Family kneading own bread

BLACK FOREST BAKERY: BUSINESS KEEPS THRIVING DESPITE PANDEMIC SETBACK

- Hein Kaiser

If you've ever eaten a slice of rye bread or had a continental roll at a high-end hotel in Joburg, chances are it came from Black Forest Bakery.

It's one of the few surviving family businesses in the city centre and Braamfontein is all the richer for its staying power.

The fragrant, hunger-stirring whiffs of freshly baked bread and pastries is unmistakable.

The Vandereydt-Speer family has been feeding the city for almost half a century. But the bakery is older than that.

"It started in 1935 as Café Echo, opposite the German Club on Loveday Street in Selby," Maika Vandereydt-Speer said.

She runs the business with her husband, Chris.

"Club members would head over after spending time at the club for coffee and cake. It was small, just a confectionery shop, but well-known. Always German-owned," she said.