chance to take home his treats before his family business closes its doors for good at the end of January.
Girmann said it’s not a decision he’s made lightly. Having played a role in running the place since high school, leaving the business behind is bittersweet.
“I’ve been at this for 40 years,” he said.
He inherited the Mt. Healthy business from his father, who took over the bakery from his grandfather before him.
“We’re in our 102nd year,” Girmann said.
Running a third-generation bakery has been a source of pride for Girmann and customers said his passion showed through his good humor and consistent creativity. Yet, keeping the place going for so long came with personal sacrifice.
“I was just putting in a lot of hours, and I missed a lot of functions over the last 40 years, a lot of Friday nights,” he said.
Then when Girmann contracted COVID-19 in the fall, he started seeing his work with a new perspective.
“I was in the hospital for 14 days,” he said.
Doctors told him he almost didn’t make it and when he returned to the bakery, Girmann said the long nights and early mornings just weren’t sustainable anymore.
“I was pretty weak and then I got pneumonia again and then the holidays hit and the way things are these days, it was a culmination of everything,” he said.
That’s why he announced in mid-January the bakery would close at the end of the month.
Customers responded, showing up in droves.
“I (have) been coming at least once a month here since I was a kid,” Perry Mattan, a longtime customer, said as he came in to get his last dozen cinnamon rolls.
Girmann said the response was so strong and so unexpected, he’s been selling out every weekend since.
“I actually told the staff not to take any more orders because I didn’t know if I was going to have enough ingredients,” he said.
Girmann said he’s looking forward to spending more time with his family, though it’s difficult to say goodbye to his loyal customer base that’s grown up on his family’s baking.
“We (have) been a cornerstone in the community cause we’ve been here for so long, you know we’re an original business and one of the only ones that are left,” he said.
Girmann said he would like to pass the business along with his recipes onto another baker willing to take things over, but having shouldered the weight of nearly all the baking for the past several decades, he said it’s been difficult to find that kind of help.
“There aren’t a lot of skilled bakers out there,” he said.
Little Dutch Bakery will open one last time on Saturday, Jan. 29.