 
Pakula's Bake
Shop rises again
By
KHURRAM SAEED
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: June 10, 2003)
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."
Send e-mail to Khurram Saeed
| 
