Scott Swanson
Of The New Era
Mollies is back.
The bakery, an icon in Sweet Home for more than 50 years, which closed six months ago after its owners ran into financial difficulties, is set to reopen Tuesday, Aug. 1, with a complete facelift but a lot of what its new owners say will be the traditional fare.
Ray and Tanna Thompson of Sweet Home took over the bakery/restaurant shortly after the former owners, Len and Michelle Street had to close Jan. 14 following a string of difficulties.
Tanna Thompson, who owned a small restaurant in Sweet Home 11 years ago, called Taste of Home, has supervised a complete remake of the restaurant with assistance from Steve Hanscom, owner of the building. After several months of work, the bakery has a new black-and-white checkered floor, new walls, new plumbing, new bathrooms, a new service window, new cabinets and, of importance to many longtime customers, a lunch counter with stools. Much of the interior work was done by carpenter Tim Theodoroff, with help from the Thompsons and some of the staffers who will be working at the restaurant.
On Saturday morning, July 22, a new sign went up, installed by Chuck Smith of Woodchuck Tree Service.
Tanna Thompson said she had decided to open a restaurant after she and Ray were married last October.
“We were living in Bend and I had to make a decision whether we were going to live here or in Bend,” she said. “I had decided to open a soup and sandwich shop, but I saw the sign (that Mollies was for sale) the second day it was up.”
Mollies was founded in the 1950s and was purchased by Mollie Andrews in the early 1960s after she worked for the original owners. Andrews ran the bakery, which opened at 2 a.m. on weekdays to serve breakfast to loggers, for some 40 years before selling it to the Streets. When it closed, it was one of the few bakeries in the central Willamette Valley that made its doughnuts and other baked goods entirely from scratch.
Thompson said she plans to open at 3:30 a.m. and serve breakfast and lunch, staying open until 3 p.m. She also plans to open on weekend evenings as well, serving coffee and bakery products.
Three of the former staff members are returning and Thompson has hired several others, including her two daughters.
“We want to focus on a full-line bakery, with deliveries to accounts,” she said. “We just want to serve the community and the surrounding area.”
Ray Thompson owns a flatbed semi, which he drives as far as Nevada and Idaho. He said the restaurant is part of his retirement plan.
“I’ve been a trucker all my life,” he said. “I just want to help fulfill this dream (Tanna’s) had, something that will help in my retirement years.”
The goal, Tanna Thompson said, is to re-establish “the legend of Mollies.”
“The first thing I told Mollie was that we want to see this go on for her,” she said.
Their recipe for what they hope will be success is not complicated.
“We want to serve good, reasonably priced food in a clean, friendly environment,” Ray Thompson said.