The beloved Downtown Bakery & Creamery is reopening on Thursday, Feb. 17 from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m.
A longtime favorite of many locals and a fixture of the downtown Plaza food scene, Healdsburg natives Ross and Karna Murphy, the new owners at the helm, aim to continue the previous owner’s legacy of serving up good food with hyperlocal ingredients, and of course, sticky buns.
Healdsburg locals Ross and Karna Murphy purchased the bakery on Dec. 31 after previous owners Kathleen Stewart and her family decided to sell the bakery and retire.
Stewart and her family, including children Maya Eshom and Joe Stewart, ran the bakery for almost three decades and after 35 years of hard work, decided to sell. The bakery went up for sale on Aug. 1.
“We are all very tired. She turned to me a few months ago when we were working up in the office one day and just looked at me and went, ‘I can’t do this anymore.’ Mom is tired and we all have some other interests that we’d like to explore,” Maya Eshom told SoCoNews in August.
“For all of us for close to 40 years it (the bakery) has been the center of everything,” Eshom said.
Stewart ran the bakery with Lindsey Shere and Shere’s daughter Therese until 1997. When the Shere’s left, Eshom and her brother started helping out with the business.
In a way, the bakery is staying in the family. Ross Murphy has been a bread baker for Downtown Bakery and while growing up, spent much of his allowance on the bakery’s sticky buns. As a kid, was even babysat by Joe Stewart.
Simply put, Downtown Bakery has been a part of Murphy’s history.
“I’ve known the three previous owners my whole life,” Ross Murphy said.
He said of the purchase, “All of the Stewarts were really excited that there’s going to be some new lifeblood in the bakery.”
Ross and Karna made it clear that they have no interest in changing the bakery, rather they want to continue the concept of baked goods made with fresh and local ingredients and a place for locals to come together and connect over scrumptious food.
“With the purchase, the recipes were included as well as local vendors. The philosophy of the bakery has always been modeled after the slow food movement, meaning using local products,” Karna Murphy said.
The bakery will have the same hours, Tuesday through Sunday, 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Ross Murphy said they’ve also retained all of the same staff and the same vendors.
“We’re starting with the exact same menu made by the same people in the same place,” he said. He said of the famous sticky buns, “I’m never getting rid of those, I like them too much.”
Ross Murphy said they also have the idea of bringing in more outside catering during the summer months and possibly participating in more farmers markets. He said their work has been well received at the San Francisco Embarcadero Farmers Market.
Karna said they’re also working to revitalize the coffee program. She said they’ve partnered with Flying Goat Coffee to have their Downtown Bakery baristas go through barista training.
The bakery will no longer have seating inside due to county health department regulations. Establishments that offer food are required by county regulations to have restroom facilities for customers and Downtown Bakery does not have public restrooms.
“We’ve changed the front layout a little bit and we’ve had to replace a couple of items, but mostly any changes that were made were mandates by the county health department,” Ross Murphy said.
He and Karna said they are very much excited for this new chapter of the bakery.
“Ross and I have been in the food industry since we started working in places in Healdsburg when we were teenagers and so continuing on a business that has been open all of our lives that’s been about locals and visitors is very exciting for us. Keeping something on the Plaza that is familiar and delicious is something that we’re really excited to provide … for the current people of Healdsburg and for the future,” Karna Murphy said.
She said it’s always been a dream of theirs to own a brick and mortar bakery. The couple had a catering company business before acquiring the bakery.
“It seemed like a natural fit for us,” she said.
Ross has a background in making sourdough bread and woodfired pizzas and Karna started as a cheesemonger when she was just 16. Her formal education was in art and librarianship.
To learn more about the bakery, you can visit their new website at https://www.downtownbakeryhealdsburg.com/.
