Two iconic retail bakeries – Torrance Bakery in Torrance, California, and Three Brothers Bakery in Houston – are celebrating noteworthy anniversaries that shed valuable light on their local communities regarding the importance of family businesses.
On October 18, 1984, the Rossberg family opened the doors of Torrance Bakery to the public. With only 1,200 square feet of space and 7 dedicated employees, we set out to serve the people of South Bay the freshest, most delicious cakes and pastries in town.
The people of South Bay took quite a shine to the family business, for over time the bakery became a city favorite and kept growing in order to give its customers the best products and service.
Today, Torrance Bakery serves the South Bay from two locations with a total of 14,000 square feet, 78 employees, a separate Wedding Cake Showroom, and a Sandwich Shop.
Kirk Rossberg started Torrance Bakery with his mother, June, who passed away on Jan. 28, 2024, at the age of 98.
“The bakery was her ministry,” says Kirk today of his mom. “She was always friendly and outgoing and talked to everyone. She understood the importance of the belief that you have to see people, and they have to see you. I totally get it. We are totally blessed with the grace of other people around us.”
Three Brother Bakery
On May 18, Three Brothers Bakery celebrated 75 years in the Houston community with a Children’s Business Fair. Presentations/proclamations and ribbon cutting took place in the morning of May 18, along with a fair that featured awards given to the children.
Fair vendors were ages 6 to 14. Each developed a brand, created a product or service, built a marketing strategy, and opened their store.
“We thought about how to give back to the community for their support of Three Brothers Bakery over 75 years and decided the Children’s Business Fair is a unique way to give back and hopefully help these budding entrepreneurs to become – who knows, the next Dell Computer,” said Bobby Jucker, fifth generation baker.
Awards and prize money were presented. The biggest prize went to the vendor with the highest sales.
Source: Michael Carr PhotographyIn addition to Three Brothers Bakery serving as the major sponsor of the fair, additional sponsors were the Acton Academy, the Acton School of Business, The Next Great Adventure, BrandGear Promotional Products and parking sponsor – The Barvin Group, who has graciously donated their property for parking.
Additionally, this year marks the start of the family’s 200th year of baking history.
“We just wanted to have some fun while we say thank you for letting us be a part of your sweet memories for 75 years,” Jucker said. “This celebration is about our wonderful community, which is why we are still here.”
Torrance Bakery
Kirk Rossberg has vivid memories of the early and challenging years. “I did everything wrong – right off the bat,” he recalls with a smile.
He was 27 at the time, and ran the business alongside his mother, June.
Just two weeks after the bakery opened, and two weeks prior to Thanksgiving in 1984, their reel oven – the only one they had – stopped working.
Their local Hobart rep informed Kirk that the oven was probably 65 years old. Kirk had little money to spare because he had sunk everything into the opening. Then came magic words from the Hobart rep.
“He says, ‘pay me when you can,’” Rossberg recalls. “It would have been a catastrophe not to have had that oven. It is a testament to the grace of others. I still have that oven, which is a workhorse for our bakery. It’s a constant reminder that nobody does it alone.”
Kirk’s mom knew that lesson well. A child of the Great Depression, June McComb Rossberg grew up in a one-bedroom flat above her mother’s print shop. Despite the tight quarters, her parents always sheltered and fed others, often taking in strangers whose own families had turned them out. June continued that legacy of quiet and humble acts of kindness throughout her entire life.
June excelled at Chicago’s Immaculata High School, including winning the lead role of Florence Nightingale in the school play. She was adventurous and spent several years working (and playing) at Sun Valley Resort. After returning to Chicago, she worked at RCA Records and took night classes at Northwestern University where she met Dick, her husband of 63 years.
“Mom taught me everything,” Kirk says. “Our first and most important way we give back to the community is by always giving our best.”
Business lessons
Over the years, Rossberg says he has learned many important lessons, including the fact that not everything is the end of the world.
The passion and joy for the craft of baking is what keeps him going. The business, now with two locations, has grown from eight employees to 115.
“You have to manage differently,” he says. “We are doing more scratch baking than ever before. I think we make pretty good cakes.”
The outstanding reputation of Torrance Bakery translates into repeat business with key customers like Top Golf, which requires them to list every ingredient on their shipments to the client.
“We are definitely seeing more demand for clean label,” Rossberg says. “Our goal is wanting to stay relevant, but not be overly trending. The one that have legs don’t take shortcuts.”
Throughout its 40 years of existence, Torrance Bakery has enjoyed relationships with its residential and business neighbors. We are also proud to have garnered numerous awards and accolades. Some claims to fame include the 2019 Most Influential Family-Owned Business by the Los Angeles Business Journal, South Bay Association of Chambers of Commerce “Hall of Fame” Inductee, voted Best Bakery in Daily Breeze's "South Bay's Best" since 1993, Torrance Chamber of Commerce's Excellence in Business and Legacy Awards and the California Small Business Award.
Source: Torrance BakeryBeing in the South Bay has also provided the bakery with the opportunities to work with great people and companies in the TV and film industry, professional and college sports teams, the military, and many other industries.
