Today I traveled to a bakery I’ve never been to before in Chestnut Hill called Bredenbeck’s Bakery. It’s located on Germantown Avenue, and it’s to die for. When I was searching for a bakery on my phone, I came across Bredenbeck’s and in the next five minutes I was in my car heading to this bakery. The bakery seemed very community orientated and had 4.6/5 rating online. When I pulled up to the bakery, tons of customers were there. I could instantly tell that this was the spot to buy your cakes and goodies from.
When I opened the door, I was greeted with the smell of freshly baked pastries lined up on the counter. My eyes lit up like fireworks. I was so excited, there were so many different types of cookies, cupcakes, cannolis; you name it, they have it. I wanted to buy the whole store. Everything looked amazing. They had extraordinary cakes that looked so good I wouldn’t want to ruin them. I asked the employees what was the best to try and they said for sure, the cupcakes. So of course I had to and I got two different flavors: caramel swirl and cinnamon bun. They were divine. Especially the cinnamon bun one because it had a mini cinnabon on top. They also recommended cannolis, which I couldn’t pass on either. Everything from the pastries and the vibe inside made me wonder how this bakery started in the first place. So I did some digging on their website and found how it all began.
The original Bredenbeck’s was opened in Philadelphia’s Northern Liberties neighborhood in 1889 by Fredrick Robert Bredenbeck, an immigrant baker from Bavaria . The bakery was extremely successful and he opened many stores in 1954. The Bredenbeck family handed over the bakery to two longtime employees Walter and Otto Haug who showed their loyalty and devotion to the business. In 1983, Karen H. Boyd-Rohde, Walter Haug’s daughter, opened up Brendenbeck’s current location in Chestnut Hill. Since then, she has established a huge reputation as one of the well known, and well respected bakers in the Philadelphia area and nationally.
My favorite part about reading this story was learning how someone who immigrated here to make a living still has an impact today and started traditions that have continued for generations. It really makes me happy when I see people take over family companies and the hard work they put in to make their customers happy and satisfied. I definitely will be going back to this bakery in the future. I also discovered that they have an ice cream parlor too! I am 100% going back and adding ice cream on to my list!
