The Dutch Bakery, next to the Sayre Market is seen here on the SE corner of Hawthorne and Main during the Pioneer Day Parade on Memorial Day, May 31st, 1948. (1) Few people today can remember this once prominent business in the center of downtown Fallbrook. But this and other historic Pioneer Day photos remind us that it was here. According to records, The Dutch Bakery was at this location for 16 years.
The Fallbrook Dutch Bakery actually began in Vista in 1938, serving fresh bread, cakes, and cookies daily. The owners Ted & Mary Blecha were not of Dutch ancestry, and their recipes were not uniquely from the Netherlands. We wonder how did the name Dutch Bakery come to be?
Early Dutch settlers had a significant influence on baking in colonial America. The 1930s was a time when the famous Van de Kamp Bakery was making Dutch Bakeries popular around Southern California. (2) Dutch children easily recognize the American word “cookie” which comes from the Dutch word koekje.
When the Fallbrook Post Office moved to Alvarado Street in early 1947, (3) the Post Office vacated the building at the corner of Hawthorne Street and Main. Ted and Mary Blecha heard about it and saw an opportunity to expand their business. The Blechas decided to move their Dutch Bakery from Vista into this larger building in the center of Fallbrook. (4)
The Blechas moved the bakery to Fallbrook, but they continued to live in Vista. After only a year of commuting, the Blechas sold the Dutch Bakery in 1948 to Mr. & Mrs. Rudolf Cimperman, who came from St. Louis and quickly moved their whole family to Fallbrook.
The Cimpermans owned and operated the Dutch Bakery in Fallbrook for the next 10 years. These were good times for the Dutch Bakery. Having the Sayre Market next door to the Dutch Bakery, helped both businesses to attract shoppers to this corner. Then in 1957, Buy & Save opened a supermarket in Fallbrook, with its own bakery, just a couple of blocks away. Chuck Sayre sold his Sayre’s Market and became the manager of Buy & Save.
The next year in 1958, the Cimpermans sold the Dutch Bakery to Eugene and Gertrude Frick. The Fricks were unable to turn around the fortunes of the Bakery. Within two years the Fricks sold the Dutch Bakery in 1960 to H. Shouf, a baker in Hemet. Souf said he and his wife Gertrude planned to move to Fallbrook, but in 1963 without any fanfare, Souf moved the Dutch Bakery to Hemet, merging the business with his bakery in Hemet.
Fallbrook’s Dutch Bakery was gone.
Tom Frew,
FHS Historian
Footnotes
1) Fallbrook Enterprise June 4, 1948. There were light drizzles on Memorial Day morning May 31, 1948, but the Parade went on.
2) PBSsocal.org Baked Goodness, The Story of Van de Kamp’ Holland Dutch Bakers, by Hadley Meares, 3/16/ 2016.
3) See History of Fallbrook Post Offices at The Historian Summer 2021
4) Fallbrook Enterprise Apr 4, 1947.
