By Nancy Brumback, Contributing Writer
Business name: Crown Bakery & Café
Address: 133 Gold Star Blvd., Worcester
Owner: Jon Lundstrom
Contact Information: 508-852-0746
www.crownbakeryandcafe.com
What special items are you offering now?
“We have Irish soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day, and then we will have special cakes for Easter, shaped like Easter eggs and Easter bunnies,” along with cookies decorated with the holiday themes, said Jon Lundstrom, owner of the Worcester bakery his father started in 1960. Crown is a full-service bakery, offering a wide range of pastries, breads, Swedish specialty items and cakes for all occasions, all made right in the store.
How many different breads do you have?
“We have white bread and dinner rolls made from that dough. Of course, we have Swedish rye, and we make all our own sandwich breads from the white and rye. We have a flat rye that is like a mini pizza, a Danish rye that is a very compact bread, more like a pumpernickel, and six-grain bread. For people on special diets, we make both gluten-free and sugar-free breads.”
In addition to the Irish soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day, Crown does other holiday and specialty breads, including Challah and a Christmas rye.
Crown is known for its wedding cakes, but you offer many other desserts?
“Wedding cakes are a special niche,” Lundstrom said, and Crown makes 1,500 to 2,000 wedding cakes a year. But the bakery offers a wide variety of decorated cakes for just about any special occasion. Customers can choose from many different patterns or design their own cake. “We have all kinds of flavors—our specialty rainbow cake, regular golden cake, red velvet, carrot cake, chocolate.” The rainbow sponge cake is also gluten-free.
Other cake options are marzipan cakes and tortas with whipped cream or butter cream.
Display cases are filled with cookies—chocolate chip, butter cookies, Swedish spritz cookies and decorated holiday cookies, as well as petit fours and dessert bars. Crown offers dessert platters with combinations of any of those items a customer wants.
“We make tiramisu and cannolis, too.”
What are some of your pastry options?
“We always have typical Swedish pastries,” Lundstrom said. “Mazarins are filled with almond paste with white glaze on top. When you see mazarins, you see a map of Sweden in your mind. Our almond sticks are also very Swedish, a light flaky dough with almond paste. And kringla is a puff pastry dough” shaped something like a pretzel.
“We sell a lot of coffee rings and braids, and cinnamon, cardamom and raisin buns, as well as Danish pastries,” all made from scratch, starting at 4 in the morning.
When is the café open?
“The café is open when the store is open, from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., 5 p.m. on Mondays. We are closed on Sundays.” Customers can buy deli sandwiches, soups and salads, beverages and desserts to take out or to eat at tables in the front of the bakery and on a covered porch outside in nice weather. Breakfast sandwiches are very popular, Lundstrom said, and are available all day.