History of Party Cake Shop
Anton Grunner built the building in 1910 and operated it as a bakery until 1930 when he sold it to Anton Herold who operated the bakery until his son's death in 1957. The bakery was then leased to the following: Fink's Bakery, Wholfarth's Bakery, and Albert's Bakery until Jack Dolan purchased it in 1961 and started Party Cake Shop.
Jack became interested in baking in 1951 when he worked as a clean up boy at Kribel's Bakery. He worked there during high school as well as doing some home baking and selling of baked foods door to door. Baking became his passion. He graduated high school in 1956 and received a scholarship to the American institute of Baking in Chicago. After graduating he was offered employment in other cities but his dream was to own a bakery in Pittsburgh. In 1961 he purchased the bakery from Albert's Bakery and began his ownership of what he called Party Cake Shop.
In 1965 the building was purchased from Anton Herold and additions were added to bring the bakery kitchen up from the basement to street level. With the help of family and especially his brother George Dolan, the business began to grow. Jack operated the Bakery until 2002 when he turned it over to his brother George. Jack retired from baking in 2007.
On April 17, 2007, a second Party Cake Shop bakery opened in Mt. Lebanon, PA on Beverly Road. Then after seven years of owning Party Cake Shop, George sold the business to his cousin, Scott Smith and his wife Nancy Smith in late June of 2009. The second Party Cake Shop location in Mt. Lebanon closed in June of 2017. Scott and Nancy wanted to focus all energy on the original Brookline location.
In the summer of 2018, renovations began to remodel the store front including, new windows, widening of the door and a new blue facade. Scott originally was employed by Party Cake back in the late 70's. He left Party Cake in 1981 and worked for 24 years as the production manager of the Breadworks on the Northside. He returned to Party Cake in 2005 as the chief baker. Scott received his baking training under Jack Dolan in the late 70's along with 24 years of baking experience from the Breadworks. Scott trained at the Dunwoody Institute in Minnesota and received a diploma in Baking Technology from The EFBA Baking Academy in d'Aurillac, France.
In early April of 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, Scott sold the bakery to Michelle Zebrowski, originally from Brookline, and her husband, Zachary. Scott continued to work as the head baker until his retirement in September of 2021. Michelle previously worked at Party Cake around 2006 while pursuing her Masters degree. Michelle and Zachary could not pass on the opportunity to be a part of the longest running bakery in Brookline and proudly stepped in as the new owners.
Party Cake Shop today continues the long tradition of creating delicious cakes, breads, cookies, donuts and pastries that you've come to expect. We specialize in cakes like our famous Burnt Almond torte, decorated cakes for all occasions, wedding cakes, fresh pastries, and holiday items. We have been a Brookline institution for over 60 years and hope to remain for a long time to come.
