Pakula's Bake Shop rises again

Wherever marketing executive Andrew Pakula travels, people ask him, seemingly without fail, if he is connected to the old Spring Valley bakery that bears his name. With a hint of pride, Pakula informs the curious that his father, Benard Bennett Pakula, owned and operated Pakula's Bake Shop at 109 N. Main St. from 1962 until it closed in 1982. Inspired partly by the death of his father last year and taking on a new business challenge, Pakula, 44, recently closed his Internet technology company and decided to resurrect Pakula's Bakery. In doing so, Pakula becomes the ninth generation of his family to enter the baking business. Pakula, who will serve as the new company's president and chief executive officer, said that during the past 20 years, hundreds of people have shared memories of cakes, cookies and rugelach their families bought from the store. In addition to the conversations he has had with transplanted New Yorkers all over the United States, the topic of his family's business once came up in a London hotel. Then there was the time a former Rockland resident working as an airline clerk in Denver asked him about his past. Pakula's mother, Loretta, who lives in Suffern, said, "When he decided to follow in his father's footsteps and keep the name going, it surprised me, let me tell you. I'm really thrilled, and I'm sure his father would be very proud." Unlike his father's business, Pakula's Bakery will not be run as a storefront operation. Rather, a network of commercial bakeries around the tri-state region will produce baked goods according to age-old family recipes. The products then will be distributed to gourmet shops, grocery stores, delis and restaurants in the metropolitan New York City area. Pakula's rugelach should be on store shelves early next month, and available online by the end of July. The plan is to take the brand nationwide within a year. "My family name is on that box," Pakula said of the packages, which feature sepia-colored photographs of his grandparents and the Spring Valley bakery. "I have nine generations that I have to present to the world. The quality of that product depends on me." Pakula, who lives in Manhattan, was exposed to the baking business at an early age. At 10, he and his sister, Denise, were making cake boxes. As they grew older, they helped prepare pans and clean the floors. Eventually, they learned how to roll rugelach, bake cookies and run the business. Soon after college in 1980, Pakula started a billboard company. He moved on to become a marketing executive with two large advertising firms, then started his own company to plan Internet strategy in 1996. As time passed, Pakula began to think of his family's legacy. For more than 200 years, from Poland to the Bronx to Rockland, his family baked. Their recipes for cakes, muffins, tarts, brownies and Russian coffeecakes were written in Yiddish, Russian, Polish and then, finally, in English. In January 2000, Pakula approached his father about marketing the Pakula brand name. The project was in the planning stages when Benard Bennett Pakula died in August 2002 at the age of 69. His son decided to carry on. Pakula is negotiating with retailers in the area to stock his products. His wife, Cindy, plans to assist with the marketing. At the same time, some of traditional family recipes are being updated. Rugelach, the product line's cornerstone item, still will be available in the chocolate, raspberry and apricot flavors made famous by his father. But, Pakula said, newer versions featuring mint chocolate, cappuccino and apple cinnamon have been invented for younger taste buds. "I think I have a knack for this stuff," Pakula said. "No pun intended, but I think it's inbred." Pakula's Bake Shop was a staple in the village when Adam Krainak served as Spring Valley police chief from 1962 until 1981. Krainak said he still remembered its delicacies — and is open to trying the new ones, although nothing will beat the freshly made products that were available in the Main Street store. "They used to have the lines going out the door and going up the sidewalk on Sunday mornings," Krainak, who still lives in the village, recalled yesterday. "They had the best Danish going."