After being up for sale for a few years, Wood’s Quality Bakery in Rainy River has changed hands with former owner Sharilyn Wood officially retiring as of Nov. 8
It was a friend that told Jen Zehr and her husband Jason about the bakery for sale in northern Ontario from their home in Delhi (pronounced Dell-high), near London in southern Ontario.
“A friend of mine lives in Rainy River and he was looking at properties with his sister, and they saw it online, and I inquired about it,” she said. “Then I came up to see the place, then I moved here and started working a couple months after that.”
Zehr says it has been her dream to own a business and Rainy River fit the bill.
“I’ve always wanted to have my own restaurant/bakery type place,” she said. “It’s always been a dream of mine and when I saw it and the price was right we just couldn’t resist.”
Zehr will have been in Rainy River for a year this month.
“I came here and I started working last December and learned everything from Sherilyn and now I’m doing it on my own,” she said.
Zehr says business has been great.
“Everything’s been great, we’ve been super busy, everyone’s been very welcoming,” she said. “Everybody comes here, everybody loves the place, I have daily people that come in for coffee every morning, they’re die hards.”
While not making any drastic changes, Zehr is adding to the menu here and there.
“I’ve been adding some things to the menu slowly,” she said. “I baked for Tim Horton’s for 18 years so I have a lot of experience and I’ve been bringing that in and doing some different donuts. I don’t want to take away anything. People like what they like and I don’t want to take that away from them.”
They are offering dinner specials once a week as well.
“My husband likes to smoke meat, we did smoked pork [last week] for dinner so that was a little different for them, they’re not used to that,” Zehr said. “Everyond seemed to really like it, it was something new right?”
As for moving to Rainy River, Zehr says it’s a bit of a change as while their previous town wasn’t huge it was bigger than Rainy River.
“We’re from Delhi, it’s considered a small town down there but compared to here it’s quite large,” she said. “It was a big change but definitely a good change.”
Rechristened with the departure of the Woods, Rainy River Bakery and Restaurant is open from 6 a.m.-3 p.m. on weekdays 6-11 a.m. on Sundays and closed on Saturdays with breakfast from 8 a.m.-11 a.m. on weekdays and 7-11 a.m. on Sundays. Keep an eye out for their weekly dinner special on their Facebook page.