“While such Hollywood glamour spotlights the bakery on a national level, our true commitment and passion lies with the people of the South Bay. We participate in many charities throughout the South Bay, and we donate daily to local schools and churches. These are our ways of giving back to the community that has given so much to us. As we continue to thrive in the years to come, Torrance Bakery will continue to deliver quality goods and excellent service to the South Bay community. We are grateful to be a part of your life, whether it be to celebrate a milestone event or just to treat yourself to a freshly made cookie and coffee.”
Creative products
Beyond cakes, Torrance Bakery has always been known for innovative treats like brownie pops, which the owner soon discovered using a watchful eye to be a better seller when the pops were smaller in size.
“The smaller size sold way better because they are easier to eat,” he says. “Even our petit fours, customers like smaller. Sometimes, you have to find the sweet spot on size and price.”
“And I always recognize that we couldn’t have done it without our great staff or our customers.”
For their upcoming anniversary celebration, which is scheduled for the week of July 22, the bakery will have a ceremonial ribbon cutting along with charitable donations from their cookie sales. For each of the seven days, 50% of cookie sales will go to a charity and the other 50% will go to the bakery’s employees.
Each day a different charity will be honored.
“I feel that it is going to be good,” Rossberg says. “Our staff will be energized and incentivized. I also talked to our BakeMark rep (their bakery supplier) and we’re all connected. Summer will be a great time for this event.”
Many of the bakery’s items are sweet treats that can be enjoyed on the go, including gourmet cupcakes, brownies, cookies, fudge chews, muffins, and donuts.
Instore cakes include options for any customer’s spur-of-the-moment party or a last-minute guest. The bakery offers a variety of specialty tortes available in the store every day, including strawberry torte, German chocolate, lemon mousse torte, and Boston cream pie.
Torrance Bakery features a multi-faceted menu that includes foodservice, cakes, breads, and sweet goods.
The café offers a fresh take on a classic sandwich menu including daily fresh baked bread from our bakery, our own house-roasted turkey, inventive sandwich toppings and made-from-scratch soups, and fresh in-season salads.
The cafe is located at the Torrance Bakery location, and is open Monday through Friday from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm, and on Saturdays from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm. They also offer catering from small groups to large events.
Togetherness
The following provides some history of Three Brothers Bakery founded by Holocaust survivors – Sigmund, Sol and Max Jucker
The traditions of Three Brothers Bakery began in Chrzanow, Poland circa 1825, and were preserved despite the family’s concentration camp imprisonment during the Holocaust. Their liberation and subsequent move to Houston, brought Eastern European scratch baking traditions to 4036 S. Braeswood Blvd, 12393 Kingsride Lane, 4606 Washington Ave., 574 Chimney Rock Rd, where the owners are now proud to call themselves “memory makers who happen to be bakers®.”
Perfecting the process for almost 200 years, each day the fifth-generation scratch bakers produce a full line of breads, pastries, cookies, specialty dessert cakes, and pies.
Three Brothers Bakery was named 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 Best of the Best Bakery by Houston Chronicle Readers and their pecan pie was named “the Best Mail Order Pecan Pie America has to offer” by Country Living magazine multiple times along with many other accolades.
In 2018, Three Brothers Bakery received the SBA Phoenix Award for Small Business Disaster Recovery and advocates to help small businesses recover after disasters.
Marketing and promotions represent a positive way for Three Brothers Bakery to connect with their local community.
Earlier in 2024, Three Brothers Bakery presented special promotions for three big bakery “holidays” stacked one on top of the other. It all began Feb. 9, featuring King Cakes and Mardi Gras fun sweet treats plus Valentines Day goodies Everything was available for purchase in store or online for pickup at all of the four Three Brothers Bakery locations.
“Normally these three holidays are a bit spaced out or maybe two hit right together, but this year it is three in four days, and we are ready,” Jucker said.
Many folks from Louisiana have deemed the Three Brothers Bakery as good as the ones they had at home. There is a reason - about 10 years ago the team from Three Brothers Bakery went to a bakery convention in New Orleans during Mardi Gras season and toured about 9 different bakeries.
They came home with about 9 different king cakes and let everyone try them and decide what they liked best about each one. Then the team reformulated the bakery’s king cake into what it is today.
Three Brothers continues to be owned and managed by members of the Jucker family. Sigmund’s son, Bobby, a fifth-generation baker, now runs the business along with his wife, Janice. “The most important thing about our family is we are a family of survivors,” Janice Jucker says. As a tribute to the history of the family bakery, the Jucker family uses old wooden worktables as tabletops. Bobby Jucker explains that you can still see some deep grooves in some of the wooden tabletops where bakers kneaded the dough for so many years. “It’s a unique way to celebrate something that we have had in our family for generations,” he says.
Multiple times, Three Brothers Bakery survived disasters: Hurricane Ike in 2008, Hurricane Harvey in 2017, and in 2020 a PPP loan enabled the bakery to survive the economic downturn associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“After surviving four floods, a fire and a hurricane we are experts at small business disaster recovery, but this one has been absolutely the hardest economically; what a difference a year can make,” says Bobby Jucker.
