Hagelstein’s Bakery

This place is CLOSED & has been for some time. Someone leased the building and will sell pizza slices every so offer, but Hagelsteins Bakery as it was — is gone.

I’ve seen that back of this place, and I can tell you don’t get a cake from here.
In college I worked at a bakery know what it should look like. This place is unorganized, filthy, and dark.
Which is a shame considering what a great space it is and good location.
Hagelstein’s you’re next to a campus full of people who don’t need to count calories yet. For the love of f***, you could do 24hr cookie delivery, or have have two people in there on weekends right around when the bars close.
Invest in ingredients, revamp the horror movie style work space, and make something bad ass. If you don’t like the bakery business get some people to work for you that do… and get that little guy and the tree out of the window. What is that? Merchandise cakes.

I grew up in Royal Oak and loved going to Hagelstein’s! Many years passed, and here I am living in Royal Oak again, now married with children. I ordered a cake 10 days ahead of time for my daughter’s birthday, eagerly anticipating a Hagelstein cake. What a disappointment! The cake was to be picked up at 12. When I showed up at 12:15, the baker was still frosting it! 20 minutes later he gives it to me and tells me I should put it in the fridge as soon as I get home because the cake is still warm and the frosting will melt. Really? Thank goodness I was going home and not to a park! It didn’t look much like what I ordered, but it was close enough. I put it in the fridge, and about an hour later we cut it. The cake was dry and very crumbly, and not very tasty. I had ordered a marble cake, and what I got was a vanilla cake slapped on top of a chocolate cake! I have never seen a marble cake like that! We served almost the entire cake to the guests, and not one of them finished the cake. The worst part of this whole thing? When I called to complain, an employee said that the owner would call me back the next day. Two weeks and about 5 more calls to the bakery, I finally got him on the phone! (Only because he happened to answer the phone) I tell him what happened and… does he apologize? No. He asks me to bring the cake in! I remind him that this was 2 weeks prior, and I no longer have the cake. He tells me that without the cake, he cannot issue a refund. I was dumbfounded! So I told him I wasn’t looking for a refund, I just wanted an apology and let them know about the horrible cake. Having worked my fair share of customer service jobs when I was younger, I know the importance of feedback. He still does not apologize, and only got more indignant! What a jerk. I should have guessed the downward spiral it’s been on when I saw the empty cases throughout the store. Since then, I stumbled upon Julian Brother’s in Clawson, and have been happy ever since!

This truly is a place of the past! In the past, it was yummy, smelled so good, you didn’t want to leave the store! And, couldn’t wait to get home and have your treat’s! BUT… All, I have left is the memory of what was. And, is no more! Sad to say, this place has lost anything of past, except location. Rude service, average cookies, Kroger’s makes a better cake! Other than that! I am keeping my memories and Not returning.

More than once, my beau regaled me with childhood stories of how he and his siblings would gleefully cajole their dear old dad into visiting Hagelstein’s on a Sunday morning. Visions of moist cookies, layer cakes, and swirls of icing danced in my head every time he mentioned this Royal Oak standby, a favourite of church-​goers, party planners, and kids everywhere. According to him, in recent years the owner withdrew from the bakery business and now mostly focuses on cakes to keep the business going. He has tried without success to sell the shop or pass it on, if the local news was to be trusted.
If that is the case, then Hagelstein’s reflects the waning interest from those halcyon days of the 1980s. Two recent visits cemented definite disappointment. The shop occupies a prime piece of corner real estate, though expect to plug a meter if you visit by car. Long display cases anchor the back of the shop area, leaving a large rectangle open for patrons to sit and watch traffic flow by while they enjoy life at a slower pace over a pastry or a cookie.
Unfortunately something critical is missing from the atmosphere here, and I think passion might be it. Other bakeries, ranging from Pinwheel in Ferndale to Whole Foods’ smörgåsbord of breads, exude a kind of enthusiasm for the people who work there. Hagelstein’s has little of the sort. Despite showing up at different times of day, once during the week and another on the weekend, the place did not feel welcoming. Staff hardly made eye contact and went through their duties rather mechanically, seeing to some tidying and eyeing up the customers who walked in with a rather surprising pointedness, like we were not supposed to be there or we intruded upon a private function. No matter, I am the sort who can bear a little discomfort in the name of a delicious baked good fresh from the oven.
Imagine my surprise when I found one display case entirely empty except for a cake, and the others sparsely populated with a few cookies of various sorts! No major event presumably wiped them out in advance of my coming. This anomaly repeated weeks later on my second attempt, and I couldn’t bring myself to buy any products. With so few items for sale, and skimpy quantities of those, was it really worth the money? Price is middle of the road, cheaper than Astoria but not the equal to Hermann’s up the way or Goldfish Tea on a good day.
The cookies I purchased on the first trip were satisfactory, enjoyed by the beau and his brother. They both said they weren’t as good as they used to be, even in recent years. Trusting in my own judgment (hopefully not painted over by childhood fondness or memories), I admit the cookie was just that… a pretty basic cookie. Nothing great, nothing to write home about, it could have come from just about anywhere. I was disappointed, but I imagine in his heyday, Hagelstein was really a baker worth his salt. Maybe someone I know will get a cake of his and I can judge for myself.

I bought two big cookies here once and ate them one right after the other. I was fatter then but now I know cookies are a sometimes food.

A quiet bakery on washington street, just as you are leaving royal oak headed towards 1 – 696. I love the cheesecake here. They have a small, medium, or large. Any flavor you want can be made by request, but what caught my eye when buying butter cookies one day is the bright strawberries crowned with whipped cream on the small cheesecake. I figure, hey I like cheesecake — its a small one (made for 4 or 5) whats to lose? The cake is rich yet not too condensed and topped with fresh whole berries in a glaze with homemade whipped cream. They could make these alone and stay popular. For me.

Man, did I love their gingerbread cookies when I was younger. They have good bread, great little cakes, and good sheet cakes for events, too. Mmmm. Seriously, though, the cookies? Top notch.