TORONTO — Rumours of the complete demise of the Open Window bakery chain may have been a bit premature.
As reported last month, the 54-year-old operation closed the doors of all its facilities around the GTA on Jan. 17, leaving more than 150 employees jobless.
However, as of last week, its Thornhill outlet, located at 300 John St. in the Thornhill Square Shopping Centre, remained open and was serving baked goods to customers.
Though the branch is listed on Open Window’s website as one of the now-defunct chain’s locations, a call to the Thornhill outlet by The CJN revealed that it was indeed still in operation.
A manager calling himself “Simon” answered the phone. When asked how the store was still open, he said his store was “an independent.”
Further questioning about how he could continue using the bankrupt company’s famous logo and name, prompted him to testily respond: “I don’t know. No one’s called about it.”
He then abruptly ended the interview, saying he was “very busy” and hung up the phone.
It was unclear where the store was sourcing its baked goods from.
The CJN was unable to contact the former owners of the chain to ask about the John Street location’s continued operation, as phones continued to go unanswered at the company’s head office and e-mail queries to the company’s last CEO, Gail Agasi, were not returned.
Open Window bakery was founded in 1957 by Max Feig, a Holocaust survivor, along with three partners: Louis Friedman, Emil Friedman and Leslie Kellerman.
Feig took sole possession of the business in 1984 after buying out his partners, according Carole Friedman, Emil’s widow.
She said it “tore at her heart” to read the story of the bakery closing and how most of the reports about it neglected to mention the other three founding partners by name.
Feig is suffering from Alzheimer’s and is unaware of the demise of his business, according to his family.
