Holidays mean season’s sweetings in the Valley

By KALEA HALL

khall@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Cookies are synonymous with the holiday spirit, especially here in the Mahoning Valley.

At least it seems that way from what bakeries are doing in business this time of year.

“We actually do more business the week of Christmas than we do in one month of the year,” said Paul Rovnak, owner of Classic Bakery in Tiffany Plaza in Boardman.

At Sugar Showcase in Austintown’s Wedgewood Plaza, owner Cheryl Bair says the holiday season makes up 50 percent of her business for the year. Every holiday season, the bakery makes more than 3,000 cookies.

“There’s a lot of late nights,” Bair said.

The art of the cookie, the taste of the cookie and the need to have cookies for Santa and other holiday guests are what keep the orders flying in at local bakeries.

“They know they are good quality because of all the years we have been in business,” Rovnak said. “Because of the quality and freshness and the assortment we have, I think that’s all part of the reason” people come to his bakery.

Classic Bakery has been in business in its current form since 2000, but Rovnak’s family has been in the baking business for decades.

His father operated a bakery called Mr. Paul’s on the South Side of Youngstown in the 1960s. And before that, his mother’s father had a bakery in the 1950s.

In the early 1990s, Rovnak took over the Mr. Paul’s bakery.

After he closed the bakery’s two locations in 1998, he opened up Classic Bakery with his mom, Rose.

“Our cookie business has grown through the years,” Rovnak said. “Back when my father started, there weren’t bakeries in grocery stores. A lot of these places, because of the labor costs, have moved away from making stuff from scratch and from making their own. All of the stuff [we have] we make by hand from scratch.”

At some point, Classic Bakery has to cut off cookie orders, but the bakery tries to accommodate customers as best as it can. The only Monday of the year Classic Bakery is open is the Monday before Christmas Day.

After the season ends, the bakery shuts down for two weeks in January to give everyone a break.

“It’s an extremely hectic time for me and my staff,” Rovnak said.

There wasn’t always a line of people waiting to get the perfect assortment of holiday cookies.

When people had more time, they made more cookies.

As the times change, the baking business changes, Bair explained.

Her mother started the business in the 1960s to teach cake decoration. She started to sell supplies, too, and then she started to sell candy and later added cookies to the mix.

Today, Sugar Showcase takes orders for cookies until Dec. 10. On Dec. 22, the bakery has a special Kids Day where children can come in and make cookies for Santa.

On both Dec. 22 and Dec. 23, Sugar Showcase sells out of whatever cookies are left. It also has shelves of holiday sprinkles, frostings, chocolate wafers and other baking and candy-making supplies on sale for the customers who want to tackle the dessert table on their own.

“It’s made me feel a lot better that I am carrying on my mother’s tradition,” Bair said.

Clothespin cookies are the No. 1 seller for both Sugar Showcase and Classic Bakery. These cream-filled puff pastries are time-consuming to make, however, Bair said.

“If you have to make them at home, the dough takes an entire day,” she said.

Second on the popular-cookie list are sour-cream cookies at Classic Bakery. These cookies can be compared with kiffels that have sour cream in the dough.

For Sugar Showcase, the caramel tarts come in second.

Other favorites include the cream wafers and pecan tarts.

“For holiday and special occasions, [people] go far” to get their favorite cookies, Rovnak said. “We draw from a pretty big area. We have customers from Warren and Niles.”