A small Windsor bakery is celebrating a milestone with an owner who taught himself how to bake.
Nana's Bakery on Dominion and Grand Marais is marking 20-years in business and invited some of its regular customers for a celebration over the weekend.
Owner, operator, baker and dishwasher Doug Romanek tells AM800 News, he is 100% self-taught and admits he didn't even know how to bake when he first opened.
He says a lot of customers will come in with specialized dietary requests from gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free options and it all starts with a mixing bowl and wooden spoon.
Romanek says the baker's name is in honour of his mom.
"My mother, or my children's nana, passed away two years before we opened the bakery and in honour of her, I used a lot of her old cookbooks when I first started so in honour of her, we called it Nana's bakery and our logo has her picture on it and everything," he says.
Courtesy of Nana's Bakery Facebook page
Romanek says maintaining a small business also means that people can put in unique orders.
"Can you do a diabetic cherry pie and I would say ok no problem and then I would try to figure out the recipe," he says. "Lately it is what do you have that is gluten-free and dairy free, well I have to go in the back kitchen and figure out a recipe."
Romanek says the one recipe he has not been able to master is a gluten-free, dairy-free and egg-free bread.
--With files from AM800's Gord Bacon