Freed’s Bakery shutters two locations to consolidate shops

A longtime neighbor has moved but wants everyone to continue stopping by for a sweet treat and a hello.

Freed's Bakery recently consolidated its two locations, 4780 S. Eastern Ave. (formerly Freed's Bakery Tropicana) and 9555 S. Eastern Ave., Suite 145 (also known as Freed's Bakery Richmar) to centralize operations at 9815 S. Eastern Ave.

The bakery has dabbled as national starlet on the Food Network and beyond since it was started in 1959 by Milton and Esther Freed.

The couple ran a snack bar in a supermarket, but the business wasn't dessert-centric until store-bought doughnuts started flying off its shelves.

The family members believed so much in their endeavor, they changed the spelling on their last name, Fried, so customers wouldn't think their goods were somehow a reflection.

Soon, the business was a full-fledged bakery, and a revolving door of bakers would bring in new recipes that have yet to leave, general manager Max Jacobson-Fried said.

Their expertise helped Milton Freed focus on his.

"My grandfather always said, 'Let me worry about pleasing the customer,' " Jacobson-Fried said.

In the 1980s, customers wanted custom cakes, and a new facet of the business was born. Now, between 22,000 and 25,000 cakes a year -- which are often commissioned for or by celebrities -- and 200 to 500 individual slices of cake a day move through Freed's Bakery's doors.

At one time, there were about seven Freed's Bakeries in the valley, Jacobson-Fried said, and the family decided to consolidate. But the new location is the largest , about 6,500 square feet, and all operations are under one roof.

"Our business kept growing, and we kept adding to it," Jacobson-Fried said . "After 30 years of that, we had an inefficient space."

The new space has the same flow and dessert cases holding cakes, cookies, Danishes and more. To the left of the front entrance is a separate room for seven consultants at a time to field custom orders.

The back includes constant movement in the form of bakers filling orders from scratch, a six-rack rotation oven turning over trays and eight to 10 cake decorators on the move.

Freed's employee Lori Giuliano welcomes the elbow room. The February move was the third time she has followed Freed's Bakery to a new address, she said.

Giuliano started in sales at Freed's Bakery 33 years ago and would practice cake decorating during her off time. After some encouragement from Milton and Esther Freed's daughter Joni and an apprenticeship, Giuliano became a full-fledged decorator 28 years ago.

She has ridden the custom cake wave and said the bakery's first big-scale project is still the most notable she has had a hand in. It took six decorators a week to complete a 24-foot chocolate cake shaped like a guitar for the first anniversary of the Hard Rock Hotel , 4455 Paradise Road.

Her tools of the trade have changed, as has the volume of operations.

"It makes you more creative," she said. "It's a challenge. I've learned a lot, not just in decorating but the business."

Aside from daily operations, the bakery's move filled its commotion order for a while.

"This is our big plan for the year," Jacobson-Fried said.

For more information, visit freedsbakery.com or call 866-933-5253.

Contact Centennial and Paradise View reporter Maggie Lillis at mlillis@viewnews.com or 477-3839.