Bay Area Jewish bakery Grand Bakery is selling for only $1

For the past seven years, Sam Tobis has been covering the ins and outs of running the Bay Area’s oldest kosher bakery, from hosting all-night challah-making sessions to delivering food to both bar mitzvah and shiva-sitting families. I’ve learned.

Now he’s looking for someone to take over the “joy and hard work” of Oakland’s Grand Bakery, and has put the 64-year-old store’s sale price at just $1.

“The goal is to generate as much interest as possible and find the truly best candidates,” Tobis told SFGATE. “We wanted to make it affordable so that anyone who was interested could buy it, but that wasn’t a barrier.”

Mr Tobis added that the bakery was making a “small but substantial profit” and urged people to: Contact us via online form. The form asks prospective owners to explain why they want to buy Grand Bakery and how their experience will help them “successfully manage this business into the future.”

Interest was already starting to gather as of Wednesday night.

Mr. Tobis decided to sell because he had shifted his attention to Soles, a Jewish deli in Berkeley, of which he became co-owner last year. He hopes to find “young Jewish bakers who are passionate about cooking and smart about business” to maintain Grand Bakery’s traditions.

“This is more than just a bakery, it’s a community institution,” Tobis said.

Under his ownership, Grand hosted challah knitting events at schools and Hamataschen making events at Purim carnivals. He delivered bagel and lox breakfast kits throughout the Bay Area during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tobis plans to spend time with the person he finds as the “right person” to take over the business, but “God only knows” how long that process will take. “We have the luxury of time in terms of coordinating a smooth transition,” he said.

Tobis is not alone in making the decision to prioritize connections over profits for the future of his business. Earlier this year, a San Francisco pet store owner gave away his business for free.