The Suburban Times

A community bulletin board for Western Pierce County.

  • Home
  • To Know
  • To Do
  • To Ponder
  • Obituaries
  • Calendar
    • Submit an Event
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • More
    • Share your story
    • Submit an Event
    • Contact

Around the Sound: Lakewood’s German Food Headquarters

December 23, 2013 By Nancy Covert

A young patron enjoys a sandwich.

A young patron enjoys a sandwich at the Hess Bakery and Deli.

By Nancy Covert

Back in my growing-up days in the North Side Pittsburgh neighborhood, it was customary to order a pretzel cake from Aumer’s Bakery.

Eating a slice of the sweet, saffron-colored, raisin-studded bread at the stroke of midnight of New Year’s Eve was supposedly good luck, according to my mother, who indoctrinated her four daughters in all the Seasonal holiday traditions handed down from my German grandmother.

(Who used to terrorize me, when I misbehaved, threatening that she’d cut off my ears—and make the ‘blud fly’! Yipes!

Eventually a purloined pretzel cake recipe came West with my household goods, and most years I made it for my own family’s celebration.

That embedded appreciation of traditional German holiday foods bubbled to the surface recently after I stopped at Hess’s Bakery and Deli in Lakewood. Dozens of store patrons, carrying baskets heaped with sausages, sauerkraut, potato salad, pretzel bread, liqueur-filled chocolates, wines and more, queued around the store that afternoon, undoubtedly thinking ahead to their upcoming holiday celebrations.

“Kiki” Cardenas, one of the store’s current owners, said that Tony and Hilda Hess, the store’s original owners, began the business in the Tacoma area in 1963, opening the Lakewood site in 1980. Tony passed away in 2006, the year that Kiki and his wife, Birgitta, bought the business. Today the popular destination employs 15 people, and, Kiki added, “It’s the second largest German Deli/Grocery/Bakery on the West Coast.”

Deli items include German Rye bread, as well as the meats that arrive weekly from New Jersey, Chicago; even Seattle’s Pike Place Market. The meats, Kiki continues, all are fresh and “cut to order.”

Owning the Deli/Bakery was ideal for Kiki who’d studied baking while in Germany. He arrives at the shop early to begin each day’s baking.

“All the breads are baked fresh daily,” he said, adding that day-old items are reduced in price, and whatever remains is delivered to the Lakewood VA Hospital’s Food Bank.

This time of year particularly, thousands flock to the Mt. Tahoma Drive business, buying grocery items such as jams, gummi candies, cheeses, bratwurst, knockwurst, even international newspapers and magazines…you get the idea.

The miniature foil-wrapped chocolate bottles, filled with liqueur, are an especially popular item. A customer phoned that afternoon and ordered three 48-bottle boxes.

My own purchases? An assortment of wursts, a small container of potato salad, pretzel bread, an iced pretzel cake, a bottle of Gewürztraminer and a foil-wrapped chocolate bottle. (To accompany the pfeffernuse and stollen that my sisters mailed from the ‘Burgh.)

Fröehlich Weinachten, y’all!

Not to overlook the German Pastry Shop that’s next door—actually, across the hallway, but Dominique and Sandra Lalague’s pastry and coffee shop is equally as popular—Apple Strudel is my favorite, while my daughter—who speaks the language better than I—loves the marzipan-frosted cakes.

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pocket (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)

Related

Top Stories

  • Permit filed to build new 51,000+ manufacturing facility in Lakewood
    Permit filed to build new 51,000+ manufacturing facility in Lakewood
  • Letter: Camping Ban Does Not Belong in Tacoma
    Letter: Camping Ban Does Not Belong in Tacoma
  • Help Create a Bright Future for Homestead Park
    Help Create a Bright Future for Homestead Park
  • Lakewood Rotary partners with Springbrook Connection
    Lakewood Rotary partners with Springbrook Connection
  • Tacoma Mayor, City Manager release statement in response to Chauvin trial verdict
    Tacoma Mayor, City Manager release statement in response to Chauvin trial verdict

Become a better informed citizen.

Join over 30,000 readers each month and get real-local news and information direct to your inbox, Monday-Saturday.


Recent Comments

  • Joseph Boyle on Boyle’s Double Take: Moving
  • Erix Phfish on Letter: Camping Ban Does Not Belong in Tacoma
  • Jim on Letter: Camping Ban Does Not Belong in Tacoma
  • Rita C Fleischmann on Promising Futures: Hudtloff 7th grader Louise Womack
  • MARY CHURCH on Help Create a Bright Future for Homestead Park

Contact Us

The Suburban Times
P.O. Box 39099
Lakewood, WA 98496

Ben Sclair, Publisher
253-312-1804

Stephen Neufeld, Marketing Executive
stephen@thesubtimes.com

Copyright © 2021 The Suburban Times • Log in • Privacy Policy

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.