Follow your nose to the Main Street Bakery
LINDA KOEHLER/TIMES NEWS Members of the community and Northern Lehigh Future Focus (NLFF) welcomed Gracie's Main Street Bakery to Walnutport. From left to right are: Les Glanz, Chairman of Downtown Revitalization and Economic Development Task Force; Pete Pandelios, owner; Gery Fedorcha, Vice President of NLFF; Dan Stevens, President of NLFF; Henry Kline, Mayor of Walnutport; Marilyn Kaul, Past President of NLFF.
First you get a whiff of the amazing aroma wafting down the street. But when you open the door to Gracie's Main Street Bakery, you know you opened the door to a little bit of heaven.
Inside awaiting customers are the heavenly tasty delights of cinnamon buns, cannolis, doughnuts, cookies, pastries, pies, bread, and cakes, all in brightly lit display cases.
"We have a little bit of everything," says Pete Pandelios, owner and baker.
Members of Northern Lehigh Future Focus welcomed Pete to Walnutport when they visited the bakery located on 401 Main St. with a welcome basket.
Pete has spent his whole life in the bakery business. In fact, the vocation spans 75 years and three generations. His grandfather owned Plakey's Bakery on Fountain Hill in Bethlehem. Pete grew up learning how to make cakes and pastries in his parents' owned and operated Bride's Bakery in Allentown.
Pete's mornings begin early when he arrives at the bakery around 5 a.m. The doors are open from 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
The bakery specializes in wedding cakes and special order cakes. Pete says he found a true artist in the only other employee of the bakery, Stephanie Strohl.
"She decorates cakes beautifully," he says.
Pete's other "helper" is his five-year-old daughter, Gracie, who the bakery is named after and she loves being in the bakery with her dad. Pete also has a 18-year-old son, Nicholas, a freshman at Texas State.
Pete believes it will only take one visit to Gracie's Main Street Bakery to make you a regular customer and he invites everyone to come in and taste what he has baked for you.
