Family rebuilds and expands a year after fire ravages popular Italian Bakery
Late at night on Feb. 20 of last year, a neighbour called Renato Frattin to tell him that his family’s bakery was on fire.
Firefighters worked through the night and into the early morning to put out the flames at the Italian Bakery on 118 Avenue.
The cause, investigators later determined, was a faulty overhead heater.
The fire resulted in the total destruction of one building and significant smoke and water damage to the other. No one was working there when the fire broke out.
The family vowed to rebuild the bakery in Beverly — now scheduled to reopen in March. They’re also opening a new location in St. Albert in July.
“Why build one when you can build two?” joked Frattin, whose parents opened the first Italian Bakery on 93 Street in 1960. The store at 4118 118 Ave. opened in 1985.
Although the family had some insurance, it didn’t cover everything. Between construction and buying all new equipment, the relaunch has cost them about one million dollars.
After the fire, some employees started working at the bakery’s downtown location, 10644 97 St. The rest were laid off, although they’ve been encouraged to work for the new stores, Frattin said.
To satisfy the hundreds of customers who relied on fresh bread from the 118 Avenue location, the bakery made a small amount in their downtown location and brought in more from Calgary.
Many Beverly customers go out of their way to shop at the downtown bakery and every day customers ask staff how the rebuild is going.
“It’s shown that you don’t realize to what degree you’ve affected the community,” Frattin said.