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Berkeley institution Nabolom Bakery and Pizzeria to permanently close after 50 years · Best of: Features

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  Berkeley Institution, Nabolom Bakery and Pizzeria to permanently close after fifty years.
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  Written by Susanna Guerrero. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice generated by Everlett. Berkeley Fixture Noblem Bakery and Pizzeria
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  will permanently close its doors on Sunday after a fifty year run.
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  Co owner Sabra Stepak confirmed to SF Gate that the bakery's last
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  day of service is Sunday. Stepak spoke candidly about the difficulties of
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  running a bakery in a highly competitive market like Berkeley, where it
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  often feels like three bakeries are opening every month and employee turnover
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  is high. The increase in the cost of ingredients and utilities has
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  added to the longtime challenges plaguing this beloved bakery on Russell Street
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  in Elmwood. It's something that's going on with all small businesses, Stephack
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  said. Chocolate has increased three times. My P G and E has
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  gone up like seventy per cent. Oaklandside was first to report news,
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  and ever since the Bakery has been slammed, Stepak said. On Friday
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  Nabilum had a line from eight to eleven AM and ran out
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  of pastries. We've probably had our most viable days in ten years,
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  probably three times more than we usually sell, she said. Nabalim Bakery
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  and Pizzeria opened in nineteen seventy six as a collective owned by
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  Adele Cole, Nora Chamberlain, Susan Talpers, and Lynn McMasters, according to the
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  San Francisco Chronicle Nabalim Bakery quickly grew in popularity as locals lined
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  up for its assortment of multigrain breads, cakes, and muffins. In nineteen
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  seventy eight, the San Francisco Chronicle highlighted the bakery's cheese bread. The
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  business began with the our co owners, and later added three more
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  collective members, by nineteen seventy eight, the Chronicle reported. I feel being
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  a partner here is the greatest accomplishment of my life, Cole told
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  the Chronicle in nineteen seventy eight. Getting a new business going and
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  on its feet is amazing when you consider all of us and
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  our backgrounds. We've been appreciated from the beginning. I like the atmosphere
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  here, it's warm and friendly, kind of a neighborhood center. Over the
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  years, the bakery faced bouts of financial difficulties that threatened closure. Nabalam
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  anticipated closing in 2004 after accumulating 30,000 in debt from rising workers
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  compensation fees to bad business decisions, the Chronicle reported. Amid the uncertainty,
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  six customers supported the business with five hundred dollars certificates for baked
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  goods, while Nabalum Bakery planned to offer gourmet pizza and host live
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  music performances to stay afloat, the Chronicle reported. Nabalam survived, but eventually
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  closed in july twenty fifteen, following the departure of four collective members
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  who left within three months. Berkeleyside reported that their exit had made
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  it challenging for the remaining collective members to keep the doors open.
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  Six months later in twenty sixteen, Julia Elliott and Sabra Stepak purchased
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  the business and became the sole owners. Elliot, who had previously worked
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  at Nabalum and spent twelve years working at the Cheeseboard Collective, introduced
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  an assortment of gourmet pizzas that became staples to the historic bakery's
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  menu. Stepak said that she and her co owner are open to
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  selling the nostalgic bakery they've have known since middle school. Her immediate
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  plans are to look for a job and take a three month
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  long nap. We've agonized over it, and we just can't do it
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  any more, she said. We're exhausted.