End of an Era

 

 This is our last box of buns from the bakery that we picked up today.  

 In less than an week the doors to Keefer Bakery will be closed to the public. The shop will continue to run for another month after that, and then it will close for good. It's definitely a bittersweet feeling. On the one hand I'm very excited for my dad, as he begins his well deserved retirement, but at the same time Keefer Bakery has been a part of Chinatown for 37 years and it's sad to think that in a few days it will not be there.

As a child I remember waiting in the bakery for my mom as she went to Chinatown to pick up groceries. I remember there was one stool behind the counter. Well, one stool for 4 kids...you can do the math. I remember being at the bakery during the Lunar Festival and choosing one of the different shaped cookies. It's been years, so I can only remember the buddha and the goldfish one. I do remember that they used to come in a box with a clear lid and there was colourful foil around the sides of the box to seal it shut. I remember watching Auntie Grace and Lau Auntie as they wrapped the boxes with string or folded the boxes with such speed and skill.  The Keefer Bakery in these memories are from the bakery that was actually on Keefer Street. Though the location has changed, the smell of the buns and seeing the pasteries is still the same as I walked in the Georgia Street location today. Back then there used to be a little gift shop, one or two stores down the street, that sold cute little Hello Kitty things. I used to spend my allowance pretty quickly there. We were allowed to go next door to the grocery store and I still remember the wine gums, black currant fruit pastilles, cola bottle and gummie bears we used to buy.

There are also many years of my life where I didn't go to Chinatown very much. I guess by then we were old enough to stay home alone and so we didn't have to follow my mom as she did the groceries or went to run errand. All through those years one thing remained constant. The smell of the sweet buns always followed my dad home each and every night. Even to this day, when we have buns from the bakery, I'll tell the kids, "The smell reminds we of Gong Gong." They get a kick out of this.

My dad says that the new owner plans to turn the site into a Greek Tapas restaurant. Chinatown is definitely changing. There is an oyster bar, an English Pub and now Greek Tapas. Who knows what will remain of the 'old Chinatown' in the future.