The West Side Bakery
2303 W. Market St.
Phone: (330) 836-4101
Open Monday to Saturday: 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Website: thewestsidebakery.com
Barbara Talevich recounted a story about a girl who used to visit The West Side Bakery after school with her mom. This went on until the girl reached a certain age and told her mom she couldn’t come into the bakery with her anymore.
“She would come in, and her mom would have to wait outside the door so that she could buy her own cookie,” said Talevich, the bakery’s owner. “And then years later, she came back and we did her wedding cake.”
After nearly 30 years in the bakery business, Talevich has a lot of stories like that. For three decades she has helped locals celebrate moments big and small, from weddings and birthdays to after-school (or after-work) treats.
The motto of West Side Bakery? Making memories sweeter.
“It’s been something that, when I first started, I didn’t understand or realize that you become part of people’s lives and their memories. It’s not about just buying a cake or buying a cookie or whatever,” she said. “I mean, think back, don’t you have a memory of your grandmother or your mom or something that you always did as a child? It’s kind of what it’s like. That makes me really happy.”
Talevich grew up in a family of “big bakers and big cooks.” Her grandfather owned a bakery in Ashtabula and later, when Talevich was growing up, owned Hatton’s Restaurant in Canton. Still, she never expected to go into the restaurant business. She spent more than a decade working in sales, first for O’Neil’s department store and later Kaufmann’s when the two companies merged.
Around the time Talevich started toying with the idea of opening a small restaurant, a friend told her about a bakery for sale. Talevich said she wasn’t looking for a bakery but decided to take a look anyway.
“From the minute I walked in, and I know this sounds cliche, but seriously, from the minute I walked in the bakery, I felt like I was home, like this is where I’m meant to be. And so that was that.”
The West Side Bakery opened in 1995 and has been a fixture in Akron ever since. The shop serves a bit of everything, from made-to-order cakes to a wide assortment of cookies. Popular items include creme brulee, eclairs and individual cheesecakes. The bakery also does a steady lunch business with salads, lunches and a rotating soup menu.
Talevich’s husband, Steve, retired from the bakery two years ago, but she’s “not ready to give it up yet.”
“I still love it after 30 years,” she said. “They have smiles on their faces when they walk in, and 99% of the time they have smiles on their faces when they walk out. It just brings people joy. And so it brings me joy to create things, to make them happy.”
2nd place:
Sweet Mary’s Bakery
76 E. Mill St., (234) 706-6088
Open: Thursday and Friday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
3rd place:
Reeves Cake Shop
2779 Cory Ave., (330) 848-1036
Open: Tuesday thru Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.