Longtime metro-east bakery’s temporary closing affects community, other businesses
The popular New Baden bakery, Berkemann’s Baker’s Dozen, is temporarily closed.
A notice at the business’s entrance and a Nov. 9 social media post from owner Paul Berkemann say the closure is due to a family medical emergency.
By Tuesday afternoon, nearly 400 comments were posted by friends, customers and other businesses, most containing well-wishes for Berkemann, wife Janet and their family.
The closure affects not only residents, but other businesses that carry baked goods from Berkemann’s, including The Red Porch, also in New Baden, Good Ground Coffeehouse at Scott AFB and St. Louis Coffee World in Lebanon.
“Our heart is with Paul and his family,” said Lynn Pannier, manager of The Red Porch.
Berkemann is a big part of the community, she said, “a pillar since as long as I can remember.”
Regarding business at The Red Porch, which gets its sandwich bread from Berkemann’s, Pannier said she will adapt — the Berkemann family comes first.
For Angela Lindquist, owner of Good Ground Coffeehouse, the news of the bakery’s closing is still sinking in.
Berkemann’s pastries are “a big part of why people come here,” she said.
Lindquist is working to find another local bakery that can help replenish her near-empty pastry case.
Good Ground doesn’t have a kitchen, so finding another bakery to provide wholesale goods is a priority.
“The situation just stinks,” she said, but “it’s not the end of the world.”
About Berkemann’s Baker’s Dozen
Paul Berkemann is the third owner of the bakery on New Baden’s Hanover Street, having bought the business, previously known as Hill’s Bakery, from Jeanine and P.J. Wangler in 2000.
“This is the first bakery I worked at,” Berkemann told the BND in 2012.
When he was in high school, he told P.J. Wangler, that he would “work free of charge if they would just teach me.”
The Wanglers took over the business from Jeanine’s father, William Hill, in 1965. William owned the business since 1939, according to a historical document titled “New Baden Centennial: 1855-1955.” A 2012 BND story stated that Hill took over the bakery in the late 1920s.
The location’s first bakery was established in 1903 by Ferdinand Reiss. In “Commercial History of Clinton County and Its Thriving Cities,” issued by the East St. Louis Gazette in July 1913, Reiss was described as “an experienced baker and a man who has spent the greater part of his life at the trade.”
Berkemann’s Baker’s Dozen is located at 115 W. Hanover St. in New Baden. For updates and information, visit facebook.com/BerkemannsBakersDozen.
