The relatively new business was well on its way to becoming a classic Magnolia neighborhood bakery, but that's all changed now.
Sweet Lorraine's Bakery, 3055 21st Ave. W., which had won a loyal clientele and accolades from local food writers since it opened Sept. 4, 2002, will be closing its doors. Sunday, Feb. 1, will be the bakery's last day.
The business was hit with a 60- percent rent increase after the nondescript, wooden building changed ownership earlier this month.
"There's a lot of change in Interbay," Sweet Lorraine's owner Trudi Kahn White said. "People are anticipating the arrival of the monorail and condos."
Kahn White moved to Seattle 17 years ago from Detroit, Mich., a city filled with ethnic food. Sweet Lorraine's is one of Seattle's few traditional Jewish and European bakeries.
Kahn White learned the art of baking at home. Lorraine, in fact, is her mother.
"My mother is an incredible cook," Kahn White said.
Kahn White apprenticed under a well-known, 84-year-old Detroit baker named Benny Moskowitz, who shared his baking methods and secret recipes and helped set the course of her career.
Kahn White said business, since she opened Sweet Lorraine's, has been good. Jewish rye, black rye, pumpernickel, challah (a rich egg bread) have been a few of the house favorites.
"We were interested in being a neighborhood bakery," Kahn White said. "Martin Selig comes here. And so do homeless people from down under the bridge. We respect everybody. Everybody has a right to eat good food."
Kahn White said she is hoping somebody out there might be willing to help her set up in a new location.
In the meantime, Kahn White describes herself as sad.
"We've become part of the neighborhood," she said.
