Olga's Bakery and Deli, a Dade City institution, has new owners. But don't expect much else to change.
By MOLLY MOORHEAD
Published August 20, 2004
DADE CITY - Doughnuts, made fresh daily, will still cost 65 cents.
Cuban bread, crusty and golden with a groove down the center, will still come in individual-size loaves.
Olga's Bakery and Deli on Seventh Street, although under new ownership, will still exist.
Iris Garcia Boyett recently sold the bakery her parents opened nearly 33 years ago, but new owners Chris and Lori Dious hope for a seamless transition.
"People are used to it," Chris Dious, 38, said. "I don't want to make too many changes."
Terms of the sale were not disclosed. The possibility of selling began to take shape about three months ago, when the Diouses stood talking to Boyett, their neighbor, on the front lawn of their San Antonio home. Boyett was thinking about selling. Dious was growing tired of his 80-mile round-trip commute to Tampa, working for his family's restaurant supply company.
But it wasn't easy for Boyett, who grew up in the little shop in the heart of downtown Dade City's antique stores and restaurants, to let go of her family's business.
Boyett, 40, has run the bakery with her husband for the past five years, after her mother's death in 1999.
Olga Estevez Garcia moved to Dade City from Tampa and started the business with her husband, Danny. It was called Danny's Dade City Bakery. The Garcias, along with their five children and Danny Garcia's parents, sold cookies, pastries, bread, soups and sandwiches, and acquired a loyal following. When the couple separated in the 1970s, Olga took over the store and renamed it Olga's Bakery. She became a downtown institution, running the bakery tirelessly and taking virtually no vacations. She kept working full time the year she died, even as her health declined.
Boyett said Thursday that walking through the back door each morning has gotten to be a chore without her mother there. She visited her mother's grave Wednesday.
"For some reason I felt the need to go by there," she said. "I had to get some tears out."
Now she worries about missing her longtime customers.
"The hardest part for me, I thought, was going to be passing on the business to someone other than family," she said. "But the hardest part is not being able to see the people that come in every day."
Boyett plans to join her husband on hunting trips and spend time with their children, Brandon, a junior at Pasco High School, and Nicki, who attends the University of Florida.
Chris Dious, who went to high school with Boyett, said he appreciates the history of the business he bought.
"I grew up in the town," he said. "We have a lot of common friends. I know the regulars. It's an easier transition."
And already, the cozy atmosphere is settling over his family.
His mother, Erma, makes sandwiches. His grandmother, Martha Brakman, perches in a chair in the back until closing time, when she sweeps up in the dining room.
He wants to learn how to bake everything from Iris' brother David, who will keep coming in at 1:30 a.m. to make the bread, cookies and doughnuts.
Yes, if Boyett gets too lonely for the place, Olga's Bakery and Deli will still be there.
"The good thing is, if I do miss it, all I've got to do is take a drive to town and come here."
