Born in the Mixer Bowl

Frank’s Bakery

Monsey, NY

Established 1962

Every neighborhood has its iconic landmarks. Those are the stores you grew up with, the ones you think will be there forever. In Brooklyn, it’s Amnon’s Pizza. In Lakewood, it’s Shloimy’s supermarket. And in Monsey, it’s always been Frank’s Bakery. Ask any Monsey resident and they’ll tell you that Shabbos just isn’t the same without challos from Frank’s.

Now that iconic bakery has recently closed its doors. And the Frank family, clearly in a nostalgic mood, is ready to share some cherished memories. In the warm and welcoming home of Reb Yehuda and Gila Frank on a quiet street in New Square (where the doors are wide open and you can probably leave your car unlocked), I’m sitting at their oversized dining room table set with cold drinks, candies, and of course — marble cake. I’m surrounded by what seems to be the gantze mishpoochah (it isn’t).

I’m introduced to Yaakov Yosef and Miri, Estie, Gitty, and Ruchie, and children and grandchildren of the Franks. As we speak, various other family members, including some youngsters, wander over to join us. For the Frank family, our conversation is clearly a stroll down memory lane. For me, it’s an opportunity to hear firsthand how a bakery can turn a family into a cohesive unit, all of them joined together by their determination to make a good business great.

She Needs the Money

Frank’s Bakery was first established by Reb Yoel Frank z”l back in the 1950s when New Square was just being established as a community. It began as a small mom-and-pop shop serving the local families who chose to settle there. Reb Yoel, a Holocaust survivor, was actually a printer back in Hungary. But he had once purchased a building that housed a bakery, and so he was somewhat familiar with the trade even before coming to America.