Rose Garden Resident

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Goodbyes: Sue Toyoshima gives her longtime employee Corine Ceja a hug before leaving the family business for the last time. Toyoshima sold Aki's Bakery after 44 years.

New Generation

Aki's Bakery passes hands and recipes

By Mary Gottschalk

As news of the sale of Aki's Bakery at 355 Meridian Ave. has spread, owner Sue Toyoshima is answering the same question over and over.

To everyone who asks, "Why?", the Rose Garden resident smiles and says, "It's time.

"I'm 72, and it's time to do other things. It's our 44th year as a bakery, and it's time to go and enjoy myself."

Toyoshima and her late husband, Akiyoshi, opened his namesake operation in 1960 in Japantown. Initially a coffee shop, within three years it evolved into a bakery.

The Meridian location was added in 1972, and in 1997 the Japantown location was closed. After her husband retired in 2000, Toyoshima continued operating it with their children, son Randy and daughter Penny Tom. Aki Toyoshima died in 2003.

The decision to sell was a joint one, Toyoshima says.

"All three of us decided it was time to do other things," she says.

The Toyoshimas are selling to Brian Bacher, a man who has experience in taking over what he calls "highly revered institutions."

Bacher, himself a third-generation baker, purchased Vienna Bakery & Café in Fremont in 2004, and A Piece of Cake Bakery in Santa Clara in September 2006.

Both businesses, he says, were "well established with a lot of stability."

When he learned Aki's was on the market, Bacher says that while the timing wasn't great, he had to move.

"A jewel like this you don't overlook," he says.

Even after his successes with two venerable bakeries, Bacher says, "There's always a bit of fear whenever you take something like that over, whether it's an institution or a business that's hurting. There's a fear factor, but it's a challenge to be able to continue meeting those needs in the same manner the facility has been doing."

Bacher says when he buys a business he asks, "What works, and what do we need to improve on to make sure the quality and service stays the same or improves?"

At Aki's, he says he knew immediately not to change the signature guava delight cake.

The guava delight, which is highly praised on numerous Internet reviews and revered by longtime customers, is something Toyoshima says came from a baker friend in Hilo, Hawaii.

"We have improvised and changed it from the original recipe, and it's going to the new owner. He knows it's a must, and he will continue it."

According to its www.akisbakery.com website, the cake is made by blending guava into batter to create a chiffon cake. After baking, it is filled and iced with guava whipped cream and then topped with guava purée.

The guava delight has been an ongoing source of pleasure to Toyoshima.

"One Hawaiian customer said it was better than the ones in Hawaii, and that made me feel really good," she says.

Then there was the customer who called from Sacramento to order two full sheet cakes of guava delight.

"He drove down, picked up the cakes and drove back," Toyoshima says.

Other customers drive in from Monterey and Salinas, and Toyoshima says people stop in to say they've been asked to bring a guava delight to take along when visiting friends who have moved away.

"It's an amazing thing," she says.

While the guava delight stays, Bacher says he will make some changes at Aki's.

"We've already changed the pastry line in conjunction with what Vienna and our wholesale division is producing. It's the same pastries across the board."

Bacher points out he's a third-generation baker.

"My grandfather and his father before him baked. It skipped my parents, but when I got out of high school, my grandfather said, 'You're going to bake, right?'" he says.

"It's definitely in my blood. I've been in the food business pretty much my whole life."

While attending Wilcox High School in Santa Clara, Bacher worked as a busboy and dishwasher at the Good Earth restaurant in Cupertino.

After graduation in 1987, he took a job with the California Café at Valley Fair Shopping Center while attending the California Culinary Academy.

Stints as bakery production manager for Draeger's Markets and as head baker at the Whole Foods in Cupertino followed.

While managing the Torrefazione Italia Coffee Café in Palo Alto, Bacher decided to make baking his profession.

The appeal, he says, "boils down to service. It happens I'm really good at baking, but being able to serve others, customers and employees, that was the root cause of all I did."

Additionally, Bacher says baking is a pleasant business to be in because when people come in to buy cakes, it's usually for a celebration.

"How happy can that get?" he asks.

Toyoshima agrees, saying her favorite memories are of customers.

Aki's Bakery, 355 Meridian Ave., 408.287.5404. Open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Saturdays and closed Sunday and Monday.